Chiang Mai in June - In Pictures

[friscofrankie]

Couple months back the ol' lady hounded me into a day of "shopping" at the Airport Plaza up here. I hate window shopping. When I go shopping I'm going to buy something dammit. I had been considering the purchase of a film type SLR camera to supplement my Fuji Digital. I had looked at and considered a DSLR, but I wanted to see what was available ion film so I went along.

Zip, Nada, nothing Film cameras are rarer than hens teeth and there wasn't one to be found. Fuji has this new 14 megapixel camera I liked the look of and I've been readin up on the DSLRs offered by Olympus. There were plenty of shops selling these all within a couple thousand baht of each other so I was busy lookin at the cameras and chatting up the lady salespersons. The ol' lady was taken notes.

A few of the shops had the new Sony Alpha 200 on display and I was impressed with it's weight and feel in my hand. But it's fuckin Sony and it ain't a TV or DVD player so I was merely using it as a comparison tool. I had not researched the camera, nor even heard of it. The thing was offered in two "kits" one with two zoom lenses of 18 - 70 and 75 - 300 mm (27 - 105 & 150 - 450 mm equivalent) this was going for 29,990 - 31,990 depending on where you were. The kit offered; a bag, 2BG Compact flash, and a few other odds and ends like a lcd protective screen, etc.

We shopped around until we headed up to the top floor of Robinson to check out the kitchen gadgets as we usually do when she brow beats me into coming along on one of these excursions. At the top of the escalator was a nice flashy display for the new Sony Alpha 200 two lens outfit at 31,990. I stopped to look. Now the sales girl ain't no slouch, recognizing a fish when she sees one, whipped the thing out and stuck it in my hand. Felt good. I ain't buyin.

"No problem, Is nice, no?"

Now as I'm Zooming on that cute kithcen gadget sales girl with the blue contact I always end up flirtin with My ol' lady starts negotiating price. Over-hearing this exchange, I gave hte ol' lady some shit about negotiating prices in Robinson, of all places. I think I muttered something about it not being a fuckin market or the like. She shushed me right quick and whipped out her collection of notes and flyers for the various camera stores we'd visited. She showed the girl a flyer with the same outfit for that 29,990 I was talking about.

The sales girl gets on the phone and I go back to zoomin' in on the tight-breasted blouses nicely filled out uniforms of the girls on the floor. I don't like window shopping that much. I handed the sales girl back the camera has she was sticking up a new price placard; 29,990. Seems the ol' lady has negotiated the price down 2k. Not only that but it's being offered at 0% interest for one year on your handy "Power Buy card!"

The ol' lady did a damn good job of negotiation I guess, but I've got this thing about a negotiation, If you enter into one and get the price you want you damn well better fuckin buy.
I'm not one for credit cards, never owned one in my life. I've financed cars, even a home way back when but never have even applied for a credit card. The ol lady has though, and she's got one of them "power Buy" things tucked up in her purse.

My ol lady learned two lessons that day. Don;t take Frankie shopping and never enter a negotiation unless you plan to buy. And I got a new toy with more bells and whistles than I've ever seen on a camera. (my last SLR was bought in 2005 and it was film).

I've shot about 1300 pics so far with the thing and I'm still learning how to use it. I've progressed to using it mostly in manual mode saving auto for those surreptitious shots when you don;t wanna get caught taking aim. I'm learning where all the buttons are and how to get them all in line to take a decent shot within the short time that opportunities present themselves, I've missed more tthan a few though. Ove the last few weekends we've gone out on safari to practice with the new cam and the ol' lady has brought along the fuji to catch what I've missed.

We're both improving but I'll let you decide who's doing better.

Thursday evening we headed down to the local market across the street from the 1007th artillery for a bit to eat. This is my local market and they have food ready to eat:


They also sell fresh vegetables, herbs, doughnuts and fresh fruit:


Down back the ladies al lknow me quite well, I'll usually dash down just before dinner time for vegetables and herbs fresh from the garden, and when I buy an armful of fresh basil or dill they wusually cajole a recipe or two out of me. Not sure they will ever try 'em But they listen and will tell it sounds delicious.
(A recipe for oven poached salmon with dill and lemin hardly does a person without an oven any good).


