New York, London, Sydney, Chiangmai, Cooroy...

 

Having vanquished the Dragon which lurks in the dank underworld of
Chiangmai's Wat U-mong, Anna heads for the drink-stall.

Having conquered Sri Lanka and its renowned Galle Literary Festival on her way back to Sinny in Austraya, Anna and her faithful army of 2 foot-soldiers breezed into Chiangmai to pursue yet more Astounding Adventures. 

First came the exhausting wrestle-to-the-death with the bloodthirsty Giant Zombie Panda in a local retail dungeon. Here's a nightmare photo of it silently approaching an innocent shopper... I deemed the subsequent photo too ghastly to publish:

  

Yup, the panda cult thing is still happening here...

 

...and here's the Coolest Panda Yet on a wall outside a local art gallery... it's helping to reconcile Prime Minister Abhisit with fugitive criminal Thaksin Shinawatra. Either that, or they've been wrestling and it's about to raise the arm of the winner...:

Speaking of which, the silly laugh-a-minute saga of Thailand's Political Soapie Wars continues. Next is a farcical newspaper photo of the Redshirts (Thaksin's mercenary thugs) declaring war on the Thai Army... yeah, I'm serious. The Thai Army chap looks both amused and bemused, but certainly not overly terrified.

But I digress... Next, continuing the theme of "Exploration Of Inner Space", Captain Burrows ventures courageously into the remotest depths of the Chang Dao Cave (near Mae Rim, Chaiangmai). Arrrrgh, Demons Be Here!

 

...but as luck would have it, thank Buddha, Anna discovered some holy relics which protected her. Big relief:

  

Ain't limestone amazing?

...and variable.

  

 While on the subject of spirits, hundreds of these trees in the grounds of Wat U-mong had been blessed by Buddhist monks. Clue? The orange sash. It signifies the presence of a Spirit of the Land dwelling in the tree. It can therefore never be cut down without a 'de-commissioning' ceremony sanctifying the re-location of the spirit. Smart strategy for a temple whose location in scenic foothills is being eyed enviously by real-estate developers...

Thai people believe that spirits of people who have died here over the centuries, particularly those of soldiers whose blood has seeped into the soil, have been taken up by the roots into the tree. Cool. Some of the trees have been adorned with small signs with Buddhist sayings such as Merit making calculate to impress not real. Also cool.

 

Life in the fast lane: watching turtles watching us.

 

One observes real elephants and concrete elephants being exploited:

 

 Then (drum-roll, please) we ventured nervously into the Queen Sirikit Botanical Gardens, just north of Chiangmai, prepared for Adventures of a more Vegetative Persuasion. 

I spotted Anna succumb to an urge to hug an imported Australian bottle tree (lacking, however, its customary VB label):

 

...and onwards through the gaping doors of the Queen's tropical greenhouses...

 

Beard Envy

Sing it again with feline...

In the Queen's Carnivorous Plants Dungeon, Anna finds and rescues a Puss-in-Distress.

Then up the Queen's newly-built cute little staircase...

 

 ...which leads to... surprise surprise... a shop! sponsored by Queen Sirikit in which we discovered the ultimate CO2-max wooden! postcard:

...and another ...um... somewhat less-expected item:

Well, the red colour may have had something to do with Chinese Nude Year, which happened as always at Warrarot Market in Chiangmai (a.k.a. Wallalot = Kad Luang = 'Yellow' Market).

Yeah OK, Peter and Marie had facejobs for the occasion...

 

Here are the 3 of us somewhere in the midst of the crowds feasting on assorted Chinese what-nots, not all of which had multiple legs:

 

  and here's a series of movie stills of Anna discovering the joys of a large single-spiral potato chip:

   

 

Caveat Emptor: grease plus newspaper ink make for a lethal variety of cosmetic cream

 ...then as night fell, the Dragon appeared noisily on the street-corner stage, frightening the bejesus out of any evil Chinese demons which happened to be floating past at the time:

At left is a specimen of your typical everyday Chinese ghost/demon/evil spirit. They generally lie in wait for Caucasian-looking tourists who seem lost and confused, then kindly offer them advice, a taxi-ride, or a nice visit to a jewelry showroom owned by their Christian brother-in-law.

Chinese New Year focuses a great deal on children. After showing off to the public, the dragon's duty is to dash noisily into the local Chinese temple to rescue a helpless child which is being menaced by garish dancing Demons... even scarier than our bearded friend.

Earlier, a shopping centre near us had staged a children's day in the form of a 'pretend' underwater fantasy. Here it is in preparation:

...and here's a brief video clip taken on the day:

The annual Ratchaphreuk Flower Festival and huge street parade also coincided with Anna's visit. Yes, those dragon scales are made of thousands of tiny flowers... and the umbrella comes from the local village of Bo-sang which turns them out by the thousands:

 

Saint Marie of Australia, and Santa Anna of England at a suburban pizza joint in downtown Chiangmai...

To conclude with a few miscellaneous tidbits... here's a Fellini-esque item from a whole bunch of weird stuff that appeared outside some shops one day.  Something different every day here...
 

 

We took a couple of days to realize what was actually intended by this notice taped near our condo building's lift well:

 

...and finally, a few Chiangmai Giggle Moments:

* young Thai man wearing a t-shirt proclaiming the message JESUS LOVES YOU BUT THING YOUR C*NT (yes, the 'u' was there)

* transliteration of airline cabin safety drill announcement in the newly-emerging language called Thainglish: "Tighter da bucker satap"

* BLOOMING BUDS - name of Montessori School

* sign at temple: TOILET FOR LAMER (but at least it's slightly less insulting than this toilet sign at a shop near us in Chiangmai).