Just some really pretty photos (Thailand, Myanmar, & Malaysia)

This post has more photos than previous, but it’s still under 100, so not as overwhelming as looking at all of them on Flickr.  One benefit to visiting the Flickr site, though is that Cheng has more diligently captioned the names of places and is working on uploading the twenty-ish video clips we took (under 90 sec. each)

 Happy reading!

(Sorry, all the panos got relegated near the end instead of chronologically when they were taken. I haven’t figured out how to change this.)

Such colorful traffic in Bangkok! Interestingly, in 1970 the government of Myanmar switched driving to the right side of the road to separate themselves from British rule, but the cars are still made for left-side driving. Weird, huh?

‘Cause doesn’t everyone like to see pink elephants in their roundabouts?

Everywhere we looked in the Grand Palace were buildings covered with shiny, sparkling mosaic tiles. Beautiful in the sun, our photos could never do them justice.

At the top of these pillars were many tinkling bells catching the sun’s rays.

Bees and flowers.

The biggest lounging Buddha in Thailand next to the biggest lounging man in my land.

Standing on the third floor looking down the stairwell at all the little Museum of Siam people made me think of monkeys in a barrel.

Some sort of fun-shaped plant

We got here early and waited over an hour for the 1:00 tour around Chiang Rai. All the pedicab-type bikes also lined up to wait for tourists. At 12:50 the sky opened up and poured, cancelling the tour. Sadly, all the empty pedicabs left one-by-one.

We decided to eat at the Cabbages and Condoms restaurant after visiting the Hill Tribe museum. When we arrived in late afternoon, all the wait staff were wearing purple dresses. There must have been a shift change (or a costume change) because everyone was wearing red, white, and black when we left.

We visited the site of an old temple in a cave that is the current residence of a couple monks. Later, we learned that no one actually volunteers to live here. Instead, it’s a kind of penance for disobedient monks.

I liked the surprise of the rice paddies. From far away, they look green and lush, but when you look at them straight on, you see they are filled with water reflecting the color of the sky. Beautiful. I recommend viewing them from the back of an elephant if you ever get a chance.

We hired a driver and guide for a 1/2 day tour into northern Thailand. When they said we’d be visiting a waterfall, I thought we’d park and hike down. No. I have never been so terrified in a vehicle! We blasted through grown-over brush, fishtailed our way up squishy ruts, and careened around cow paths to get rockstar parking at the smallest, most unimpressive waterfall I’ve ever seen. The photo didn’t even make it here. It is IMG_9857 in our Flickr feed if you’re really curious.

I risked my life to lay in the middle of the street for this picture. It came out a little crooked, but I think that adds to the viewer experience.

The concierge at our B&B had just asked me if I like traditional Thai food, then wrote on our map. I though he had misspelled my name and was telling me I should go to the marked place on the map for food I would like. I laughed when we got there and the name of the restaurant really was Regina!

Thai iced tea. Yum!

We rented this bungalow at Baan Orapin in Chiang Mai on the Jolly’s recommendation. We highly second that recommendation.

Our plush room in Chiang Mai. I would have said this room ruined us for subsequent rooms in Myanmar, if our first stay in Yangon wasn’t so horrendous all on its own. Dirty, moldy, noisy, yuck, yuck, yuck. The main perks at the room in Yangon was a free airport pickup and free travel agent services at the front desk.

The pool that we walked past everyday, but never used at our B&B in Chiang Mai

Our lovely attempts at curling spring onions. According to the chef, adding these little nuggets would raise the price of a plate 50%

This is the garden outside of the Thai Orchid Cookery School in Chiang Mai where Cheng and I spent many hours learning the art of cooking awesomeness.

These bougainvillea were everywhere, making for lovely photos.

I’m not sure what this totem umbrella thing is supposed to be, but it looked pretty cool.

I loved this tile floor, except it makes Cheng look like he’s photshopped in.

Tinkling donation bells surrounded the main courtyard at Doi Suthep.

Follow the Naga down from Doi Suthep…

See the rainbow circle? Much cooler than a double rainbow!

