Up to Chiang Rai

Our flight from Bangkok to Chiang Rai in Northern Thailand was only an hour and a bit. This time on Air Asia... apart from the loud 'clunking' sound their landing gear makes, the flight was good.

Some family were waiting for us and whisked us down to their home in a delightful village situated more or less half way between Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai.  (More about village life later).

There had been some rain, but the weather wasn't so humid as in Bangkok - it was very pleasant in fact!

Our first glimpse of Chiang Rai
The mountain range is looking North West towards Burma

The next day, after a sumptuous breakfast of fresh fruit and treats from the local morning markets (a whole post in itself), we got straight into discovering Thailand. 

Back up to Chiang Rai to Wat (Temple) Rhon Kung (White Temple)

The White Temple, especially on a sunny day, is a glistening sight.
The basket to the right of the gate contains  robes for people
to wear over clothing (singlets, skimpy dresses or shorts) which are
considered disrespectful when worn in a Temple

I was particularly taken with this piece of art within the grounds of Wat Rhon Kung, depicting the hungry and needy people of the world.

In the Wat ponds are these beautiful Koi 

I appreciate some blogfriends' comments about not needing
to blank out my face, however, I don't do it out of coyness or even vanity -
it's because I choose to maintain a certain level of privacy in my blog.

... these white koi held my eye

The adornments and statues etc are all embedded with tiny mirrors - you can imagine the brilliance on a sunny day.

I just love this "No Smoking" Sign Thai style!  

A closer look

Finally, I include a picture of the Women's Toilets at Wat Rhon Kung.  I do this because in our research before we left,  I'd read some shockers of  travel reports about toilets in Asia  - well, I did my own research and will candidly (thanks Dmarie - that's just the word I needed!!) put forward my own views. 

We leave our own shoes in the racks and choose a pair of slip-ons to wear inside.  

There are Western-style toilets with toilet paper, and squat toilets without paper... but, as is the Asian way, plenty of water to both flush the toilet and for personal cleansing.  On this occasion I chose the Western toilet and it was fine.

Cheerio, until next time :D)

Back home !

Hi everyone.  It was beaut reading your comments on my last two posts.  Thank you - each and every one meant a lot to me.

We've been back home for a week now - still catching up on our sleep, plus starting to prune our overgrown garden and generally trying to "come back to earth" so to speak!

The trip was, well, just incredible. It was everything and much, much more than I would ever have expected.

Equally, it's wonderful to be back home too.

I've attached some pics of the start of our trip.
LOL ... bet you can't guess what I'm going to be posting about for the next while!!

Looking out from our brekky table on to busy

Spencer Street, Melbourne

Amongst all the colourful trams bearing advertisements, it was beaut to see 

one as it used to look 'way back when' I worked in Melbourne

as a Junior,  fresh out of Business College. 

Southern Cross Station
Where we caught the Sky Bus to the airport

The Sky Bus

We ended up having a 3 hour departure delay for our plane,
so I amused myself taking random photos around the airport.

I got a bit cheeky with this pilot, but he
just ignored me.

Being a country girl, I wasn't familiar with the new fangled
hand-drying machine in the toilet.
So a friendly lady obliged with a demo.

Still wandering and snapping pics

Loved some of the murals on the walls

That's our plane ... apparently they had to remove all the fuel
before fixing whatever the problem was and, then,
re-fuel it.

Finally, we're up up and away!

Get ready for some obligatory 'photos through the
plane window'
Totally awesome to be above the clouds like that!

A river system somewhere in Australia

Sunset above the clouds somewhere over the centre of
Australia

Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok
Most people use the travelator on the right, however,
after 9 hours in the plane it was beaut to
stretch the legs and walk.

It's a huge airport - we walked for a long time before
reaching Immigration etc... gave us a chance to wake up
properly.

Hmm looks interesting!

Once out of the air-conditioned airport, we wilted a bit at Bangkok's stifling heat (even at midnight), and the humidity was so thick you could slice it!
Because of our flight delay, and by the time we reached our hotel, we had 4 hours in which to grab some sleep before catching a flight to Chiang Rai in Northern Thailand.
No worries though, we're a flexible pair of travellers and knew we were headed for cooler weather.

Cheerio for now, I'm going to be making my way (slowly) to everyone's blogs and enjoy doing a huge catch-up... see you there! :D)