The Odyssey Moves to Thailand

  This week is dedicated the friends that I asked to give me their opinion regarding a situation that has arisen in China.  So, thank you to all of you that sent prayers and or gave their input.  Your words were both encouraging and thought provoking.

SCHOOL:  This week at school was the most mellow that we have had.  The only exciting thing about it was going to collect the extra food that was donated to the local orphanage.  This was organized by Paul and had a big turnout.  I know, because I had to carry multiple bags of rice to storage.  Other than that, everyone was busy giving and grading finals before the break.  I gave my last final on Friday morning and was done by the afternoon.  Cecelia was done by noon as well.  Paul the slacker had been done for one week already and started his vacation early.  It is the only time that I can give him a hard time, since he teaches more classes than me.  He also left for the U.S. on Wednesday morning, so if you want to get a hold of him he is back in Sacramento.  We sorely missed him the last half of the week.

ADVENTURES:  Well this weeks adventure starts off with a pleasant surprise.  Those of you who have been following know that the previous week I participated in an activity with some of the local business men at our golf course.  Our team finished fourth out of 14 teams and I didn't really think much of it.  I was disappointed that I didn't play better on the last day.  I left the course quickly and could not go to the awards ceremony and dinner, because of the wedding that we participated in for our friends John and Katy.  

  If you haven't heard about it yet on Facebook, John and Katy's wedding made it on the evening news in China.  So, along with the bride and groom, Paul, Cecelia, Claire, Taylor and Yours Truly were on television in China.  

  Anyway, apparently first through fifth place in Chinese golf tournaments is considered doing well.  Those of you that know my attitude about golf tournaments will understand what I am going to say next.   I kind of subscribe to the Ricky Bobby from Talladega Nights mentality, which is, "If You Ain't First Your Last".  So, I didn't think much of it until my golfing friend David sent me a text to come and pick up my 4300 rmb.  For those of you that haven't figured out the math yet from the other blogs, the U.S. dollar is 6 to 1.  This means that I won the equivalent of around $750.

Who says that golf doesn't pay???

I was so excited that I had to go out and by myself something.  The following picture is the item.  When I bought it Cecelia commented, "You are really turning Chinese".  I think of it more as paying respect to the culture in which I am living.  I would let you be the judge, but it doesn't really matter, I like it.  So, enough about me.

Now that's what I'm talking about!!!

  Saturday morning found us on our way to Thailand.  We first took a cab to the metro and then took the metro to the airport.  From the airport we took a three hour plane flight to Bangkok.  When we got to Bangkok we were about 30 minutes late so we were concerned about catching our connecting flight.

Now, that is one good looking group of "O's" heading for Thailand!!!

After getting off the plane we made our way to a Bangkok Airways agent to find out the status of our flight.  She told us that we had to go to ticketing and then come back.  We had about 40 minutes so we began running through the airport like the crazed tourists that we were.  So, you may ask why were we in such a hurry.  Well, we had to make our way through customs and then through immigration just to get back to the ticket counter.  We then had to be issued tickets and go back through Thailand customs and security.  We weren't sure we could get it all done in 40 minutes.  Fortunately we only packed backpacks and didn't have to check any luggage.  The nice thing was that when we got to the ticket counter we figured we had about 30 minutes to spare so we felt like we could take a bit of a breather.  We were then informed that our plane was delayed and that we had about an hour and a half to wait.  How, did we gain so much time you may ask?  Well, someone forgot to mention to us that when we got to Thailand that we had picked up a time zone and gained an extra hour.  So, we went from hurry up to wait in an instant.  The real nice thing about it, was that Bangkok Air has a really nice waiting lounge with drinks and food.  It is nice to feel like you are being treated like someone special, even though we were flying Economy Class.

Bangkok is a scary place!!!!

  We then made the hour long flight to Chiang Mai and was greeted by our host Peter, from The Secret Garden.  Peter is the owner and proprieter of an outstanding vacation home facility that he has spent the last five years building on his own.  He runs the place with his wife and daughter.  They are a gracious and low key family that treats you immediately like friends when you arrive.  We arrived late and they even asked us if we wanted them to keep the kitchen open for us.  We politely declined since we had eaten on the plane.  We then checked into our bungalow and then went directly to sleep.  We were all tired from the long day of travel.

  This next part of the blog was initially going to be the end.  I was going to just spend a few paragraphs describing The Secret Garden to you.  We didn't really have anything planned for the next day so it was going to be a day of R & R.
    Well in typical "O" fashion that didn't turn out to be the case.  So bare with me a moment while I try to describe things that are beyond my menial brain or limited talent as a writer to explain.
   First of all The Secret Garden is exactly like it's name.  When we first arrived at our little bungalow, we found it to be quaint and cozy.  In the dark you can't really see that much, except for the warm glow of lights shining on an inviting front porch with laying pillows and a table.  But during the day, the vines and flowers growing over the rooftop turn the place into a magical building thrust into a Monet painting.  On top of that the pond out front with the fountain turn it into a place that is made for relaxing.  Once we got over the atmosphere just outside our front door, we made it through the other bungalows to the inner court yard.  The courtyard is a breath taking garden with the heady smells of plumaria, honeysuckle and orchids.  Combine those smells with the outstanding smell of fresh coffee and breakfast being made in the open kitechen and you have yourself one intoxicating environment.  I felt like my wife was going to come across a serpent offering her an apple at any moment. ( Well maybe not but remember I am trying to describe something that needs to be seen to be believed.  Oh, and no I am not delusional.)

  After breakfast we went to the Umbrella festival in the local village.  We arrived just in time to experience the last day of the festival.  We rode some of the bikes that Peter offers to his guests into the village and had a wonderful morning.  Along the way we experienced our first Buddhist Temple.  The temples here are literally working pieces of art.  They are absolutely beautiful and always have monks that are the care takers. The temples are not just for tourists to look at, the monks actually perform services in them everyday.  I have put a slide show of pictures together for the temples and Umbrella Festival.  I would describe them, but it is better seen in pictures.  Enjoy the slide show!!!

  I wanted to mention that Sunday morning was the first time that I felt like I was living an episode of "Lonely Planet" combined with Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations".  The atmosphere and the food are so amazing here that it becomes surreal.  I keep having to pinch myself, because I still feel like I am living a dream.  The pinch hurts, but I can happily tell you that I am living a dream and loving every minute of it.

  One last thing.  This week I am going to put together a bonus blog.  The reason is because I feel like the first two adventures we are going to have this week are so awesome that I don't want to wait until the weekend to share them with you.  Not only that, if I put all of our adventures onto one blog this upcoming weekend, it would become like some epic novel like War and Peace.  You would become very bored and I can't have that now, can I?  At least my blog has pictures.  I don't recall War and Peace having any pictures.  Can one of you literary giants out there confirm that for me?  

  Love to everyone and we want to send out a special miss you to Uncle Paul.  All of us would have really enjoyed having you with us to experience this magic.  Maybe next year????