This waterway looked like the profile of kissing lips welcoming us.

Here were some pagodas we saw in Myanmar. I liked how they set off the pretty shape of my super-awesome umbrella.

Here is another temple that I can’t remember the name of…there were soooo many! But doesn’t the gold look really nice contrasting against the swirly blue sky?

This was a smaller temple just up the street from us in Nyaung U where we were hoping to catch our first Bagan sunset. Unfortunately, the trees blocked it too much, so we set out looking for a place to eat. Had we stayed here longer, we would have been treated to a spectacular backsplash of pinks and reds after the sun set.

We were looking for this touristy restaurant overlooking the river for a long time. We saw a sign on the main road that said Left 150 M. Later, we laughed that it should have said millimeters because we seriously overshot the turn. When we later found it, we realized it was directly next to the sign. Unfortunately, we were too late to see much of the sunset our first night in Nyaung U.

I wanted to buy one of these beautiful, handmade umbrellas, but we were on a strict budget in Myanmar. We only had access to the pristine US bills we brought with us. ATMS were unavailable throughout the country and no-one accepted credit cards…not even the airlines. It was quite disconcerting to know you have adequate funds in theory, but to be poor in practice. The funny thing was, after all our budgeting and worrying, I found an extra 11,000 Kyat folded up in my wallet after we left the country. Now, not a single place in Austin will buy it back! (granted, it’s only about $12)

I’m so glad I convinced Cheng to rent a horsecart and driver instead of bicycles! I might have died in the heat, getting lost on all the sandy trails. I definitely would have been more whiny.

At the other end of this inner walkway were 2 guides just waiting to welcome an unsuspecting tourist.

This is what a traditional Burmese meal looks like. It is personal buffet style. Believe it or not, Cheng actually put away most of that food, getting 2nds and even 3rds on some of the dishes. Oh, I didn’t eat anything here because my tummy was unhappy, so it was all Cheng.

We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful sky for our Bagan temple tour.

This temple supposedly had 465 Buddhas decorating its outside. We didn’t stay to count them all. Plus, I was busy getting bitten by fire ants during this photo.

We chose not to go out for a boat ride on our Bagan outing since we knew we’d be heading out on Inle Lake in a couple days.

Sorry, we couldn’t seem to get a good pic of us and the temples without squinting or having the camera shadow on one of us.

It was really neat to see the sun create bars of light in the dust we stirred up.

I was so tired of climbing crumbling stairs that I encouraged Cheng to go up this one himself. See how tiny I look at the bottom? Plus, I was scared to risk getting in trouble for climbing where we weren’t supposed to go. It appeared that one of the workers had left these gates open, but they were all on the other side of the temple so I just played it cool and distracted other tourists from looking up to see Cheng scampering about like a monkey.

We had to take off our shoes for every temple we entered. We totally should have prepared for this trip by walking barefoot on rocks and hot pavement. This pic was taken when we were hiding in the shadow of a protected corner after climbing a tiny set of steep stairs.

The sunset turned all the temples to the East of us a lovely reddish gold. If you look closely, you should be able to see the moon, too.

Cheng is looking off toward the sunset. He kept trying to convince me to hang out on the opposite side of the temple where there was a smaller crowd, but I convinced him we would miss the spectacular event we had waited hours to see.

Don’t you just love how the yellow of my Tanaka makeup blends with the sunset?

It almost looked like there should be a party on top of the next temple.

The red stripes showed up really well in this pic.

A skyline of temples after the sunset in Bagan, Myanmar.

Flying out of Nyaung U near Bagan, we could see how old and sprawling the Irrawaddy river is.

I loved the colorful patchwork fields as we flew into Heho airport near Inle Lake, Myanmar. This area is in the highlands and receives much more rain than the dry area around Bagan.

This is the Teakwood Guesthouse where we stayed in Nyaung Shwe near Inle Lake. Both the proprietress and here mother could give lessons to a used-car salesman. We were scared to walk past the desk on our way out in fear of a tour sales ambush!

This was just another house we saw while walking around the small town where we stayed near Inle Lake.

