Happy 60th

Happy, happy Day!

If we were in Christchurch I would have planned a birthday treat for Pete. I think it is really important to acknowledge birthdays, particularly turning 60! But we are in Jakarta on the final leg of our trip away. So Pete's 60th celebration will be modest, but still significant and I will make sure he has a wonderful day. I don't know where to begin. I have lived with him and loved him for over half my life and have got to know him quite well, even more so over the last year. There are so many things about Pete that I love and admire.

Pete is a genuinely nice man. He is very generous with himself and enjoys people and loves listening to their stories. He believes it is important to treat people well. It is important to him that when people come to visit us they are welcomed and comfortable in our home. I think Pete is a passionate man. He has a passion for learning and life. He has a passion for poetry and fast cars. Driving a car for Pete is all about how the car takes a corner or how responsive it is in the steering and on the road. He has always loved European cars and we have had some interesting ones over the years that were 'car of the year' when they were new, but not when we owned them. 

Pete has been very successful in his work at university and in his consultancy practise. His students really enjoy him as a teacher and he is highly regarded in the business field. He has written two very good books on work as a vocation rather than an occupation. I think his greatest success has been his family, who he loves passionately. He has single handedly provided for his family ... a home, holidays, birthdays, christmas, sports fees, clothes, food on the table, tuition etc. He has been an incredibly loyal and faithful father and husband. There has never been a time when we have had to worry about where the next meal will come from, is there enough money. The safety and security of his family has been extremely important to Pete and if he never did another thing with his life he has already done a wonderful thing in loving them, providing for them and looking after them. Pete has been a fantastic Father. He has always been there for his children. There is nothing he would not do to see them happy. He has dedicated his life to their wellbeing, security and happiness and continues to do so.

Pete has been a wonderful companion, friend and husband to me. He has been loyal and faithful. He has been my go to person whenever I have felt low, afraid, unsure of myself and no matter how mean or horrible I have been he is still there in morning, still loving me. There is something comforting about having someone by your side who believes in you when it is hard to believe in yourself. I am a better person because of my relationship with him.

Pete is a devout man and innately spiritual. His religious beliefs are the foundation of who he is and what he does. He has an unwavering belief in God and Christ and in his religion. He would say that everything he has done and is, is a result of his belief.

He has a great sense of humour and loves to have a good laugh! He is very creative in his work which has come out in his teaching at uni, in his consultancy work and in the books he has written. In many ways he has been a man ahead of his time. He is very intelligent and grasps ideas and truth very quickly and is able to translate them into a simpler form so that people can understand them easily. Pete is charismatic and has a wonderful energy about him. I love seeing him get excited, he does this jumping thing and squeals. I love watching him drive his Lotus replica sports car, he seems so alive to me and looks like he is having so much fun! 

Pete with lars and Roxcy ... family is everything to Pete. He loves his Grandchildren and is the sexiest Grandfather I know. I love watching him with them, he is the most happiest and contented  spending time with them, playing with them and hanging out with them.

Pete with Elizabeth, reading her one of our family favourites that we used to read to our children when they were the same age. He loves chatting to our grandchildren on Skype and gets very enthusiastic. Having enough money to visit them and spend time with them is an important priority for him. 

Heading of on our travels from Boston. We have had an amazing time away together learnt new things about each other and shared some wonderful adventures. I hope you have a wonderful Day Pete and take some time to feel proud of your life achievements thus far and bask in the love of your family and friends. You are loved ... and today you are celebrated. Having you in our lives means everything to us. Happy 60th! Let the fun begin.

Bangkok ...

Anyone who has been through Asia will be familiar with this saying ... no such thing as different sizes everything is same, same.

We loved Bangkok! Bangkok has been a great way to start our return home. Our son Mike said that he and Chris had a great time just hanging out in Bangkok, going to movies and visiting the malls. So we thought we would do the same. We have been desperate for some new clothes. So we did heaps of shopping and soaked up the up market ambience of the city. We enjoyed the malls and hanging out in the city so much we didn't even bother with the usual tourist attractions, probably a sign that we have been travelling too long.

The last time we were in Bangkok was around 1990. That was my first trip abroad. We were on our way to the UK for 6 weeks and had a stopover here. We stayed in a very nice hotel that had an amazing smorgasbord breakfast, which we filled ourselves on and then spent the day walking around the streets. It was quite the culture shock for us ... there were so many people and the traffic was crazy. It did not seem like that this time. Yes it is busy here, but it has been busy everywhere we have been.  Overall it seemed very civilised and organised. 

