Purple has now turned blue... purple is joy, yet blue is hope!

掌握一生的幸福。。。

Sunday, July 30, 2017

Chiang Mai, Thailand, An extraordinary trip - Jan 2017

My posts are usually delayed about 6 months. Save me!! Thought I would have resume blogging after having my new iMac since last December.. time had just passed the way it flipped faster every year.

Anyway, back to the end of 2016 and very beginning of 2017. We spent our count down and New Year 'overseas' this time. We had chosen a quiet yet peaceful place to end the year in a unique way. Though it's no longer a new place for us, yet there are lots of nature to explore.

We were expecting a cool weather. Unfortunately, we made it only between 18-25C.

Highly recommended by a colleague - upside down ice cream
Accommodation 1:

Sleep guesthouse

  • Located nearby the city center, where locals and tourists wonder
  • Extremely simple yet nice guest house, friendly owner
  • Room was minimalist and clean
Sleep Guest House
Activities :-
  • Street wondering, majority by walking, one of the days we even achieved 20k steps!
  • Local markets around been interesting to-go place, fresh fruits available and there are lots of visitors attending cooking class around the corner

Local market

Beautiful sunset @ river
Nearby temple



Pork Knuckle Rice 
Anusarn Night Market


Activities 2 :

  • Cycling package with Araiwah Bicycling
  • Very classic bicycle we had, no complain as it was the fun and exploring part that enjoyed us, we made new friends with tourist all around the world too, it was when I met a Japanese lady resides in the States

My classic bicycle

Mueang Mai Market

  • Our guide brought us to taste local foods in the market, i.e. fried pork intestine, siewmai, red glutinous rice, and many more 
Fresh vege
Tom Yum fresh ingredient
Taste good red glutinous rice



fried pork intestine

siewmai

  • Craftman of the silver plated temple
Patiently crafting 
Beautiful silver temple


Craft even at the door


On the wall

Wat Muern Sarn

7 ยอดพลาซ่า Jet Yod Plaza

  • Lunch place, though wasn't our guide choice (since his recommended place was off that day)
  • Nice basil pork rice
Fried basil pork with egg

Smile Coffee 2

Had a coffee after lunch



  • Was a difficult climb, think I pushed the bike up
  • Scenery at the waterfall was nice
Climb up the hill for waterfall

วัดแสนเมืองมาหลวง (วัดหัวข่วง) Wat Saen Muang Ma Luang (Wat Hua Kuang)

  • Another temple (Wat) before we end the trip
  • Quiet but nice place to hang around
Quiet Temple

Khun Kae Juice Bar

  • Nice smoothie place, which located just infront of our Sleep Guest House :)
  • We had the drink almost everyday after that

Several photos of my back...

In and within the market
Local houses



University campus

Temple
After a long day, we head for body massage at Lila Thai Massage 5th
  • Foods along the night, all night long we won't be sleeping... waiting for the count down
  • Heard there will not have grand ceremony, i.e. fireworks in respect for their late King
  • Unexpectedly, we saw lots of lanterns from ThaePae Gate

Coconut dessert

Khao Soi and dunno wat

Lovely Neon Light

Tourist and locals releasing their lanterns since 8pm

All over the skies

We had drink and count down here, nice place
Jan 1, 2017 - Greeted New Year with a nice breakfast by the guest house owners.

Breakfast included

Brunch with braised pork rice and Thai Iced Tea

Roaming around some art streets nearby

Tourtist
At noon, we were picked up by another Resort stay's driver.

Accommodation 2 :

The Pavana Chiang Mai Resort

  • We were on a 1 Day detox program, will all day long fruit juices included in the package, meditation, and colema
  • http://thepavanachiangmairesort.com/
  • One day magic detox - http://thepavanachiangmairesort.com/activities/one_day_pass_detox/ 
  • Missed the fresh air and almost nothing-to-do life style, walked up the pagoda every morning for 60min meditation... blissful
  • Fresh vegetable were planted by the resort
  • We had a loan bicycle and made our own ride with a given map, we couldn't made the loop and almost got lost... 
Our meal before the Detox Fasting program starts

Village view

Evening sun

Meditation place

Lovely morning 7am

Our  meals of the day

Nicely decorated resort
Our stay

Till the next trip, may be next year...

Sunday, July 16, 2017

Chennai, Delhi & Noida, India Trip - Nov 2016

As I don't usually blog on my work trip, this is exceptional. Out of the blue, opportunity came by for me to make a short trip to India. A country that I had never thought of going in my life. Though, my photography teacher and his group would certainly love in making a trip there at least once a year.

My trip made me thought and observe lots of things. Obviously, the influence from my photography teacher made me "feel" the life of the people in India. It was "touching", if I am able to use a word to describe. Imagining the situation of living in the past 50 years + air pollution + poor infrastructure + other hard to describe situation.

The advanced and poor, it's just a border apart.

Perhaps my pictures could tell the stories.

A layer of polluted air

The sun and day consider good, API lower

Managed to get a shot, while day was still fine

Horse ride sharing the road
Tuk Tuk too


Delhi Gate

Bicycle too

Welcome to Noida

All kinds of transport and people heading to earn their livings

Poor holly cows surviving life with trash

MGO - What's the green dot for -> It's vegetarian safe

The journey...

  • I had a transit flight to Chennai before heading to Delhi. Glad I didn't had a check in luggage, and was just pulling a light weight cabin luggage. The transit to domestic (Jet Airways) needed me to walk across the building, which is parallel but was under renovation.
  • The feeling of those renovating buildings caught the feeling of 1970s airport.
  • It's not recommended to travel as lone lady in India, glad I had another local lady came along, we took the tuk-tuk shuttle just 2min away
  • I was told Delhi airport wasn't that safe, and I was blessed to have other male colleagues waited for me at the arrival hall
  • Throughout the trip, all male colleagues were my body guards
  • The street could be scary, hence I didn't at all walk around over the weekend... I spent time reading, day dreaming, watching Cartoon Network and nap all day long :)
  • Overall experience... hmm [unexplainable]