Photo Blog: Long Weekend Trip in Chiangmai

To ease the stress of life's pressure,  I joined (to a) group trip headed to northern part of Thailand - Chiangmai. One of the fave destinations of the local so as for the foreigners too.
Gilded temples, street food, and the sprawling bazaars are among of the top sightseers in Chiangmai, apart from its natural beauty.
Travelling is among of the stress-relievers that I do, besides you learn much in travelling.

MY FAVORITE PLACE IN THAILAND

Firstly when I arrived here in Thailand, I had thought long and hard that it would be so impossible for me to develop a sense of love and acceptance in a country I didn't wish for. But when I slowly started to adjust (except the language) and feel the simplicity of how God wanted me to begin my journey, seemingly everything fall in place.
For my eight months stay here in Thailand now, I've been to places around Thailand where the usual tourists love to stay. Been in Pattaya twice and dipped into the not so impressive seas. Was in Cha-am beach, famous floating market, giant pagoda, Bangkok & nearby places around my location with their pride tourist attractions. The blast-off one was spending my New Year's Eve up north of Thailand at Pai Maehongsong.
Among the places I've been to, Pai Maehongsong is my favorite place in Thailand to kick back and enjoy myself to. Pai is north of Thailand and a world away from busy Chiang Mai and Bangkok. It sits at the lap of a mountain range adjacent to the capital Maehongsong.
This not so sleepy town is home to some of the friendliest people in Thailand. I love the cool weather and the air is clean, the food traditionally simple and tasty, and the local shopping stalls are cheap and stylish.
It offers a lot to both local and foreign visitors who loves hiking, camping, and nature adventure. The place helps you to feel at ease and forget the problems you have left at home, or temporarily erased the burdens of work load.
It's easy to forget the lush style of the capial city Bangkok when you are almost completely close-off to the outside world of Pai.
Really, I am looking forward of visiting Pai soon when my budget, time permits me.

THAI-SUMMER VACATION

Today is the 3rd Sabbath in the month of March. A day which God has anointed to man to be His holy day...I mean, referring to the day Saturday.
A day, that family members should worship together in one accord with the Lord. A time of fully praising and nothing but lifting God's holy and mighty name.
As a young Christian and a trained missionary, the first thing to do-lists would be finding a church that I could possibly worship with fellow Christians, yet, the problem is, I couldn't found any of my church around the place where I am teaching neither in the places nearby but in the capital city Bangkok which is 3 hours by van and 5 hours by bus.
Back in the Philippines, attending to church every midweek, vesper and Sabbath was the only simple-joys I had as I may call it. I felt like a weak-lame individual who couldn't walk normally when I misses any of those church services.
But coming to this Siam country is different, I thought it would be normally as it was to attend worships just as the usual thing I did in the Philippines.
Contrary, I just attended one wholly Sabbath day since from my arrivals and that was the month of February, that needs a long travel before I could make a christian union with fellow believers.
The rest of that were spending most of the time in the internet cafe listening and viewing christian videos or either going out for a nature walk with some newfound Christian friends(led by a protestant British missionary.
Reading my Bible is no longer as actively as it was, nor praying before going to sleep. I don't think that I am spiritually gone astray but its just that things had changed and completely new to me.
Well, I thank God that I still managed to set aside the 10% of my salary for the tithe, 'am now training myself to be a tithe giver.Just giving back to the Lord what's His...if not, I am robbing Him..heaven's forbid...don't want to be branded with a name tithe-robber.

CHIANG MAI TRIP

This Chiang Mai trip was a part of our New Year's Eve adventure in the north. On the 1st day of January 2010, we went down to Chiang Mai to spend another night and a day to seize the exciting trip...before we check-in to the hotel and rest for a while, we took a side trip to Queen Sirikit's Botanical Garden which is a drive away outside the main city.

  It's the biggest botanical garden I've ever seen so far...we never toured around the entire garden but just visited the main heart of the garden. I saw various species of plants which some were very common to me. Our boss paid for the entrance, and I decided to buy herbal made cologne. 

                                                           Second Destination-Kitsada Doi After we spent a couple of hours in Queen Sirikit's Botanical Garden, we visited another captivating and lush garden just half an hour from the Botanical garden. It's one of the interesting places to visit in Chiang Mai and one of the popular destinations for locals since it was decidedly opened to the public. Warm lights crown the tops of the tree as the afternoon sun spills across the manicured lawns and neat surrounding of the Kitsada compound. Not far away, at the gate- aromas of the flowers around the place scattered lightly through the air, blending together in the assortment colors of the flowers for the eyes to appreciate. The area was covered with dazzling flowers offering the scenic view of pink color among the sea mist. Kitsada Doi as they called it, is just outside Chiang Mai and 30 minutes by drive. I couldn't believe that it was exactly the same just as the usual wall posters being sold in the Philippines. Well, I can proudly say to my friends back home that I saw the place. My co-teacher and I took the chance of roving around taking pictures that we can as much as our boss gave us the moment to enjoy...well, where you could find a boss who's kind enough to take us to some places in the north by free?