Out front they'll layo out the produce from their farm or garden some will sell their home made snacks I like these things:


There's a shope that sells fried chicken and magazines anohter that sells fake watches and sunglass copies and pies. walk along and there is a food cooked to orde place and a few more folks selling their home-grown produce. negotiation is fun if rarely fruitful:


One of the things you hear a lot about is the need to go to the mall (you heard about that up above in a way) THe malls are really a surrogate for the local markets. This is Thai life. THe markets have always been the meeting place, the place to meet with your neighbors and catch up on the local gossip, tell a joke, to see and be seen. I consider myself lucky, to have this one close by. You banter with the vendors while the kids run under foot, you shop for ten, fifteen minutes and buy 20 baht worth of fresh mushrooms for your sauce or gravy. See how the kids in teh village are growing virtually before your eyes:

This one caught my eye, shes comes down every evening with her dad to pick out a few bags of goodies and every once in a while she gets a treat:


Seems something has her interest right now, she hasn't even noticed the farang:


Oh.

[friscofrankie]

The ol lady had Friday off that weekend. Not sure why but this usually means I've got to keep her entertained. We've been looking at some land to buy and I like this piece:


Upstream:

it's got good, flat, buildable land that sit about two meters above the creek and enough road frontage for a decent driveway. Back up to the rice fields and the guy taking care of the land seems OK. We're still in the tire kicking stage but ran into a snag. There's two plots of about 150 TW each with chanote but they're separated by another equally sized plot. We've tracked down the owner and will have to negotiate a decent price and ensure that we can buy the land flanking it as well before buying.

[friscofrankie]

The plot of land is a bit further out past Mae Rim where we are now but it's peaceful Still within about 30 - 40 minutes of the old City though. When we headed up there to track down the owner of that middle plot we spent teh afternoon riding around the hills until we had to run into town to catch the Friday night Wang Dang Doodle and Wat Chedi Luang down town.

The annual Tamboon IntaGin was in swing, we had to go pay our respects:


It all seemed so quiet as we parked the car on a parallel street and walked down a dark soi to the party. Things livened up though:




I think someone forgot to shut down the walking street, there is no way anyone meant for cars, trucks, buses and tuk tuks to occupy this thing all at once was there?


Man, they had food in the streets:


Lotsa tasty treats to feast your belly & eyes on:

[friscofrankie]

After running the gauntlet of food vendors we entered a back gate to the Wat.


Rides for the kiddies!


And toys for the Kid-in-me!


The gun had a realistic trigger pull in double action:


The first air operated clip had a tendency to jam and was replaced after about 7-8 shots. This is when I discoverd that it operated in single action as well. My group tightened up after that.

[friscofrankie]

One thing about Chiangmai they love a party up here. It was nice to sort of ease up into the mass of folks through the back:


That tree again:


I think they were tryin to burn it down:




Ther are vendors all over teht place selling COnsecrated candles, flowers and incense in little bouquets. The idea is you throw the flowers on one thing, then go to another thing and light the candles then movce on to another thing and burn your incense. That's wehat it looked like to me anyway . I'm not sure if there's a protocol to what things get what stuff put in front of it but the candle things seemed to be easiest to figure out.

Seems alot of people buy the bunch and then get in a long line and just toss the whole damned bundle on this big pile of other bundles. See what happens then is there's a whole group of folks that take all the garbage and recycle to the next folks wanting to buy stuff to throw on the pile or go from from shrine to shrine burning candles & incense.

The ol lady caught this shot I think it's the best one of the night: (don't tell her I said that)

[friscofrankie]

I didn't buy any flowers or candles But I did find the evening an interesting one. The line was too lng to go into the "men only" place. This is the place where the "City Pillar" is kept and it's only open on these special days.

Maybe I should explain a little, this "Tamboon Intakin" is the festival where you come and make merit on the City Pillar. Now I know there has got to be a more intricate explanation and description but My ol' lady is kinda tight with that kinda information and didn;t go into much more detail. I'll get at her again later be enin' it's 5:00 AM, this might not be the best damn time:
There's gonna be alot of pictures of people burning things:


And a few of people throwing flowers on a pile of flowers:


There was entertainment:
Sorry this one's a bit out of whack but had to get the kids checking watching behind the scenes:

[friscofrankie]

I guess the big pile was for people without the time to get up close and put their flowers on the Buddha. There is one girl seems happy to be there, though.