The wooden chairs in each boat were removable, so we only had as many chairs as people on the tour (max of 6).

I pushed everyone out of the way so I could sit in the front of the boat and have these spectacular views with the wind in my face…except I didn’t push so much as ask politely.

The famous leg-rowing fishermen unique to Inle Lake.

Water fowl flying in front of our boat on Inle Lake.

Such colorful things at this Myanmar market! I wished I had to cook so I could buy the various veggies and lentils. This is the rotating market. It only comes to this location once a week, spending the other days visiting different sites so that people don’t always have to travel so far.

It’s hard to believe that people live all their lives in such a beautiful place, and it’s just normal to them.

I couldn’t stop taking pictures of the stilt houses reflected in the water! You can see ALL of them if you go to the Flickr link at the top of this post.

I loved how the boat made the reflections curve in on themselves.

Apparently the Shwe Inn Tain Monastery was up the road to the left…

We hiked up a steep, rocky trail to view the historical site of 1000+ temples, only to look across and see the site on the next hill over. This hill only sported 10-15 temples.

Man, I was so grateful for this umbrella in the hot sun! Even if Cheng did say I spent too much on it. Is my happiness not worth 12,000 Kyat?!?

Cheng chose to wear these fisherman pants for our day on the lake. You may think it was because he wanted to fit the theme, but really it was because these and his longyi were the only clean bottoms, and he didn’t fancy climbing in and out of a bobbing boat wearing a precariously tied man-skirt.

This photo reminds me of some fairy-tale-type movie, with the house on stilts and the sun peeking through the rain cloud.

The view from Jumping Cat Monastery (where the monks used to train cats to jump through hoops in their spare time, but don’t any longer.)

We could see 3 different rainstorms surrounding us on our ride back to Nyaung Shwe. Luckily we didn’t get wet at all.

The mist in the Cameron Highlands pretty much obscured everything. Luckily, we chose not to go on our proposed jungle trek this day!

Lily pads at the hidden art compound we finally found after driving in circles with May and Alex.

We were all set to drive out on this art compound excursion in Alex’s car, but it was having some suspension problems so we switched cars. Luckily, the 2nd car just happened to have a couple giant umbrellas!

Flying in to Hong Kong looked so surreal, like a video game graphic.

Flying into Hong Kong for our 50 minute layover.

Everything we read online and in the guidebooks promised us spectacular sunsets in Bagan. We were not disappointed!

Better than TV.

Temples as far as you can see in any direction. Wow.

wow squared

bonus wow

We visited the Shwezigon Pagoda in Nyaung U our first night in Bagan. After climbing up a narrow scarecase (yes, I meant to write staircase, but I realized my slip was actually more accurate,) we had a lovely view of the Irrawaddy river.

A quick stop to settle our stomachs from the hairpin turns hanging out the back of a shared red truck taxi let us see Chiang Mai from up high.

More vacation photos coming soon!

Ok, so maybe a new post every day was a little ambitious. However, I’ve gotten such positive, encouraging feedback about my captions, that I’m motivated to keep going. I’m working on captions for a new post of “pretty pics” so check back in a couple days or click on the “follow” button waaaaaay at the bottom so you’ll get an email when a new post is available for your viewing pleasure

Odd or Interesting (Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia)

Crap. I just wrote twenty-some blurbs and then deleted them by accident.

I’m trying to add at least 1 post each day with thematic pictures. That way you can skim over them if you’re bored easily or look at them in detail if you want a more intimate experience. 1300+ photos can be overwhelming (for all of us.)

Anyway…here is the next installment of our exciting 2012 Asia vacation! (and soon you’ll be able to see them ALL on Flickr)

After just arriving in Bangkok, we were wandering around looking for a place to get food. Seriously jet-lagged after 30+ hours of travel, we barely jumped when this coconut fell from the sky, nearly bonking Cheng on the head. The street vendors behind us had a good laugh, though…probably because of Chengs girly scream. Is it true that it’s supposed to be good luck to have a coconut fall on you?

Our dressing instructions for entering the Grand Palace in Bangkok.

