May 11,

To all the mom’s out there…Happy Mother’s Day!!!

Well, my congestion has worsened!! It’s maddening, really. My eyes were even crusted up some. HUMPH, murmur-murmur, grumble-grumble! I finally got out of bed around 0830. I told Jeff I was not up to going to the Evangelical church he’d found, but he was okay with it as he seemed a bit more congested too! We had our Javas and breakfast of over easy eggs on toast. At least that went well and the eggs cooked just right for us. The rest of the morning we spent blowing our noses and watching YouTube and listening to Worship 24/7. The weather outside was hot, very hazy with quite a bit of air pollution, which has surprised us.

For lunch we opted to not eat, as we had a dental checkup scheduled for 1430. We both had our teeth cleaned and Jeff had x-rays to follow up on his crown. Thankfully, the x-ray results were negative for any issues. What a relief that was!

The rest of the afternoon/evening was hanging out back at our place and listening to Worship 24/7. Jeff did go get us more water at some point. Yesterday, I had seen a water refill station that are reverse osmosis and are usually stand alone jobbers here in Thailand. It was pretty close to us. Jeff said he wasn’t quite sure how much it cost (because he did not have the right change and could have still gotten at least five more liters), but he thought it will probably be the cheapest he has paid since Sri Lanka. We did go out to the grocery store close by and picked up a few items. Also we got a delivery – my new fitness tracker and other stuff. We should be getting more Lazada and Temu items in the future.

Supper was pesto pasta with onion, tomatoes, and garlic that we made. Sunset did not really happen due to the hazy skies. We placated ourselves with popcorn! Then we were able to WhatsApp video/talk with my mother – getting caught up and wished her Happy Mother’s Day. Then we talked with our church back home on Zoom and bed by 2300.

     May 12,

We were up and about by 0730. I feel – a minuscule bit better – my eyes weren’t as crusted over and I could breathe, mostly. I used the nasal spray I have been getting. We had our Javas and then we talked with my sister. It sounds like she was busy – giving to our Mom and her Mother-In Law, and being given to by her adult kids!! Anyway, after we finished we had breakfast of Muesli and yogurt.

I then set about getting caught up on my blogs!! I was three days behind and the days were really getting mixed up. Jeff helped me some but I think I got him mixed up some too…Good thing we have pictures to rely on. Speaking of which we need to go through- I’ve used up 90% of my storage on my phone!!! I also researched my nasal spray out more thoroughly online. It’s meant to be used only for 3-5 days, longer use may cause rebound congestion!!!🤯🤯  Soo… not gonna use that again for awhile! Crazy that the usage could lead the issue we were taking it for in the first place!! Anyway, we tried to connect with Jeff’s sister, but some of her family was treating her to a Mother’s Day meal, so maybe we’ll try tomorrow.

Jeff went and got more water – he said it was 6 THB to get 12 liters, that amounts to 18 cents for 3.17 gallons!!! So Cheap! Jeff also got us takeaway lunch from Rote Yiam Beef Noodle place. We both had only the sliced beef with the flat noodles and veg (which was bean sprouts and water spinach). It is just so good. We had stumbled on this place due to its proximity to us, but we saw in a Lonely Planet book left in our place that the restaurant is a highly rated – must eat at place – in Chiang Mai. Sometimes it just works out!

A couple of hours after lunch, I finally got caught up on blogging. So we set out on our scooter. Jeff had researched a couple of places. The first was a bookstore that had old fashioned, paper maps. We found a large one of northern Thailand. We’ll need it when we are exploring by by car next month. We don’t know how good a cell phone signal we will have in the less populated areas and the mountains. The second place was like a dollar store back home. We wanted a couple of items and found them, plus other small odds and ends.

Finished with that we saw a temple we thought we’d check out. It was Wat Suan Dok, roughly translates to “flower garden temple” per Wikipedia. A placard at the temple said:
   …it was built by King Kue Na in 1373 to enshrine a Buddha relic brought by a monk, Sumana Thera. The pagoda is 48 m high (157 ft), and underwent restoration in 2003-2006, at which time the pagoda was gold gilded.
The whole, large temple compound encloses this beautiful pagoda, a University, and the temple. Another sign explained that due to too many visiting tourists a foreigner fee is charged for maintenance of the temple, which was only 20 THB (60 cents) each. We paid and entered the temple as one foreigner was exiting. There were 4-5 local people already there, and a local group of four young ladies and a young man came in as we did. This last group was in costume and the man was taking photos of them posing in dance moves. That was a bonus to watch! We exited the temple and went out to the pagoda, catching the late sun rays dance on it.

We left on the scooter and went to the Pavilion Night Bazaar at 1715 – to park the scooter was 10 THB (30 cents). It had just opened and many stalls were in various stages of opening. We wanted food and found it! After five stalls we had: a sausage for 25 THB; 120 THB worth of pork ribs; eight skewers of chicken satay and a cheesy potato with some bacon and onion topping for 190 THB; a 100 THB coconut ice cream in the coconut shell; and a 25 THB Lemon 7UP (with water we had brought). So total was 460 THB, or $13.84. When we finished, we left and chilled out for the evening.