Chiang Mai

We've just returned from five days to Northern Thailand in Chiang Mai. What a trip! Several times I caught myself thinking about how blessed we are for this opportunity to live here. Chiang Mai is Thailand's second most important city according to travel guides. The old city is completely walled and was chosen in 1292 by King Mengrai to be the capital of his Lanna Kingdom, it has become a major base for Theravada Buddhism and because of that there are many wats within the walled city and we encountered more monks there than we have in all of Thailand. It is surrounded by jungle mountains and rice fields and is much cooler than Pattaya. We departed on Saturday morning from the Bangkok airport with our friends the Clarksons. In the airport as we were waiting for our plane we were setting across from an older couple, I leaned over to Molly and commented that my mother said there were some missionaries in our area from New Mexico and that could be them-the Nike tennis shoes were a give away that they had to be Americans and they just looked 'nice'. As we were lining up to board our plane they happened to be situated behind us in line and I was anxious to hear their story. I had them pegged, somewhat. They are missionaries from the US to the Chiang Mai area, and lived in NM at one time and their son-in-law is the football coach at Muleshoe High School-Coach Kohl or Cole, not sure of the spelling. Can you believe that? I think it was my Uncle Quenten said that if you visited with someone long enough you could always find some connection to Whiteface. I'm beginning to think that is true of Muleshoe as well! It was great to meet them, they have lived in Thailand for 2 years. I asked why there aren't more missionaries in our area and he said, "Frankly, we've given up on that area!!!" Thankfully, God hasn't and continues to have a remnant of his people here. We're trying to keep our little lights burning bright here while God has us here. After visiting Chiang Mai I determined if I was a missionary I would much rather be in the North of Thailand. It's greener, cooler, cleaner, nicer...

We arrived safely into Chiang Mai after 1 1/2 hour flight on Asia Air which is a lot like Southwest Airlines, no assigned seating but you don't get any peanuts, every treat has to be purchased! We were greeted at the airport by Kuhn Jane, a guide we had hired from a GM recommendation with our van and driver. She whisked us off to our hotel which was in the center of old town. It was a wonderful, secluded, quiet, Thai hotel. After settling in we took a 45 minute winding road up to the top of Doi Saket to visit its mountain top temple and for a stunning view of Chiang Mai. We spent time there visiting the Wat Doi Saket which was at the top of 300 steps. I'll post some pictures today from our first day in Chiang Mai. At one point we talked with a monk and he gave us a blessing for our travels in perfectly, understandable English. The weather at the top of the mountain was so cool and the air fragrant with many blooming trees.

Mark found a painting of the Thailand fields from a vendor at the base of the huge Naga, or protective serpent of the Wat and purchased it. We tried some moo rinds and drank some naum before heading back down to have dinner. After a wonderful Thai dinner we went on a night safari. It felt a little Disneylike, very touristy with a laser light show and trams through a fenced 'jungle'. We were happy to be back at our hotel rooms that night as we were so exhausted. I'll post more of our travels later.