Cheng tried to emulate this guardian’s fierce look, but he just ended up looking constipated. “Do not pass!”

Weeeee…Buddha slide

Free water for tourists? Awesome!

It’s a good thing they added boobs to this diagram, otherwise I might not have known where to go!

We were near the end of our visit to the incredibly interactive Museum of Siam in Bangkok when Cheng wandered into a little market-type shop. I sat on a bench outside thinking he wouldn’t be long. 15 minutes later I got up to see what was taking him so long and I saw Cheng and 3 other people walk out of an old-school refrigerator! He said “you’ve got to see this!” So I followed him back through the fridge into this room set up like a restaurant and buffet table. Everything was fake, designed to display all the various ways to preserve food. Very neat!

After wandering around near Parliament looking for the Vimanmek teak mansion covered in gingerbread, we were happy to go inside and cool off a bit. Although we were surprised that they called this place a mansion. It seemed quite small, housing a display of Thai handicrafts, and didn’t mention anything about the structure itself. Afterwards, we were looking for the bathrooms and found the ACTUAL teak mansion-definitely more what we expected! The signage sucked.

For “100% recoverying to be young”

Luckily, Cheng was warned. Otherwise, a surprise attack might have scared the s*** out of him!

Our funny little napkin holder at the MK Hotpot restaurant in Bangkok where our waitstaff performed some kind of ‘MK sooky’ dance.

I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a tasty green tea shake with coffee jelly. Dairy Queen – Asia Style

While waiting for our flight in Bangkok, we watched some tourist run laps around this beautiful garden, then perform his plyo workout, then rest by smoking a cigarette.

Costumes or evening wear?

Hey, it’s a good thing someone stuck that plastic bag on the tip otherwise it wouldn’t have been very safe.

Trying to figure out the linguistic connection…

We snapped this picture of the Cabbages and Condoms sign before we realized that the Hill Tribe Museum we were looking for was in the same building. Not to bore you with too many details, some guy in the past thought contraceptive to be very important and said he wouldn’t rest until condoms were as plentiful and readily available as cabbages.

We passed by this sign near our hotel in Chiang Rai (where the opium trade was historically active) and couldn’t figure out its meaning. Are they instructing you how to do drugs? Or just depicting all the different methods of drug use?

We just happened to have an example of all the different Thai Bhat denominations in our pockets, so we documented them. The dollar is just for size comparison.

Naga eating Naga

Our first (and only) Tuk Tuk ride in Chiang Mai.

Each of the red, shared taxi trucks in Chiang Mai had different symbols above the windshield.

The parade of shared taxis on our way up to Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai.

Cheng wanted to walk up ALL the stairs to the temple at Doi Suthep, but I convinced him the cable car would be better because we’d have some nice views on the way up. This was the lovely view of our enclosed cable tunnel.

It looks safe, right?

The Jolley’s told us it was ok to duck under the bar to cross this footbridge nearest our hotel in Chiang Mai.

“Please excuse my while I flush my stockings”

Look how much Myanmar Kyat (pronounced chee-ott) we got for our $100! All those red bills are in 5000 denominations!

For what was available in Bagan, we thought it was ok food. The yogurt lassis were pretty good. We did not walk out round, though.

Teeny, tiny passageways kinda suck.

This guy is what I felt like after sweltering in the sun all day, clinging to the back of a rickety horse cart, face planting in front of Buddha, skipping lunch because I didn’t want the diarrhea to recur, and hitting my head on on our ride.

Cheng found this tiny stairway after the pushy vendors separated us in one of Bagan’s temples. He later told me he shook his vendor around a corner and was able to explore unmolested. Meanwhile, I was waiting for him near the exit and had to listen to the exact same spiels from no fewer than 5 vendors. Dude, not all your uncles have made the exact same sand painting!

Here is Poi Poi rubbing up some Tanaka bark with water for our facials.

Our lovely selves after an application of Tanaka bark – used by (mostly) women and children as sunscreen. First a base layer, then decoration.

Can you find Burmese Waldo among all these crowded passengers?

