i told you (at last the Facebook friends of me) about the GH i booked in Chiang Rai. So i took the bus from Chiang Rai up to here. Of course they have a new bus station 9 km out of town (WHY oh WHY do all the Asian cities start to do that SHIT!!!!! The bus station in Stuttgart is next to the Main Train Station which is the center of the city!!!!!!!!!!!)
So i have to get a tuck tuck to the place or a pick up taxi and so on. What ever – i did get here at 3 pm – and not it is 9 pm. there is no manager – i sit in his office and use the Ethernet cable of his computer. i found a room which i gonna use and watched a movie. it is full of thai people that do not speak english – they are all nice. there is a shop with cold beer. lets see what is next…

ok found towels – shall get to sleep now – lotus guest house chinag rai – a lot of fun for a little €
found also a note of some french girls that left in the morning – hi manager – here is the key – cheers…

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Asia, Chiang Rai, Thailand, Travel | No Comments »

Did copy this one from the China Post – but you can find it elsewhere on the net.

LONDON — A Taiwanese whisky beat a trio of top Scottish blends in a connoisseurs’ blind taste test organized to mark Scotland’s annual Burn’s Night festivities, the Times reported yesterday.

The Taiwan-distilled Kavalan brand, described as a “Far Eastern incomer”, came top in a test against three Scottish and one English whisky in an historic hostelry in Leith, north of Edinburgh, said the paper.

“Oh my God,” author and whisky connoisseur Charles MacLean told the paper when the unexpected result was confirmed.

The newspaper organized the test itself, in what it called a “piece of mischief-making” inspired by the launch of an English whisky, “St. George’s” last November.

Its hope was to catch the experts out with the tipple from Scotland’s traditional “Sassenach” English rivals ─ but to their surprise it was the Asian whisky which came up trumps.

“It’s tropical fruits. Tropical fruit jam,” said MacLean, chairman of the panel, after Kavalan ─ which is not marketed in Britain ─ came out top with 27.5 points out of a possible 40 maximum.

Langs, a three-year-old Scottish premium blend, scored 22 points, followed by King Robert ─ also from north of the border ─ on 20 and the English three-year-old malt on 15.5.

Last came quadruple-distilled Scottish blend Bruichladdich X4+3, on only 4.5 points, described by MacLean as “not cooking oil. Not diesel oil. Sewing machine oil.”

In a commentary the Times noted: “Asians are not only some of the world’s most sophisticated consumers of Scotch, but have begun distilling malts that compete with the best Scottish distilleries.”

Burns Night, named after 18th century poet Robert “Rabbie” Burns, competes with St. Andrew’s Day as a focus for traditionally whisky-fueled celebrations in Scotland and by Scots around the world.

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There are loads of “tourist” workshops on the lake – selling products that where made in the shop and elsewhere on the lake. at last most of them?? When you go with the boat you hear the weaving machines all over in the villages so i guess that a lot of the stuff they sell is really from here.
this one is a newer and big place. They make cotton, silk and lotus flower fabrics. You can than buy scarfs, trousers, blankets, shirts and what not.

This is the stem of the lotus leave. inside are a few very very fine threads – if you would not know better you would think it is a spiders work. Of course you need loads to have a thread ready to weave…

Here you can combine different colors or materials into one thread – if you like fabric that has a different shine than a single color one would have.

Grandma gets the material ready to use it in the machine.

This is where grandma’s work ends up – in the hand of the weaving machine operator (sounds good??)

With the pedals you can make pattern – the more pedals are installed the more complex the pattern can be.

Of course – i was waiting for that. The Long Neck do actually come from 200 km away. But now – took them quite a while – a few of the shops have “Long Neck products” along with original long necks. Guess still better than in Thailand where they have Long Neck zoos even in the south now…

Gabi – this one is for you. The Jumping Cat Monastery – where they have them jump every time there are enough visitors there. The last few years it where the monks that did the show. guess they are to lazy now – the boss monk rings a bell and than the boy does the show. now i do not see the big difference with a dog show here – and all the cat people tell me the cat has a mind of its own and all the bla bla

Enough for one day – lets get back home

Truck Engine Wash Center

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Asia, Inlay Lake, Myanmar, Photo, Travel | 1 Comment »

Floating Garden

There are a few villages on the lake

Temples as well…

Raw material for the many tourist shops

The most important temple

And the 5 Buddahs in it. Over the years people put so much gold on it – you can only imagine how they looked

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Asia, Inlay Lake, Myanmar, Photo, Travel | 4 Comments »

Num and Weo will drive to CHX at the 25th – Chris and me will share the ride.
Than something like 2 nights CHX. Up to Chiang Rai next – see the White Temple. Than Mae Salong to see why “the lost army” – Kuomintang’s 93rd division who fought under General Chiang Kai Shek’s Army – stopped here and founded the town. Further on towards the Laotian border and down to Luang Prabang with the Slow Boat next.

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Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Laos, Luang Prabang, Mae Salong, Thailand, Travel | No Comments »

Marius – why not start a biz over here???

The lake is still misty – birds…

The famous Inlay Lake rowing

Different technique

Monk Express

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Asia, Inlay Lake, Myanmar, Photo, Travel | 1 Comment »

attending the Vienna Calling CS Meeting!
If you are close – lets have a beer!!!

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Nice to go for sun set with a small boat into the channels

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Inlay Lake, Myanmar, Photo, Travel | No Comments »

On the way to work

It is not allowed to cut trees anymore – and did you see a lot left on the pictures?? so now the people build stone houses. Looks not so nice – but much better for the environment. Good thing that they have everything they need in front of the villages. They shred the stone and mix it with water and chalk – leave it overnight and press it the next morning. Than they let it dry for a week or longer – voila – ready to build walls.

Ricecake seller

We made it to the lake and go with the boat to the other end. That was a nice 2.5 days tour. Next time i might do this in 4 days to see some more…

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Inlay Lake, Kalaw, Myanmar, Photo, Travel | No Comments »

I do stay at Twin-Hut again. Pat‘s pace since 3 years. Terry does refer to the place as the real Pai – like it was many many moons ago. This is a chilled place where you meet the same people and new faces every year – like Family Hut before. Tonight for example Chris did offer me to invite me for dinner, when he picked me up Pat told us that the family at Family Hut does BBQ tonight and they have some seafood for me (as i am still vegetarian – but i do eat certain seafood). So we changed course and went there for some nice Lahu style BBQ. Mama was there and the rest of the family. Good old times!!

Since i am here i could not go for lunch or dinner. Tee was inviting me, Chris was cooking, a few times i was at Terry’s place and Asama did the most amazing Lisu dishes. Good times – good times. Even i made new Thai friends in that few days – still this place has some magic after all!
Dimitrie will not come up this year – he is in BKK to get his teeth fixed. Maria will fly to Thailand January 18th – so let’s see what she is up to.
This is quite a unique year so far…

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Pai, Thailand, Travel | No Comments »

Afternoon at the second day. This is chili country!

These guys make nothing than bamboo baskets – smoke, chat and laugh. At last it was like that the last time i was here and this is years ago!

Sesame

After another 5 star meal washed down with chinese beer, and a few tea n’ rum later we went to bed – no power anyway and what to do in a monastery??

Waking up at 5 to the monks chanting it still was to early to do anything else than dream away again. At sunrise we got up and had another very good breakfast!

The highlight of every day – people and nature

Morning fog GHTime Code(s): 09a81 d22ac 

Inlay Lake, Kalaw, Myanmar, Photo, Travel | No Comments »