Travel Tips

Mel Getting ready to launch one of the rice paper balllons during the festival. We were able to get backstage of the opening ceremony in Chiang Mai and helped launch some of the ballons. It was Mel's first time and she had fun. I have always wondered if they shut down the air space over Chiang Mai for this?!

Launching one of the big one's. These are three times the size of the other one's.

Mel is launching her krathong on the river. When it's really busy the rivers and klongs are lit up from all of the krathongs going down river, really cool!

No visit is complete until you visit the local markets. All kinds of little goodies and snacks. Some of my favorites are the rice candies and dried fruits. They can make all kinds of things with rice.

Loy Krathong on the river. We caught it at a slow time but you can see some of the floats, or krathongs and some of the roman candles and bottle rockets going off.

Up in the mountains on Chiang Dao. This temple was so peaceful and quiet, and what a view from the top!

One of the reasons why we get off the beaten path. It is so peaceful and beautiful in Thailand once you get away from the crowd. This was the view from the temple looking out over the forest.

We stayed at the Chiang Dao Nest II. Witcha, the owner cook was superb, man can she cook. We are relaxing before dinner by a traditional firebox of northern Thailand. We'll be back again, just for the food! But the acommodations were nice as well, single dwelling bungalows. We were the only one's at the Nest II so we had the run of the place.