chiang mai motley crue

i made it from the wat in northern thailand to the bustling city of chiang mai in a pick-up truck filled with funky young thai artists who are working on the wat's new purple-mosque-like pagoda.... driven by Noi, an incredibly talented artist who paints primarily on wood, we zoomed down and chugged up the stunning mountains of northern thailand, with breathtaking views, some rain and a soundtrack of bryan adams, anne murray and willie nelson singing "heart of gold". canada's music exports are alive and well...

i met khun daeng (means red) and she showed me around her family's ceramic showroom. it was so stunning to see so much pottery of so many styles and designs, of such CLASS that i felt foolish saying over and over- it is sooo beautiful. Noi is one of the artists for the woodwork and they do the designs and the manufacturing on-site. it was a huge and simply gorgeous space.

Noi and our motley crew of 5, most from our pick-up truck days then went off to see the mountains nearby. again, my breath was taken away. we went straight uphill, up and up and up. we stopped at a wooden wat being built beside a waterfall and then further up, at a magical waterfall. the trumpeting of cicadas and birdsongs practically drowning the sound of the water cascading down the rocks. we all stopped, found a spot to Be, with one playing his flute and enjoyed nature's orchestra.

with a stroke of luck, i met up with my friend nikko and her mother in chiang mai and spent 2 amazing days together exploring the city, talking about Life, our journeys and travels, drinking fresh fruits juices and spending a great afternoon with a young thai designer whose clothes are whimsical and delicious, and oh so cool for this hot season...

i then took the bus from chiang mai to sawankhaloke, the small city where jimmy lives, and was met by jimmy burning down the main street on his bike. what a sight!!! we've weathered the heat of the days (36 degrees and dropping), the evening wind and rain storms which took down huge branches, re-arranged the way his wood and grass house sits, and offered us the opportunity to see exactly where the leaks are in his new grass roof. we devised a tarp system for the interior of the roof and have had beautiful, dry sleeps ever since!

it's not all fun and games living in the tropics!!! but the daily jewels are many: unbelievable fruits with durian in season and mangoes just at the tail end of theirs, dips in the warm river, visits from jimmy's friends and neighbours (this morning puek came over and his english vocab has increased to Yes!, Buffalo! and this year's new word, Dog! he is a very lovely man and we established this morning that it is this way to sukothai, that way to sawankhaloke, that he doesn't speak swedish or burmese and that he has already been to one of the three funerals that are on right now and so will go now and take his bath.)

yes, 3 funerals means loudspeakers are blaring music all day and there is generally just lots of noise around. our house is between all of them, so last night we had their musical soundtracks playing simultaneously with our own, having taken out the guitar for a first evening of singing.

so i am here until may 14th when we leave for bangkok to get my flight to mexico for the 16th of may. jimmy will actually be joining me there in june, for a short extension of our world travels in a new continent! we are now mixing spanish,malay,thai, french and english ~ but we seem to understand what we're on about...