Our hotel had this display by the front door, teddy bears and love messages. There are a lot of these sorts of things all the way through SE Asia. Also lots of young women carrying large stuffed animal toys and backpacks with animal pictures on them (mainly cats). They seem a little strange to us. We had a choice of a pink or blue room and we were given a pink room.

I was amused by the statue of a horse as a lamp in the foyer of the movie theatre we went to. We went to two movies here, Cinderella, (we would give that a B-) and Insurgent, which we saw in 4D. We have never been to a 4D movie before and I had no idea what to expect. I did not know that the seats move and the floor vibrates and every time there is a gunshot there is a kind of swishing noise that goes past your ear. I was in a state of high anxiety throughout most of the movie, not knowing when the next movement or gunshot was going to happen. The movie itself was a C-. I am not sure we will do 4D again. Too stressful!

Pete liked this skyscraper ... he said it looked like it was growing out of the buildings around it.

The tuk tuks here are very cool. They go fast and are lit up like this one, at night. They whip in and out of traffic and we had a couple of near misses in one. We had fun haggling with the drivers over the price ... the cheapest we paid was $B140 and the most we paid was $B180. They always started by asking for $B300. 

Siam shopping centre has 3 malls ... Siam Centre, Siam Discovery and Siam Paragon. Paragon is the biggest of the three. This mall complex is so huge I think you could get lost and die in here and only be discovered when your body starts to decay. There are some very expensive shops here. I don't like mall shopping ... I grew up going into town to shop and it was a treat. I find malls boring and very much same, same, but these are something else. I don't think there would be a more impressive collection of malls anywhere.

These water works were in the entrance way of Siam Paragon. There was an X-ray machine that we had to walk through when entering.

Siam Paragon was the most impressive of the malls. It had a top floor devoted to upmarket car sales. BMW's as above, (the bike is also BMW) along with Jaguars, Lamborghinis, Maseratis, McLarens, Porsches and Aston Martins. We were a little perplexed as to how they got in there. 

There is a Harrods restaurant and pastry cafe on the ground floor of the Paragon. We had a hot chocolate here. The prices were high but the service was incredible. Pete was a little resistant at first, but I won him round.

 I am a lover of hot chocolates as you know. I had a dark hot chocolate with cream on the side and Pete had an Oreo hot chocolate. They were divine. Pete was very glad that he decided to join me. A complimentary piece of shortbread came with our drinks. Yummy! We both love shortbread.

Some of the pastries available to eat with your High Tea at Harrods ... I think you would have liked this lucy.

There is a huge food court in Siam Paragon and this is where we discovered Bread Talk. The photo is a 'Raisin Pillow' it became Pete's favourite... he would buy 3 at a time! Western style bakeries have been a rarity on our trip.

A statue outside Siam Paragon. A slightly tacky memorial to mark the year of the Goat. We've noticed that the tacky and the classy frequently stand side by side in SE Asia. 

Over the road from the Siam Centre is the MBK mall ... a  poor cousin. This mall is busy and gets very crowded with shoppers and market stalls. There are stores in this mall that sell i-phones for less than half the normal Apple price along with cheap name brand street and running shoes. We suspect these items are probably not the real deal!!

The elevators in MBK. We walked through every floor of this mall trying to find a pair of shoes for Pete. I was so impressed with his stamina. Pete has a short attention span for shopping but he really out did himself here, we walked for hours. 

We went to the movie theatre just around the corner from MBK, it was a third of the price of the 4D one.  This sign was on the door. We thought you might get a laugh out of it. We saw Still Alice (A), Julianne Moore's performance was excellent. We also saw Run All Night (B+), a Liam Neeson movie. We both thought it was going to be another Taken, but it was surprisingly good. Pete really enjoyed it. He likes a good action movie. If it has a car chase scene in it all the better.

I love Mango ... in any form. This is a container mango cafe we came across on a side street. It was busy with locals eating there, which is a good sign. So we stopped and had something to eat.

I have discovered 'sticky rice' , it can be eaten with a main or a desert ... I like it. This is mango pudding with sticky rice. 

Night traffic ... our last night in Bangkok. 

As I mentioned we spent hours and I mean hours looking for shoes for Pete. We stumbled across this very cool looking store on a side street and went in for a look. When Pete is buying something he really likes to research the market and is always trying to see if he can find it cheaper somewhere else. Me, I just buy. Pete came out with a very nice pair of brown leather hand made shoes. He was very happy and I was relieved that we did not have to look for another day. While we were in the store a person came in to return or change their shoes ... we could not figure out if they were male or female. There are quite a few androgynous looking people in Bangkok.

