A long planned meeting

This pic shows Margaret, Irene's sister, and Sid, her husband, with us outside - yes, where else but - Little Creatures after a few bevvies.
Thanks to Skype we had been planning this get-together for several months.
We had a great few hours with them, and we learned a lot about their experiences relocating to this part of the world.
Temperature here is daily around 30 degrees. Just comfortable. Glad not to be in Melbourne where it's going to be 42 degrees today. The heat is buckling the railway lines there, and has had a disasterous effect on the Australian Open, where some good players have simply wilted in those conditions.

Drinking beer in Australia

We're in Australia now, in Fremantle.

Strangely, we've trouble getting on-line over (never a problem in Thailand or Cambodia!). Western Australia is renowned for its wines, but we have a soft spot for a microbrewery here called Little Creatures. It's not so micro any more. Not surprising, since the pale ale here is one of the best pints we drunk anywhere.
Pizzas are pretty damn good too

Paper umbrella factory

We came across this umbrella factory in the village of Bor Sang, a few miles outside Chiang Mai. Sadly, our grasp of the Thai language prevented us from asking the workers what their mission statement was.

Hill tribe woman

The jungles of northern Thailand house several hill tribes. Most have, at some time, fled from Burma or Tibet. This woman is from the Karen tribe. She weaves cloth to earn some living from passing trekkers.
You might be able to make out that her teeth are black. This is the result of chewing on betel leaves. We were told that it cleans the teeth - but it is also a stimulant.

Jungle trekking

Jungle trekking is one of the reasons why tourists come to Chiang Mai. We did some trekking-lite yesterday. The pic shows a branch of Costa Coffee by the banks of the Mae Ping river

An elephant ride!

In the jungle, an hour's drive outside Chiang Mai, there are several camps which care for elephants. We were lucky enough to ride on top of one. Not the smoothest of rides, and the "vehicle" would stop if not fed large amounts of banana and bamboo. But it was a fabulous experience

One last temple

This is the Temple in the Jungle. It is one of the most popular of the Angkor temples because it shows how the jungle strangles abandoned buildings. It has intentionally been left un-restored and looks as it would have done when the French rediscovered Angkor in the 19th century.

It featured in the film Tomb Raider.