Heart/Mind

Hi,

Chiang Rai is having beautiful weather these days. Wish you were here. Saturday we went to the opening of an art exhibit, Sunday Boot came home (Yea), today we traveled north to Mae Sai, and the waterfall is done.

Our weekend song was "Cold Sweat" by "The Godfather of Soul", Mr. James Brown. Today is 'Easy Monday' so here's your chance to shine. "When you wish upon a star, dreams will take you very far. When you wish upon a dream, life ain't always what it seems..." Hint: Uplifting tune by a group named after three elements. You'll find the title in the night sky. Hmm.

It's always a treat to visit Le Meridien Hotel. Saturday we went there for the opening of a photo exhibit for five artists. All of the works were in black and white and were displayed in hallways near the lobby. We had seen most of the photographs already, when we went to check out the set up with the curator, Khun Jaffe. There was a presentation by the manager of the hotel, a few words from Jaffe, and the official opening by a man we didn't know. Hotel staff circulated with trays of beverages and there was lots of conversation. We made some new friends and connected with people we knew. The same setting will hold an exhibit in January and Lisa will be showing some new works. Later this month they will host another opera and we plan to attend.

Early Sunday morning we got a call from Boot that she, and her sister Tan, had arrived at the bus station. She's very happy to be 'home' and the dogs were overjoyed. BamBam did her usual 'singing' and Daku got a little crazy. After they calmed down, they had a warm reunion. Tan will stay for about a week and then return to Rayong. This is her first visit to Chiang Rai. Tonight (Monday) we had our first dinner by Boot, and it was wonderful.

Today we drove up to Mae Sai for our visa check-in. It took longer than usual since we counted our days from our annual visa renewal and they counted from our last check-in. After the dust had settled we had to pay them some money but all is well. We left immigration and went into the shopping district by the border. We lunched at a big hotel and then set out to look for some unusual gift items. Mae Sai has a lot of goods from China which can be fascinating on one hand, but not the traditional 'Thai' shopping that we were looking for. We did find some gift ideas and decided to head home. A stop at Tesco-Lotus, a Target type store, was on our agenda. They have many 'Western' items and it's always nice to find things we can't get in Chiang Rai. I managed to get a new Bluetooth headset from the 'sale bin' and we found some household items we'd been needing.

This morning, as we were leaving, the landscape crew was just getting started on the final touches on the waterfall and surrounding grounds. When we got home, Boot told us they had finished. We now have a water feature that looks like something you'd find at a resort hotel. There are tall palms surrounding the falls and orchids peak out at various levels. There is a sprinkler system to water all the new plants and two flood lights illuminate the whole thing at night. I'll take some pictures in the morning when the light is right and get them posted on the Flickr site.

Have a Great Week.

Peace,
Danny

"Don't try to reason with your heart
or feel with your mind
for just as the heart knows no logic,
the mind can't lead you to your soul"
~Unknown

Gettin' Funky, Thai Style
www.flickr.com/photos/gratidudepics
http://blog.risingstardom.com/
www.lisamosesgallery.com