Here is the end product of our search. Genuine sports shoes like Nike, Adidas, Asics, etc, are not that cheap but Thailand has a thriving handmade shoe industry that produces very high quality shoes at a great price. They will need some breaking in. 

There are a lot of Vespas on the roads here in Bangkok. I love Vespas ...very classy and a good example of the stylish side of Bangkok. 

Goodbye to my dress and Pete's pants. My dress was coming apart at the seam under the arm and on the side seam and Pete's pants were worn out. Both have served us well but we desperately needed new clothes.  We wore some of them on the plane and felt a little odd not wearing our usual travelling attire. We have done very well with our 3 outfits each over the last few months. I think when we get home we will be overwhelmed by how many clothes we have. When you don't have much you don't need much.  

Our Return to Thailand

The White Temple in Chiang Rai

We had to go back into Thailand because we were flying out of Bangkok to Jakarta. Our initial plan was to catch a bus from the Laos/Thailand boarder to Chiang Mai and then catch an overnight train to Bangkok. But after meeting David from Reunion on our trip up the Mekong, who suggested we visit Chiang Rai and the White Temple and also take a trip up to Pai, we changed our plans. That has been one of the things we have enjoyed while travelling, meeting people who have been where we want to go and getting their suggestions of where to visit and changing our plans at the last minute. This has made our travelling more interesting and exciting. 

We visited the White Temple with James and Stephanie, an English couple we met on the Mekong. We have not seen anything quite like this Temple, it was very, very white and glittered in the sun.  The White temple is quite new and is the work of a Thai artist. It looks like a castle from a Walt Disney movie or perhaps a large wedding cake. I think Roxcy, Elizabeth and Meg  would have loved it. I found it hard taking photos because there was such a strong glare from the temple. If you look closely at the photo above you will notice that one of the spires is broken and on a lean, the result of a recent earthquake.  Inside the temple there are some stunning painted scenes representing the artists interpretation of Buddhist theology. It's quite idiosyncratic and one of the scenes includes an image of Neo from The Matrix.  

All the windows and doorways were framed like this. They are very ornate.

I called these wishing or praying trees. People buy a silver tag and write their wish or prayer on it and then hang it on this tree like structure. There are a few of these and they are full of people's prayers and wishes on behalf of themselves or someone they love. I thought they looked beautiful and I was moved by the hope that by placing their wish/prayer on this structure their desires would become reality. Much like prayer.

An unusual combination ... road cone, with skull topped by a white symbol from the Temple.

After the White Temple we visited the Black Temple. We liked it here. The Black Temple is the creation of another Thai artist and almost a polar opposite of the White Temple with its buildings being mostly black and dark brown. It is quieter and a lot less extroverted than the White Temple but still very unusual in its own way. The buildings are filled with snake skins, crocodile skins, animal antlers, horns, skulls etc. Some of the rooms look like very large dining rooms with long tables and chairs with water buffalo horns as their backs. Very medieval and Game of Thrones. Outside the scary animal theme continues for example with two very large living pythons in a cage. All part of the artist's conception.  

I thought of home when I saw these carvings. They reminded me of our beautiful Maori Carvings and history. Such a beautiful part of New Zealand culture.

This is Pete sitting behind the skull of a crocodile which is sitting on snake skin on a very long and large table. The snake that provided the skin must have been enormous.

A chair that sits at the head of a table ... the back is made from water buffalo horns. You can get an idea of the dark wood inside this building and the high stud. There is some beautiful wood that has been used in the Black Temple. 

In contrast to the blacks and dark browns of most of the temple complex there are a few of these white "igloos" on the outskirts. They house many artefacts, including furniture and stuffed animals. Such an interesting artistic creation. Despite the dead animals and live snakes we found the Black Temple a little warmer and more inviting than the White Temple. But both give a sense of an artistic energy and creativity that felt very strong in many of the places we visited in Thailand.   

This is for you Mike ... given your passion for bikes we thought you would like this. These bikes were in a supermarket in a mall near the Chiang Rai bus station. As with the Black and White temples we were struck by the originality of the design. There is something very edgy and cool about many of the things we have seen in Thailand and in other parts of SE Asia. Lots of very interesting fusions of East and West.

