My August Birthday

 

Somehow seventy-one did not seem like a very important age to really celebrate. I fondly remember last year celebrating 70 ! A few of us “Red Hat” girls went to Duck Creek to stay and play at Ruth’s cabin in the woods. It was a grand time filled with love and support as I was considering my big move to Thailand to teach. Then my YOGA girlfriends took me to an authentic Thai restaurant for lunch, to taste delicious Thai food, what joy! Another birthday celebration began with champagne and a visit to the beautiful Bellagio atrium with Rev.Anna and goddess girlfriends. To top off the day and night Vegas style we also went to see “Le Reve”, a Cirque du Soleil show at the Wynn. WOW what a birthday to remember!

However to my delight, my very first birthday in Thailand was also special. We had a party at school with the kids and celebrated August Happy Birthdays.  

 Then the business class I teach at Bader Asia surprised me with a cake and gifts. My Yoga teacher gave me a beautiful painting and the Thai ladies, that I teach English to, created a party at a wonderful restaurant with fantastic Thai, Indian and American food and yet another cake for me.  

Best of all was that my two grandsons Aidan and Taylor came to Thailand. We all stayed in the Pattaya Hilton Hotel at Festival Plaza, and swam in the endless pool overlooking the ocean. A birthday lunch at the Hard Rock and a visit to the Si Racha Zoo completed a fun filled birthday weekend. We saw elephant, alligator, and tiger shows, even pig racing, and the boys got to pet and feed milk to a real live baby tiger! 

    Happiness is celebrating another birthday with family and new friends.

China Full Moon

 

That brilliant round white ball in the sky every 28 days is some thing I look forward to seeing. I make a long gratitude list of blessings and create an intention for the month ahead. Thanks "Grandmother Moon" for many moonlit memorable eves. 

This month it was very magical to be gazing at the July Full Moon in China with my daughter, from the guest room balcony of their big beautiful home in Shanghai.  I was in China because we had a really welcome school mid-term break from teaching, so... I headed off to visit my family.

My grandsons welcomed me with hugs, kisses and a big sign on the door that said “WE LOVE YOU GA-GA from Aidan and Taylor.”  I wonder if they have any idea how much I love and miss them? 

My daughters husband John had to have hernia surgery while I was there. It went well but a few of our days were filled with trips to and from the hospital. However Carrie and I did find time to go to the amazing Shanghai Flower and Gift Market and visit another intricate Chinese Temple.

The boys were at sport camp, but we had time to go swimming at the club pool, with a small sandy beach area, which was fun. 

The nine busy days flew by and before I knew it I was on the airplane back to Bangkok and teaching school in Ban Chang.

 

     Beautiful Quan Yin, Chinese Goddess of Mercy, bestows her Blessings

Pattaya Floating Market

Pattaya, Thailand  

As I had not had much time to explore Pattaya, I was excited to have some Thai lady friends offer to take me on a day trip.  Leaving on Saturday morning from Ban Chang we stopped for gas and coffee at one of the many 7-11's. The adventure began when we arrived at one of the few vineyards in Thailand and sipped frosty grape slushies as we walked through the beautifully landscaped grounds.

Motoring onward to the floating market, but pausing first to feed the 115 year old elephant who gave me inspiration and new hope for living beyond 100! He had a few wrinkles but wore them magnificently. The look of peace that comes from age glowed in his dark eyes.We spoke to the current owner who is the third generation caretaker of BoBo, as his father and grandfather had taken care of this amazing creature all their lives. BoBo happily devoured whole bunches of ripe bananas from us and would have willingly given me a hug with his enormous trunk, but I declined.

Pattaya is about a half an hour by car (1 hour by bus) from Ban Chang where I teach, and two hours south of Bangkok. It was once a small fishing village on the bay, but during the Vietnam War boatloads of American GI’s flocked to the then quiet beaches and bars for R&R and many called it the “red light city.”  The city and beaches of Pattaya now have a diversity of attractions, shopping, many good restaurants and beautiful resorts, including its famous "Walking Street" and infamous nightlife.                             At the market a variety of handicrafts from all over Thailand mixed with colorful "T"- shirts, Thai music, dancing, boat rides, and souvenirs for the tourists made for shopping heaven. The always and ever present Buddha was there in many forms.

On the way home we stopped at an Outlet Mall as one gal was looking for a swimsuit.

Many stores were just like ones we would find in our American malls … a small world.

As the sun was dropping in the azure blue sky we had to stop the car for me to take another photo. On the hill along the roadway was a gigantic Buddha outlined in gold. 

 

May Buddha blessings and golden light fill your life, Rose

 

A Thai 4th of July

 Independence Day or Interdependence Day?
 

A thought to ponder…

 How it works......... IN THE USA

John Smith, an American started the day early having set his alarm clock (MADE IN JAPAN) for 6 am

While his coffeepot (MADE IN CHINA)

  was perking, he shaved with his electric razor

(MADE IN HONG KONG)

He put on a dress shirt (MADE IN SRI LANKA),

designer jeans (MADE IN SINGAPORE)

           and tennis shoes (MADE IN KOREA)

                 After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet  (MADE IN INDIA)

             he sat down with his calculator

             (MADE IN MEXICO)

to see how much he could spend today.

   After setting his watch (MADE IN TAIWAN)

to the radio (MADE IN INDIA)

he got in his car (MADE IN GERMANY)

filled it with GAS (from Saudi Arabia)

and continued his search

for a good paying AMERICAN JOB.

 At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day, checking his DELL Computer

(made in MALAYSIA),

John decided to relax for a while.

He put on his sandals (MADE IN BRAZIL),

poured himself a glass of wine

(MADE IN FRANCE)

   and turned on his TV (MADE IN INDONESIA),

     and then wondered why he cannot find

   a good paying job in AMERICA…

  AND NOW HE'S HOPING HE CAN GET HELP FROM A PRESIDENT - MADE IN KENYA!  

