Dec 9 Lucky Day

I've had two moments in my life where I could have been seriously injured or killed. Today I had my third experience. I'm usually very careful where I sit when I'm at the beach or pool with palm trees. This paranoia was the result of a movie I saw 20 years ago. I don't recall the name of the movie, which starred George (from Seinfeld), and there was a character who got hit on the head by a falling coconut. The movie was a comedy, but the coconut on the head was too realistic for me. Well, today when we went to the pool, I scanned the area, and the palm trees had no coconuts. We settled on our lounge chairs, resting nicely, when all of a sudden a palm tree branch came tumbling down.  I had no time to react and the branch hit my shoulder, cushioning the fall for Julie. I was bleeding and bruised, and five hotel staff come to help. And Julie reminded me that it could have been worse. Yes it could!

The tree on the right was the culprit.

Chiang Mai, around town

Poinsettia, a reminder of Christmas 

Most of the temple statues are so amazing.

The Ping River

A very pampered cat being guarded by this transformer

Monks do have a sense of humour 

The wall surrounding the old town. A perfect place to take wedding photos.

This temple is built with cardboard and packing tape, and

Scheduled for demolition today at 4:00pm.

Dec 8 Chiny and Xray's Wedding

Lots of events at the hotel during our stay, and today was Chiny and Xray's wedding, and what an event! We first saw them on the street where some of the wedding party were getting a ride in pedi cabs and then pictures at the hotel with a beautifully constructed set. 

Later, off for a walk to visit the Blue Temple. We visited this temple a few days ago, and the second time we noticed a few different things. One was the crystal balls and a different ice cream experience. Homemade vanilla ice cream, with blue sticky rice, roasted nuts and an eatable flower on top. Delicious!

The strangest flower ever seen.

They look a bit alien.

The seed part looks like the nose on those goons in the comic Popeye

There is a military traing centre close to our hotel. We heard a loud bang and then puffs of white and red smoke 

Dec 7 Ghosts in the room...A very tiring start to the day

We didn't get much sleep last night due to lights being turned on while sleeping. Our hotel room has 5 lights all controlled by a remote. Did I mention the hotel is 28 years old and therefore the remote box and wiring is a bit dated. Or maybe the remote has a mind of its own....or maybe there are ghosts! At about 2am all the lights turned on. We both woke up startled. I went to the remote and turned off all the lights and then back to sleep. We woke up again an hour later. This was getting too weird. Another hour later the lights go on again. I turned them off and this time they stayed off until we woke up. In the morning we went to the front desk and it took a while to explain about the lights. We waited for the manager to ensure last night's events were not repeated. The manager was nowhere to be found and the staff did not know when he would return from a meeting. After our many repeated trips to the front desk we eventually were upgraded to a new room - a suite with a balcony. How nice! As long as the lights don't mysteriously turn on during the night.

Our new room...so spacious! 

Chiang Rai from the air...our hotel at the top left

Another visit to the cat cafe

Dec 6 A visit to Big Budda Temple

Another day another temple...so sorry if you are reading this blog. The pictures are nice but much more impressive in person. We see this temple every day from our hotel room. The budda statue is large and it seems so close, but it's actually 7km away. It's located in a rural area, and easy to find, given the size of the monuments. 

Another great day chilling at the pool and a visit to the night market to buy fresh fruit and vegetables.