[friscofrankie]

Tamboon, or making merit, can be done in many ways. Giving money is popular. Rubbing a bit of gold on an icon is another popular one. Scented flower poured on some holy object is one as well. Placing flowers or pouring water usually means spending money with the vendors situated around the wat. This is a way of giving money to the wat as well.

As Walked around the festival I was reminded of the church "Bake Sale," or "Rummage Sale" we used to have in my neighborhood growing up, The "summer fairs" with the calk walk for a dime carnival type games of chance and skill the Catholic church had its festivals with much the same. Fund raisers.

This festival is no different. You saw the carnival games There were booths selling food, there were booths selling everthing from tattoos to furniture.

Tattoos:


The occasional seven-eleven mask and assorted accessories:

[friscofrankie]

Inside the wat, people were making merit by hanging up garlands of cash:


Buying coins and making wishes as you drop them in the bowls
Is this like buying candles and praying?

Oops! forgot to resize that one! I'll come back to it.

Dunno why, I like this custom, rubbing gold leaf on icons and making a wish (prayer):


After making an offering or two most folks sat or stood waiting to be blessed:

[friscofrankie]

OUt side there was more merit making going on. There is a cable and pulley affair that allows worshipers to pout scneted water into a vessel. This vessel is then hoisted up by all that are participating and poured on the Chedi.
First the fill it with as many people as can squeeze in adding all the Naam Hom they can:


Then they all work together to anoint the Chedi:


Some of the smaller folks may not get to pour or hoist but they are they get righ tin the middle of things:

[Propagator]

Bloody great thread FF - greenie winging its way

[friscofrankie]

After making merit it's nice just to walk around the grounds and soak up some of the atmosphere.
Maybe listen to some music:


This guy seems unaffected by the Tens of thousands of people walking around and as I was being jostled and bumped I wondered how he earned such a large patch or real estate:


I guess these guys just weren't that tough, or tired:


This is the Chedi that the wat is named for:


Another view:

[friscofrankie]

Walking behind the chedi:


And back towards the party:

[friscofrankie]

Another place to burn candles a quieter spot on the fringes of the throng:


prayers to some departed ancestor?


It appears this mans family have come and gone:

[friscofrankie]

And before wondering off the grounds, somehwat more familiar with all the mistakes one can make when photographing a happening such as this why not see what the future holds?


So many funny captions come to mind, I'll just leave it alone:

[friscofrankie]

The way in is the way out:


So excited to be here:

[friscofrankie]

We went home pretty beat up the crowds were packed and We had over 300 pictures to filter through. The next day (Saturday the... 7th?) was the closing ceremonies. Not many people showed up.
This is the top half of the "pouring water on the chedi" merit making:


Dunno man but I think oughta find another place to pour the water:

[friscofrankie]

There was some gold leafing:


some folks just came to show their respect:

[friscofrankie]

There was some dancing I liked this lady's face, "Jai yen"


Hmmm, what is written on that piece of paper?

[friscofrankie]

Few more parting shots:









few folks marched off down the streets banging gongs and dancing. We went home. The next day was Sunday and we were off to Doi Inthanon, with my son and his Lady, to vist a waterfall there. My son took took a few shots there with my Fuji and I took a few myself.

I've collated the shots and converted the raw images to JPEG and will resize/crop and post them tomorrow evening. Then there was the weekend a couple weeks later... I hope to get all the pics up. Might take a while though.

[friscofrankie]

Bloody great thread FF

Thanks man. I am enjoying relearning to take photographs hopefully we'll see some improvement over teh next few months.

[sunderlandstephen]

Outstanding , really liked the pics,thanks

[Marmite the Dog]

I nearly missed this. Nice one Dad.

[SandMike]

Cracking photographs, well done. I'm looking forward to seeing more.




The Sony alpha range is a reincarnation and development from the Minolta film cameras, and has the same lens mount. If you're after additional lenses it might be worth looking out for late model Minolta 35mm SLR film camera lenses going cheap.

[Mathos]

Good post FF, I look forward to more of this. A lot of effort put into the production of this thread and it shows.

Green en route.


It is a nice town Chiang Mai, I like it there.