This Bagan Buddha was so huge they had to open up part of the wall so we could squeeze by his fingers into the next room.

We had to walk very carefully down this dark, crumbling stairway after seeing some spectacular views on top of one of Bagan’s many temples. Luckily, it was one of the only ones we didn’t have to remove our shoes in.

Does the package mean that this tissue is OK for bears to use? or that bears have deemed it OK for us?

Traditional Burmese massage is similar to Thai massage, except they walk on you and slather you with oil that smells like Tiger Balm at the end, then tell you not to shower until tomorrow. My masseuse was much larger than Cheng’s. I got scared.

Conservation pledge at Inle Lake. Is it in English for the tourists? Do the locals actually practice it, or is it just for show?

Hmmm. Are they still called street signs if they’re in the lake?

Strange pink fungus at Inle Lake.

Hydroponic vegetable gardens at Inle Lake in Myanmar.

This is the vegetation island that emerged from under our boat after we “cruised” (slowly and with smoke) through the floating vegetable gardens.

Steve was an Australian who shared the boat tour with us around Inle Lake in Myanmar. After returning to town, we passed by this retention pond full of lotus flowers and seed pods. We left him trying to figure out how he could gracefully climb down into the water to take a seed pod back to someone he met in Bangkok who was an avid lotus grower and specifically wanted the seeds from this particular pond. Really? Why this particular pond?

The Jolly’s joined us in Cameron Highlands for a mini-vacation-within-a-vacation. We walked the 7 kilometers down from the Boh Tea Plantation to Brinchang. Along the way, we passed the S’corner restaurant, which we treated with many ‘scornful’ looks and jokes.

This really was the color of the sky when we left our rented apartment in Cameron Highlands! It was misty/foggy/rainy all day and the sunset was trying very hard to happen.

It sort of looked like a fuzzy, scrawny banana. Then it squished like a sponge when I stepped on it.

Cheng’s aunt took us for dinner at a lovely seafood restaurant on the forth floor of this massive mall built 2 years ago and already mostly abandoned. I hear that’s typical Malaysia.

Shortly after a downpour in Chiang Rai, I looked out a window and saw what looked to be the desolate remains of a motorbike party. It seemed so sad to see all the festive colors and decorations, but no people.

Animal Encounters (Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia)

Throughout our journey, we encountered many different types of animals. Luckily, not any snakes or scary things (other than the fire ants that liked the taste of our feet!)

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Click on any of these photos for a more intimate experience

We stopped to rest inside a little alcove by the entry to a closed off building when someone walked up and reached inside this lion’s mouth to roll its ball/tongue, echoing throughout our perch.

We were killing time before our first Thai massage and snapped this pic.

This statue at the Grand Palace in Bangkok made me laugh and think of all the Shrek movies!

We had time to kill before our flight left Bangkok, so I convinced Cheng to take the train carrying our large backpacks to the cultural center to pass the time in the air conditioning. Unfortunately it was closed so we cooled off a little and rested by this lovely koi pond.

Cats were everywhere in Thailand. This one was guarding a food cart. We didn’t eat there.

Watching fighting lizards on the ceiling was much more entertaining that watching grass grow while we waiting for the rain to stop before our tour (which ended up being cancelled anyway!)

This guy just fell from the ceiling and circled Cheng’s clothes a few times. He kept very calm and told me to leave it, but I was waiting for it crawl inside and arm or neck hole. Then we’d see how high he can jump!

These guys love their banana peel and sugar cane fiber!

The elephant on the right just snuck up behind an unsuspecting Cheng and tried to eat his head. I think he’s laughing now!

The greedy elephant on the left just punched Cheng in the gut for not feeding him fast enough!

The locals would leave food and drink offerings on the edge of their property to appease the animal spirits so they would stay out of the human homes.

Fellow diners offering cream to attract cats for company.

Taking a catnap after stealing food off the tables.

Cheng spent time at the airport cavorting with the pandas.

Sooo many birds!

Cheng is wondering where our driver went.

A bee hive Cheng was interested in photographing.

