Big title…lol. As the site is much more back to being my ‘Blog’ , I thought I’d add a space for my many random thoughts on the whole bigger picture.
These thoughts may be trivial or deadly serious, depends where my minds at when I get down to it. But hopefully they will have some relevance to someone, somewhere, whether it be to amuse, inform, or just get you thinking.
I’d love to hear any of your own thoughts and reactions to any topics posted here.
Footnote: the theories and opinions posted here do not necessarily represent my actual opinion, sometimes I just like to play devils advocate:). Where I feel strongly enough on any given subject it will be made clear in the post.
GAIA …..Mother Nature Getting Angry.
This is a thought that came to mind a couple of weeks ago, as I lay sick in bed wondering whether or not I had swine flu.
Having long been a believer in the power of Mother Nature and the idea of ‘the living Planet’, since my mid twenties I have suggested that we would start to see the real wrath and power of Gaia as we continue to ignore the warnings.
This wrath is now impossible to ignore as the changing seasons and extreme weather strike year in year out these days.
But it struck me how specific Mother Nature is getting.
For every action, a reaction; what goes around comes around.
As our food production methods reduce the animals conditions to living hell we start to get issues such as mad cows disease, bird flu, swine flu, etc.
In the eighties, maybe as a result of our turning our backs on nurturing family and moral values, A.I.D.s appeared.
As we try to fight the seasons finding methods to harvest fruits and vegetables year round, so the seasons around the world change.
As we ignore the obvious effects of industrial pollution millions more get hit by asthma.
And now things are combining.
They say that swine flu, in its most virulent form, wrecks the lungs, as we continue to wreck the lungs of the world.
Maybe it is time for all the God fearing people of the world to stop fearing what you cannot see and start fearing what you can.
Had another free day on Friday and used it to get a few things done. Going in to Chiang Mai around midday we first stopped for coffee at a relatively new coffee shop on the bottom moat road on the edge of the Old City.
From there we paid a visit to DK books, on Moonmuang road. Boon was after more reading material and I decided to join him when I discovered the secondhand, English language, paperback sale upstairs.
More coffee at Chiang Mai Coffee in DK car park, and then it was into the Old City so that Boon could have lunch by Wat Phra Singh. Not hungry myself I killed time in the Temple grounds.
On the way we stopped for Lunch at the Chiang Mai Kow Soi cafe on the highway from Saraphi to Hang Dong road.
This time I made sure I got good photos of the strange fruit out front of the cafe…..can anyone identify them?
Outside the Gym there appeared to be some sort of break dance class going on, with many local youngsters practicing their skills.
We had arranged to meet at the point where we had parted company last week.
Ally had promised more hills, lakes and a Cave Temple this week, so off we went heading out towards San Kampaeng Hot springs but almost immediately turning off onto a dirt track that follows the irrigation canal there.
Whereas the terrain along this canal route was not especially exciting , sometimes it is enough just to be away from the main drags, surrounded by trees and passing through genuine rural communities, and then out of nowhere coming across…a Temple.
With no English translations we had to photograph the Temple name sign for translation later to Wat Doi Zill.
Reaching our first planned destination was delayed a little when we took a diversion, turning right, across a small bridge over the canal, to another reservoir, that appeared on Allys GPS, as Thi Reservoir; not to be mistaken for the Thi reservoir we visited last week, a few miles away at Banthi.
The track ended up veering off into the forest, and although we continued into the trees a ways we turned back when it was clear that there were no other visible motorbike tracks.
Heading back to the canal and soon returning to tarmac we headed right,up to Huai Hong Khai 7 , a huge reservoir. Riding into the government buildings there, Ally pointed out the restaurant. Food at last!
The coach party were clearly late and the caterers took pity on us and promptly laid out 4 different dishes plus rice and water. A much nicer lunch than we would likely have bought elsewhere. The chef and waiter were very friendly and chatted with us for a while and refused to let us pay, although we did insist on leaving a tip.
It was not so far then to the 3005 where we went to the 196 Coffee Corner. Ally is now good friends with the proprietors, Khun Keung and Khun Chai, a lovely Thai couple. Whilst we chatted and drank our coffee they handed us bananas from their own trees, deliciously sweet and great with the coffee.
Be warned, the steps here are deceptively steep, especially if you’re an out of shape smoker. Luckily there are not so many. But still, by the time we got to the viewing platform I did wonder how on earth I made it up the 
The bigger problem for me was more steep steps to the lower levels.
We detoured on the route home, through San Kampaeng, navigating our way through the Saturday Street Market and on to a Coffee shop on the way to Bo Sang.
