May 19,

It was a good morning. We both slept decent and both felt good.👍🏻👍🏻 We had our Javas and breakfast of Muesli and yogurts. Then we talked with my sister on WhatsApp, catching up with her. We did a load of laundry. Next we talked with Jeff’s sister and her husband via WhatsApp also catching up with them. By now, we wanted to get out and about. We went to the mall of course! We drove the scooter over to the closer by one – called The Central Airport Mall. It is 3.6 km (2.2 miles) from us; fairly close to the airport; and kinda in central Chiang Mai. Anyway, we walked getting steps in. We saw a sign advertising happenings at this mall for this month. We had caught and partook of the ‘Recharge Market 2025.’ I took a picture on the sign so we could see about other upcoming events. This mall has five floors also, but there is renovation underway – it is still very walkable. There is room for more stores. So I wonder if two malls combined?? Questions? Today was way less crowded than Saturday when we were here before.

We finished stepping and went to check out the food court and maybe eat here. Looked good…. we stayed. I chose the stall called Fintip Seafood, having the Stir-fried Sea Bass with Chinese Celery on Rice. Jeff went to the place right beside mine, Kruar Nongpunch, having Stir-fried Holy Basil with Crispy Pork on Rice. Jeff got his right away. I had to wait a long time- to even order. Each time I tried to order the lady shook her head or looked away. So I was just waiting/watching as one lady was cooking and the other was doing prep. I struck up a conversation with a French man who was waiting also. He just stepped in and ordered. He spoke Thai (and obviously English, as well as his native French). As we were talking, he caught the prepping lady’s eye and ordered for me. He said we were on a list behind other orders, and they were slow. It came out he has been living in Chiang Mai for ten years, and he told me of a great place to eat. I found Jeff and ate some of his dish then went back and finally got mine. Both were good dishes, but I don’t know about the wait time for mine… didn’t get pics of our dishes as we were so discombobulated!

Finished, we jumped on our scooter and went to a Lotus Hypermarket. It spit a few drops of rain but stopped as it had when we were going to the mall. We got our stuff quickly to get back before the heavens opened up. Again on the scooter we had a few drops but we seemed to get ahead of the rain and made to our Astra Condo place in the nick of time, as soon as we arrived in our condo it started raining! We unloaded and unwound. Afternoon gave way to evening and we had light cheese and crackers supper; and watched two movies – binge watching the Mission Impossible series to possibly see the current one out at the theater.

      May 20,

Up and about. We had our Javas and breakfast of French toast, but we used a walnut bread. It was super great! Surprised we have not done this before now. We caught up on some of our Youtube Vloggers. Around 1045, we went out and about on our scooter. I have decided to call to call the scooter Baloo. As in the bear from Jungle book because I always feel kinda groovy and like singing when we are out on it. Anyway at 1115 we arrived at Chang Thong Heritage Park. (We had watched a Vlog about the park just this morning.) We paid the 500 THB for entry.

According to the tickets…   “The Thai Rare Heritage Botanical Museum…houses rare ancient trees from across Thailand, preserved in their living state. Our mission is to conserve valuable plant species while fostering awareness of conservation through learning. Visitors can immerse themselves in the ambiance of trees with histories spanning centuries, reflecting the diversity of the unique tropical rainforest environment.”

We enjoyed the park and spent a couple of hours there! So many different trees: flowering Jacaranda (with the purple flowers I have come to love); paper bark trees; spiraled coconut trees; wild guava; wild almond, barking deer’s mango (a two named tree or two different names, not sure); and many more. The park is laid out in a flowing, meandering paths/trails with waterfalls and streams trickling all about… So much nature flora – even a few orchids – and fauna. We saw huge bees (Today was World Bee Day, so seeing them was appropriate!😂🤣); butterflies; dragonflies; even large goldfish; and all kinds birds singing away (recognized two woodpeckers, and a yellow hummingbird.) Jeff said he saw a blue headed lizard, but I never saw it. At the opposite end of the park, we noticed some trees that had been made/cut into tables or stools… some were enormous. Gorgeous! They seemed to have been abandoned in a parking area. How sad they could be so brilliantly cleaned up and sold, instead of well… rotting away. Anyway, on the way back through we stopped and bought a fresh coconut – cut open and two straws placed in it. We shared it with a water. When we finished the lady offered to cut out the meat for us. That was great. Now we walked back, to exist the park, but stopped at a fruiting tree, called Baccaurea motleyana. It was loaded and is native to Thailand. We sampled some of its edible fruit Rambai. It was the texture of a very ripe cherry; had a flavor of sweet-sour, but mild – it was unlike anything I’ve tried before. I liked it! So glad we had come here… an oasis.

We got on Baloo; and went for lunch. We did stop briefly at two temples for couple of photos only as they were not open. Anyway, Jeff had found the place the Frenchman recommended to me yesterday, Khao-So-i. We found the parking and went back out to the street where we thought the place was. We ordered and somewhere here we realized this was not the right restaurant. But we had ordered and stayed with it. We had Chicken Khao Soi, we think. One man spoke very broken English, as in “Chicken?” We nodded and held up two fingers for X2 orders. We also had a fresh squeezed orange juice and bottle of water. The dishes were good – chicken leg in a creamy tomato broth with splash of coconut milk with rice noodles, and crispy noodle topping. The picture of the menu board read “Delicious Oatmeal” heading as per Google translate.😅 No idea what it really meant!!! We finished and paid 117 THB ($3.58). We walked out and found the real Khao-So-i place that we’d pinned. It is much more upscale than we had thought and from where we just ate. So we’ll get back up here and try it when we are more fresh, not hot and sweaty.

We left on Baloo and went back to our place. Afternoon turned into evening, we still are not getting sunsets here due to our place in relationship with the mountain and with it being rainy season. For supper, we had takeaway that Jeff got across the street at the Ramen place. Two dishes: Fish Donburi, which a Japanese bowl dish where the ingredients are simmered together and then served over rice – it was good; and Chicken Ramen. Our beef noodle place was not open again… must only be a breakfast/lunch place?? When we finished we watched another Mission Impossible, and then bed.