At Songman’s direction, Ruby pulled us all around Bagan for an entire day’s temple viewing.

If you look closely, you can see the bird that appears to be swooping down out of Buddha’s mouth. I shouldn’t have laughed at “Buddha spitting on me” because I entered the next room and promptly fell down 2 stairs, face-planting in front of another Buddha image!

It seemed a little strange to see chickens running around everywhere while we were eating them off our plates.

We had to slow the bus quite a few times for the local cattle drives.

Drying fish look like beautiful gems with the sun shining through them.

The monks at the Jumping Cat Monastery no longer train cats to jump through hoops. Sadly we had to settle for watching them groom each other.

Giant snails come out at night and hitch rides on the street corner.

I bet this moth chewed some massive holes in the pants it was resting on in Cameron Highlands!

This dog followed us around the hidden basement art exhibit that took us a loooong time to find.

Cookie sitting the chair next to me, taking part in our conversation with her very expressive eyes.

Chloe sitting still for once at Cheng’s uncle Raymond’s house.

When she was a puppy, Chloe used to be able to sneak in the gate. Now she can only get partway through, making us laugh at her antics.

Tubing in June

Since the hot weather has arrived, I thought we should organize a tubing trip before all the water dries up.  We can discuss details (like times, location, etc) once I get an idea of who wants to go on which dates.

I skipped over June 16 for those of you playing in TBUF and June 17 for Father’s Day.

Luscious Dew – Solo Art Exhibition at Cospace

My first solo art show!

Luscious Dew

Art will be displayed from December 6, 2011 – January 19, 2012

(Closed between Christmas and New Year)

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Join me for an artist reception Thursday, December 15

6:00 – 8:00 pm

Cospace

911 W. Anderson Lane #203

Austin, TX 78757

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Check out my artist bio and price list here:

Artist bio and price list

Car Shadow with Bottles

I just finished this oil painting yesterday. After starting it in the spring, taking the summer off, then finally reinstating regular painting days, I’m done! I took this picture while visiting the tiny town of  Etna, CA during our honeymoon in 2010. Cheng was sleeping in, as usual, so I went for an early walk. I really liked how the sunrise played with light and shadows along this wall. In the painting, it was fun to be very loose on the flowers up front to contrast with the tight lines of the bottles in the window. Surprisingly, the brick wall was the easiest and quickest part of the entire painting once I figured out the general pattern and did some math to get the scale just right.

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Oil on canvas 16x20

Chalk Walk 2011

Luckily, the rain waited just long enough for the official photographers and judges to finish. What a refreshing finish to a grueling 16 hours of intense labor! I deem the 2nd annual Round Rock Chalk Walk a success, and look forward to improving my art for next year.

This year I chose to create an anamorphic drawing using forced perspective to give that 3D feel. I borrowed a photograph taken by Stephen Morton in Georgia during Hurricane Irene. After running it through a computer program called Anamorph Me, I gridded it out so I could transfer it to the pavement, then made sure to take lots of pictures throughout the 2 days to show progress. I ran out of time to fill in the entire 10′x10′ square, so I let the asphalt represent the beach sand of the photo. While it technically works, I can’t help but think it would have looked much better completed. Next year I’ll try to find a helper or work with a partner to finish in the allotted time.

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Mexico Vacation 2011

I’ve collected 20 of my favorite photos from our trip to Mexico. Many of them have interesting stories and some of them are visually appealing, but they all hold wonderful memories. If you want to see more, you can link to Cheng’s Flickr account where we’ve posted almost 30 videos and just under 500 pics.   (Pared down from over 1100!)

 

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The Dove Inn

During our stay in Golden, Colorado we enjoyed the hospitality of Bill and Annette Lyttle atThe Dove Inn Bed & Breakfast.I’d recommend this comfy place to anyone looking for an affordable stay within walking distance of downtown Golden. You can find contact details and read my official review titled “A Golden Find” on BedandBreakfast.com

Our four-day home made for a cute little watercolor study where I played around with more white space than I normally include. I’m still working on that “less is more” quality.

The Dove Inn - Golden, CO

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