Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Day Two & Three (I am getting lazy :p)

I woke up before alarm again... I hate when it happen... Anyhow the breakfast was ok, typical hotel buffet breakfast comprise with the usual egg dishes and local breakfast meals. Then we are off to the Royal Flora Expo.

It was quite nice, abide hot and sunny weather with no cloud in the sky. I was cautioned enough to push extra SPF moisturizer on my face (but neglected my arms -*-, which results in reddish color the next day with slight sore in the tender wrinkle area). My intension was to take as many picture of beautiful and interesting things in the Expo as much as could for my mom. And I seems to did just that with total of 345 photos (there would be more if I have the time) just in the expo alone. We enter the Expo around 10am and the appointed time was 2pm. Toward the end of the walk my digital camera ran out of power and I have to use my w810i to take photo instead. It surely could take good photo ;)

The highlight was, of cause, can be seen here :P

There was also a little excitement going on. You see I was late to return to the bus that it had took off without me :p Somehow the tour guide miscount me so they have to return to pick me up. All this happen while I was walking toward to exit which lined with shops that sells flowers and souvenirs :p In the end I have to run quite a distance to the parking lot to board the bus. And then we are off to Baan Tawai

Click here to download the photos (55Mb)

Baan Tawai is a famous wood products market of Chaing Mai. It seems that most, if not all, of the wood products there are made with teak wood. I saw some very nice crafts and one has very delicate wood craving panel. All can be seen by download below.

Click here to download the photos

The day ended with a party, but I am only there for the food and spend 30min in the near by shopping mall and an hour in the internet cafe opposite from the hotel that the event was held :P

Last day was quite uneventful... but nonetheless interesting. After breakfast we went to PraSingha Temple, one of the famous and sacred temple of Chaing Mai

Click here to download the photos

And next we went to Chaing Mai Cultural Center which we learn the history of Chaing Mai

Then we are off to lunch and visit a souvenirs market. Since there were sometime left before going to the airport, we stop at the silver factory for the last bit of shopping. I was tempted to buy some ring but most are too small for fingers, also the design was not to my liking.

Then we are of to the airport. It was my first times at Chaing Mai airport, the check-ins was without a hitch and since I did not felt like browsing the shops I went to the gate quite early. The flight was delayed by about 30 minutes but it was a short flight anyhow. After about an hour in the air we arrive at Suwannapume airport.

I must say that the airport did not impress me at all. The interior was rather dark, as if the brightness was at 50% of what it should be. Perhaps this is because of the glass panel as the wall that would make it bright during the day, but did they not think of how it would look in the night? The column and ceiling were not painted and were left in cement color, they also have metal pipe running through them along the walkway. I understand that it is the 'modern' design but it does not look good nor Thais at all. It took a while to walk to the luggage belt area (four floor escalator no less). And it took about 20-30 minutes before the first luggage arrive, since it would took awhile to unload them from the plane into the truck and came to the area...

And then we have to wait for about 20 minutes for the bus back to the office as there seems to be a miscommunication of the rendezvous point. However it took only about an hour on two highways back to the office which is about 10 minutes away from my house :)

1 comment:

Mr RM said...

Malaysia is having a similar agricultural fest too....that what's wrong with the ASEAN spirit, we compete too much