Carey’d Away…

He’s reading the second Harry Potter book! 

A few shots of Matthew enjoying his favorite sport. 

Last week Matthew and his tennis partner earned the Silver Trophy at the Four Seasons Resort. 

 These photos were taken with my old camera because sadly, less than an hour before we left to go get Matthew from school and take him to get his trophy my primary camera broke. 

I am decidedly not good at telling my story, even with just pictures.  I am so far behind here it’s not funny.  So for the next little while things might be out of order a bit as I try to catch up…

The next morning we enjoyed the view of one more Wat Thaton monument, Bodhisattva Kuan Yim right across the river from our hotel.

We also noticed that we could see the White Buddha we visited yesterday from the side of our hotel.

After breakfast we headed out again along the winding mountain top road north through Mae Salong,

and found cornfields on mountain sides.

The views were amazing throught his area and we stopped at one of the many hillside landscaped, tea producing resorts.  Matthew and Nathan burned off some “car” energy by running down this hill, around the gazebo and back up the hill several times.

Then they had to rest

before heading back up the hill to try some tea.

They decided to play with rocks instead.
But Mike and I thought the tea was nice.

After our drive up to Wat Thaton we still had a bit of daylight left and decided to take a longtail boat trip on the Maekok River.
These photos are all taken with our little point & shoot camera.  No way I was taking my good camera on that boat! 

Matthew happily trailed his hand in the cold water.

Mike was smiling happy that we were able to take the sunset cruise.

Nathan and I are also having a great time.  Little did we realize we’d all be freezing as soon as the sun set!

Not far down the river we came to the Burmese border marked by just a piece of white line and a small white sign (written only in Thai).
I added a red line and arrow so you can see where it was.

So we turned around and went a lot farther in the other direction, towards Chiang Rai.
Nathan had time to get bored and start being silly. 

The boat ride lasted a lot longer than we expected and as the sun got lower, the temperature started dropping quickly.

Fortunately by this time we were on the way back,

because it was COLD!

We need visas to live in Thailand as expatriates and the ones we have require that we leave the country every 90 days.  This time we decided to drive north to the Burmese border, walk across, spend the required 30 minutes in Burma and walk back across to Thailand.  Rather that do it that directly, we thought it would be fun to see a bit of Northern Thailand in the process.  Day 1 took us to a beautiful town called Thaton.

 This is the view from our hotel, The Taton Chalet.

After we got checked in and settled, we headed back out in the car to go see the many Wat Thaton monuments.
The first interesting thing we found was Phra Sang-Krachai.

Parking here we walked up the short drive to the White Buddha, Buddha Nirandornchai.

Two boys, two buddhas, and a safe for offerings.
 

Mike enjoyed the view of Thaton from the White Buddha.

After photographing Mike I turned back around to find Matthew and Nathan - meditating?

From here we continued on well up the winding road until it became quite narrow. 
We had this view of Chedi Kaew and the valley on our descent.

We continued down to Chedi Kaew, a unique wat presently being constructed.

Chedi Kaew seems to architecturally be a mix of a traditional Buddhist Chedi and a Muslim Mosque.

Continuing down the hillside from here we stopped at the Standing Buddha.

From the carpark you have this beautiful peek through a frangipani tree back over to the Chedi Kaew.

The approach to his platform is from behind - quite an impressive statue.

Matthew and Nathan had a lot of energy from being in the car for so long, but remembered to take their shoes off and managed to stand still for a photo.

But then they eagerly ran to the lookout spot with the binoculars.

Mike snapped this photo of me

As I was about to take this photo of the valley.

At 2,565 meters above sea level, Doi Inthanon is the tallest mountain in Thailand and has cold weather and high humidity throughout the year. The entire mountain and the forests surrounding it, with an approximate area of 482 square kilometers, are designated a National Park.

The boys squint into the bright sunlight in front of the entrace gate while Mike purchases the tickets.

This viewpoint is on the right hand side on the way up the mountain.

this is the view

It’s cold up here!

and winter woolies are cumbersome!

We drove up nearly to the top, past the entrance to the King and Queen’s Chedi, parked the car and had a picnic lunch by the road.
After which we walked back down the mountain to visit the Chedi.

The Chedi were built and are run by the Royal Thai Airforce. Here you can see them guarding the gate.

On the main road to the summit of Doi Inthanon stand the two Napamaytanidol Chedi.  These temples were built to honor the 60th birthday of the King and Queen in 1987 and 1992 respectively.

After  paying 20 baht each to enter and walking up another hill, we are treated to this beautiful view from the circle drive between the two chedi. This is the Queen’s Chedi.

The King’s Chedi, to the left when you arrive, is under renovation.

Monks ascending the steps to the Queen’s Chedi.  Notice the one on the right has a mobile phone in one hand and a video camera in the other. 

At the top of the steps of the Queen’s Chedi, looking out over the beautiful Thai landscape.  You can get a real sense of scale from this image - these Chedi are HUGE, as is the love Thai people have for their King and Queen.

Matthew and Nathan look down at the Queen’s lovely garden.

Mike and I each with the boys on this same overlook

The Queen’s Chedi is decorated on the outside with many beautiful tiled murals like this one.

On the Garden path down from the Queen’s Chedi I spotted this well framed view of the King’s Chedi.

Matthew and Nathan pose outside the King’s Chedi.

Athena outside the King’s Chedi

Back at the bottom of the stairs we find some Thai people paying respects to their beloved King and Queen.

back down the hill

and out the gate

On the drive back down, we decided to stop at one of the many waterfalls on Doi Inthanon.  The sun was setting, but we had just enough light left for a few last photos. 

of the waterfall

of the sweet boys