A decade ago the King's mother had a mountain retreat built which has been turned into a museum. My pants were a little too short for entrance (for entry into palaces and especially temples in Thailand one must be dressed politely in long pants and no cut-off shirts), but luckily the guards were well-equipped to outfit miscreants like me in the traditional blue pants of the north, called mo hom, even though these pants were only about an inch longer than the ones I was wearing! Without question one of the nicest houses I've ever been in.
At the entrance to Doi Tung (Doi= mountain; tung= flag) is now home to the Queen Mom's palace, an arboretum, and a fantastic coffee shop selling locally grown arabica.
Traditionally, in front of every Thai home the family would place small ceramic cisterns which held drinking water for weary travelers. This is still done in rural areas of Thailand.
At Mae Fah Luang Arboretum and Garden.
At the Thai border with Myanmar is the town of Mae Sai- "The Northermost of Thailand"- a strip of markets selling cheap goods. I sampled the local bamboo worms, served roasted and tasting not like chicken but more like a potato chip. The worms tasted strangely like the roasted grasshoppers I once tried.
At the "Golden Triangle" and the mighty Mekong River. Laos on the right bank, Myanmar (Burma) on the left, and Thailand in the foreground.
In Thailand it is considered good luck to walk under an elephant. I've tried this once with a live elephant (and lived to tell the tale); this one was a cooperative statue.
We rented a motorbike for the day and headed out on a winding and beautiful drive to Phasert natural hotsprings. At one pool- not this one!- the temperature of the water was hot enough to boil an egg, and we did exactly that after buying some.
X at the magnificent Wat Rong Khun. Thai artist Chalermchai has devoted his life to creating this temple. It is, I believe, destined to become one of the wonders of the world. Only twenty to thirty more years, he says, until completion.
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