Volcano Erupts in Chiang Mai

My daughter built a Mentos & Coke (actually Pepsi Max) volcano for extra credit in her science class.  She also tried to include a few smaller volcanoes using baking soda and vinegar, but those didn’t work so well.  Here’s the video.
Blessings!

Loy Krathong

What’s worse than a traffic jam after a professional sporting event?  A people jam after Loy Krathong!
A few weeks ago in Chiang Mai, my family joined thousands of Thais and thousands of visiting and resident farangs to celebrate a Buddhist holiday.  We aren’t Buddhist, but this is a BIG holiday in Thailand, and we saw [...]

Bowls for the Giant

Recently seen in Chiang Mai.  We’re not really sure what these are, but our family refers to them as “bowls for the giant.”  We assume that the giant was out of bowls for his Frosted Flakes and needed to restock.  This friendly person offered to take the bowls up the mountain to the place where [...]

Welcome Home

Traveled to the U.S. this week, and when I went through customs in Los Angeles, the officer told me, “Welcome home.”  As soon as he said it, my spirit exhaled.  It was a peculiar feeling – the feeling of release, the feeling of putting down something heavy.  It made me feel light and optimistic and….comfortable.
We’ve [...]

Bangkok Knight

My oldest son (14) and I recently went to see Batman: The Dark Knight in the IMAX theater in Bangkok.  We live in Chiang Mai (about ten hours away by train).
It was his first train ride and his first trip to Bangkok.

Although we arrived at the station on time, we couldn’t leave until the train [...]

Search Engine Terms Used to Find My Blogs

I find it interesting each day to check the search engine terms people use to find my blog.  Some of them are really random, and I’m afraid that they are terribly disappointed when they get to my blog and find something spiritual.  (It reminds me of the time someone smashed out the windows in my [...]

Ice (Water) Breaker

Happy New Year!
It’s Songkran in Thailand this week!
We took the family down to the moat around the old city in Chiang Mai to see the festival today. It’s got to be the world’s largest water fight! People roam the streets around the moat in their songtaews, pickup trucks and tuk-tuks, with [...]

Movie Night

I had an opportunity to take my oldest son out to see a movie in Thailand yesterday.  This was our second attempt.  The first left us confused and frustrated.  Even movie-going can take a cultural adjustment.
It’s not that there is anything wrong with the process; I just didn’t understand it.  As a result, we were [...]

It’s Called “Walking” Street!

So many different people have recommended that we go see “Walking Street” in Chiang Mai that we just had to go this weekend.  It’s a place where local vendors hawk their wares.  We thought we would take a few hours, see what it was all about and then head to church.  We were wrong.
 We found [...]

Lower Your Expectations

Driving in Chiang Mai (Thailand) the past few weeks since we moved has reinforced a lesson I learned years ago in how to manage my anger: things go better when I lower my expectations.
Not a popular sentiment, I know, but I’ve come to see the wisdom in this way of dealing with the people and [...]