  I was lucky enough to find a job teaching in Thailand where age is respected, wisdom honored, knowledge appreciated, and education is a priority.                      The Thai elections were held first weekend of July and so the teachers at our school decided to celebrate…a combination of the American 4^th and a newly elected FEMALE Prime Minister in Thailand.

A unified Thai kingdom was established in the mid-14th century. Known as Siam until 1939, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country never to have been taken over by a European power. A bloodless revolution in 1932 led to a constitutional monarchy. The King is still King and very much loved by the people of Thailand.  

Pala Beach seemed like the perfect place for our all American traditional picnic and BBQ, complete with hot dogs, potato chips, and marshmallows to roast. The Thai teachers also brought yummy Thai food to add to the feast. The calm water glistened in the hot afternoon sun as we successfully gathered driftwood and twigs for the fire.

The first round of cooking and eating was almost finished when we saw that an ominous black cloud was forming as the ocean turned dark, gray, and angry. After all it is the rainy season and not wanting to fool with Mother Nature we quickly packed up, and headed to one of the teachers carport, arriving just as the sky opened up with a heavy downpour. The pelting rain continued and so did our celebration, just minus the singing around the campfire and fireworks!

Hoping you had a magical and brilliant 4th of JULY in AMERICA

Sending bright starry lights & BLESSINGS from THAILAND 

 

Thai Tiger Kingdom

From Elephants to Tigers...

After a long exciting and exhausting day of elephant trekking on Saturday, we had a quiet relaxing dinner of yummy traditional Thai food, blah (fish), som tum (papaya salad) and of course white rice.  Sadly they were sold out of one of my favorite desserts, sticky rice and mangos with coconut milk. however the food we ate was delicious and the view of the river at dusk was just wondrous as we planned our Sunday adventure.

We began the morning with a Thai omelet with rice and fruit Then we hailed a red "Taxi" which was really just a pick up truck with two bench seats in the back. After a bit of negotiating we settled on a round trip price to take us on the 45 minute ride to Tiger Kingdom just outside of Chiang Mai.

What follows are some of my favorite Tiger photos... from baby tigers to medium and very large.
Needless to say I fell in love. Something about the expressions, "sleeping with the tigers" and "I've got a tiger by the tail," made us all laugh.

SMILE... smiles are everywhere in Thailand which is known as "the land of smiles." Baby tigers (four months old) and mamas alike were happy to show their toothy smiles!

The Tigers seemed to have so much fun swimming and playing in the water. I guess it must get boring taking photos with tourists all day but they don't seem to mind. They all have their own personalities and are incredibly gorgeous creatures, big beautiful cats!

We ended the visit sitting with our feet being eaten by Garra fish... why??

Well the Dr. Fish Spas say to be young and beautiful of course. Only four crazy American women would believe that!

It was nice to have the driver waiting to take us back to the city because I had an overnight bus to catch back to Ban Chang. Another 14 hour bus ride and I arrived at 6am, with enough time to shower before I began my day of teaching.

In gratitude I send blessings, and may you be happy and healthy. 

Chiang Mai Elephants

The amazing adventure continues...

The next Friday, June 17th, after teaching all week, I took an overnight bus (14 hours) to Chiang Mai to meet my sister, Lola and her friend. The plan was to go Elephant trekking on Saturday morning, continue on a hike to a hidden waterfall and then after lunch experience bamboo river rafting ... on a raft of long pieces of bamboo tied together with twine. We were told to leave our stuff on the van and no cameras, unless they were waterproof. So no photos. The chant became, "its not fun if your not wet." WE got soaked!

The elephant Rita and I rode was seasoned... just like us! Really, I guess the word is old, but that just doesn't sound as nice, and "BO" agreed, that was his name and every so often he would just stop and wait for us to feed him some bananas, which of course we did. Bo also did not go along the path with the other elephants, he trudged along to his own beat as we swayed in the rickety wooden seat. I tried to take some video but the bumpy ele-motion made it impossible.
The day was beautiful and the forest incredibly lush and green. It is rainy season now in Thailand, so we did have a downpour at lunch.

Bo also took the short way down to the river. Why go the long way around if you know the shortcut? I guess that is one if the benefits of age, wisdom! After he led the other elephants into the river, he decided to walk along the bank, another senior perk.

 We were lucky enough to have a baby elephant trek with us, he was just adorable and stayed very close to mama. I promised to ride an elephant and so another one gets checked off the list!  Buddha Blessings

June Joy

Happiness is visitors from the USA!

 

When Thai Airways landed on June 10th it brought my sister Rita, and her daughter Lola along with her friend from Alaska, to Thailand. What a joyous time we had together.


I met them in Bangkok the first weekend and we had dinner at "Cabbages and Condoms"... yes that is the name of the restaurant. It was started to promote awareness of birth control in Thailand.

The decor is amazing, clothes on the mannequins are all made from multicolored condoms. Light shades, and flowers in vases are made from condoms. One is even served with dessert!

  The restaurant souvenir store has handcrafted works from the Hill Tribes in Northern Thailand which help the women in the villages earn money for food.

On another day in Bangkok we took a small ferry boat to Kho-Kret where they still make pottery by hand. An almost lost art, the elders still carve intricate cut out designs in the damp clay before they fire the pots in large stone and mud caves. 

The island visit would not be complete without the traditional young and beautiful Thai Dancers in their colorful jewel encrusted Thai silks.

In stark contrast to the young and beautiful, very old Wats (temples) and ancient Buddha figures dot the little island village. You can always discern      a Thai Buddha by the position of the hands and pointed headpiece.

                                Buddha Blessings from Thailand