Yummy NZ ice cream ... I know there are many countries in the world that think they know how to make ice cream, but they don't. New Zealand knows how to make good ice cream. I can no longer pretend otherwise. Unfortunately beyond out budget over here. 

We caught a mini bus from Chiang Mai to Pai. It is about a 3-4 hour trip, the actual distance is not far but the road is very, very windy. There is about an hour of straight driving out of the city and then 3 hours non-stop of twisting and curving roads. In all the years I have known Pete I have never ever seen him car sick. Well this trip changed all that! Pete was hanging out the window of the van ... his whole upper body, vomiting out the window, trying to be as discreet as he could. Meanwhile everyone on the bus was trying not to notice this man hanging out the window of the van being sick. I tired to be empathetic but I got the giggles. Rather than risk a repeat we went back to Chiang Mai on a scooter. We stayed at the Aroma Spa in Pai and this is our very own private hot pool. We thought that it was so romantic here. Nothing like starting and ending your day with a dip in your very own natural hot pool right outside your bedroom door.

Taking a load of hay ... somewhere!

I loved this tree at the end of the drive of our Spa. I am sure that whatever the yellow is it is not helping the tree, but I thought the texture looked ethereal almost like a very large spider web.

We had a late lunch at a nice little cafe in Pai. It was avocado season and I loved the chunks of fresh avocado I had in this salad ... 

We saw a lot of people in Pai that looked like they were in a state of existential crisis. Some seemed to be seeking illumination with large amounts of chemical support. I know call me judgemental ... but this is "the look", dreads and a music instrument of some sort on their back. 

This is not a Muslim woman serving us at the Gas Station, this is what the attendants wear. I guess it is a protection from petrol fumes. 

A group of Chinese Tourists taking photos on a bridge just out of Pai. They really know how to have a good time and they will try anything and not hold back, with camera ready to go at any moment. 

Starting to throw out our clothes. Most of our clothes don't fit us anymore and it doesn't matter how many times we wash them they still look like rags. We also need to shed some weight as we head home. So out they go. I found it really hard to throw out my Vasque shoes ... we have done some serious walking together. A local second hand clothes shop was happy to take them.

Our scooter trip back to Chiang Mai ... we had fun on this trip. Pete was not sick but I did get stung on my chest. We think by a hornet??

I love these colours together.

We stopped of at a Geyser Park and had a walk around. We came across this notice to the public. We thought you might like it.

Chiang Mai ... we really enjoyed our time here. We found it a really interesting city, arty and energetic with lots of cool boutiquey shops and a great vibe to it. There were lots of temples and historic sites. We didn't visit any of them. Just enjoyed walking around the streets and visiting the shops and restaurants. Mike and Louisa Mitchell live here now and we can see why. Its both cheap and cool. 

I saw this piano in a shop window as we were walking round Chiang Mai and immediately thought of Alice. I love hearing Alice play the piano and sing. When I hear her sing my heart is stirred and I can feel goose bumps over my body. She has said many times that she would love a baby grand. It was not until I went in and took a photo of the piano that I realised that it is actually a statue or sculpture.  

What do you think Alice??

We stumbled across a collection of old motor bikes just outside the moat that surrounds Chiang Mai. Some of them were beautiful ... and very old. This is an old Harley Davidson with a modern motor installed. Very cool and another sign of the interest in creativity and design that a lot of the young Thai people seem to have. 

Fiat Crusader. We had three of these when our children were young ... one white and two blue. One of the blue ones was written of in a car accident. Pete was driving to work, at uni, round by Christchurch Boys High and a woman drove through a red light, Pete braked heavily, but hit the back of her car, which spun on the spot several times and ended up someone's drive way. Our Crusader was written off. We loved that car. It was totally reliable and would cruise at 80 mph.

We were on our way to one of the night markets and walked past this hotel ... I had to take a photo. I love the colours.

There are three very well known night walking markets on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights respectively. They are fantastic and everybody is there, tourists and locals. There are food stands and craft stands. We had a great time.

The Sunday night market is by far the best and the oldest. It goes on forever and is packed! This was our last night in Chiang Mai. We went to church in the morning and met up with our musician friends Michelle and Tom in the early evening. We spent a good three hours just wandering and looking. Pete, Michelle and I had waffles with chocolate and banana, Tom had a crepe with Nutella and banana, we bought them of one of the food stands. I think Tom got the better deal! We flew to Bangkok early the next morning, much cheaper than taking the overnight train.