Doi Inthanon, Treadle Sewing Machines, and packing for Bangkok!

Last night while thinking about the days experiences I remembered two images that I wanted to share. When we were walking around the edge of the Warorot Market we found a non-digital photo store. There were some used cameras, camera cases, filters, a lot of film of different varieties, some used cameras, old Nikon Autofocus and a Leica R4, and many point and shoot cameras. I looked the shop over carefully for cool stuff, but did not find anything that I wanted to purchase. There were also examples of portrait photography. Finding the photo store was like stepping back in time, maybe 4 or 5 years ago!

I also saw a store with an entire row of treadle sewing machines. There were at least three different manufacturers. In the glass display case at the front of the store were many parts for fixing sewing machines. There were also some old black electrical sewing machines also. I saw the shop from the Tuk Tuk and walked back to take some pictures and look around.

Last night at the Central Airport Plaza I saw a mother and young son sitting by a dedicated video game. The boy, four or five, was playing the video game. The mother was sitting near him and encouraging him. Pretty cool!

Today we are going to Doi Inthanon, the highest place in Thailand. We got up and packed the stuff we needed and then ate some street food, rice soup across from our hotel. There is no food service in the hotel. The van came and we were off.

As we were driving our of Chiang Mai I saw a used car lot with three excellent looking VW bugs, the old original kind, not the Super Beetles. Yesterday in traffic I saw an original VW Micro Bus. If you are a VW nut Thailand in a good place to explore.

There were many silver Toyota 11 passenger vans heading the same way, The Toyota vans are the standard vehicle for tours.

I saw some abandoned buildings, and like everyplace in Thailand vines were starting to engulf the building. Even the abandoned large towers at Mueng Thong Thani have vines starting to grow up the sides. Trees that are dead or dieing are also victims or the vines.

As we approached the park there was an admission gate. Some women, very persistently, were selling flowers. As we were waiting for the fee to be paid the women went from one side of the the van to the other. When the guide came back most of us bought flowers, persistence was rewarded.

The forest is very dry, here are dried leaves and grass, fire is a concern. As we traveled higher there were pine trees and Rhododendron. The Rhododendron reminded me of my grandparents home on Camano Island in Washington, they had many different kinds of Rhododendron plants.

On some of the hills there were terraces from cultivation. There were also trees growing in rows, I assume reforestation.

We finally got to the summit and there was a very ugly military installation with a large radar dome. Looking around the summit it reminded me of Murphy Dome in Fairbanks. Coming down from the summit there are two modern temples with beautiful temperate zone gardens. We stopped and explored.

The Thailand people at the summit and temples were dressed for winter with coats, hats, and even some gloves.

Driving back we stopped at a Karen village where they were weaving, had a meal at a roadside restaurant, and saw a beautiful water fall. It was a good trip and I took many pictures.

When we stopped at the Karen village we were told that the government did not have trouble controlling the Karen people because they did not plant opium or make heroin!

We had people from Switzerland, San Diego, Alaska, Korea, and Thailand on the trip.

Tomorrow we leave for home, Jit has bought MANY things! We went to a market to get some packing bags for the cloth and clothing. It will be a miracle to get all this stuff to our home in Bangkok. It will be even more of a miracle to get the stuff to Alaska!