If you look at a big map of Costa Rica you will find several La Fortunas, as well as other same names. they seem to be in short supply of names. This time Leo drove us to the vicinity of Volcano Arenal. We reserved from Home Away a big house with 4 bedrooms if you can call then separate bedrooms – they had no ceilings, were all under the same roof and therefore the sounds traveled expressively! But the house was impressive, one of a kind. The owner Julian from Israel has designed and built it himself. The first spacious area there is his galleryￂﾠￂﾠ -he is a jeweler and artist, so there are interesting things to look at. Then there are two spacious bathrooms and a very spacious kitchen with the living room – a good place to stay for a big family or a group:
The house is set up on a big piece of land, beautifully landscaped, with the owner’s house further down the property:
This was an unusually clear morning:
I am stating with the house here because it evidently left the biggest impression. Because when we drove to the other side of volcano where all the trails are and while we figured out how to spend our 3 full days there, nothing seemed as impressive as the house :-). Well, not exactly. The hot springs that we found under a bridge of our road to volcano – they were really beyond and above! This was a very warm river, formed into a waterfall and then rushing through stones with great energy down. And they were free! Except for the parking fee – this is a popular occupation of Costa Ricans as we noticed. They put on a bright vest and stand close to a place of interest where you have to park and have to pay them. But the fee was reasonable – $4. Whereas if we went to one of the developed hot springs the ticket per person could reach $95 and they reminded me from pictures the Disneyland. We went for a more natural setting! And for a healthy one -ￂﾠ the river gave us such a massage! Could not be better. I think those were the best hot springs I ever experienced, and we have interest in them:
Over there by volcano Arenal we figured out that there is not single path anywhere around that we could walk on it for free!ￂﾠ We are not used to such expensive trails, so it was an astonishment. But then we agreed that the trails in the jungle require a lot of maintenance, so you have to pay. The one we took was further on the road than the entrance to the national park, it was $10 per personￂﾠ and it was like this:
This is how a fresh palm leaf looks like-ￂﾠ red! 
A super big tree which even had a name: 
There we heard some howler monkeys but that is it. Didn’t see any promised toucans or else. The trees in the jungle are very very tall, so you need to just sit and look up to their top branches with binoculars – then maybe… The next attraction was Zip lining. We bought it over the internet. It was $81 per person and so we flew down 8 rather long lines all attached to the harness:
To tell the truth I was a little scared, but when I saw their equipment and how careful the guys were, how many of them ran around us to make it pleasant, I relaxed. We were taken up in a small wagon and could see Lake Arenal very well from there. The zippingￂﾠ was arranged over a canyon full with trees – meaning over their tops far below:
Lake arenal is an artificial lake. Theyￂﾠ make electricity during the rainy period and they collect the water during the dry period and make electricity from solar panels. 
One of the pleasant and beautiful staffers in that zip lining business: 
And that was it for the fun in La Fortuna. Oh, almost forgot-ￂﾠ the last morning was not so cloudy so we managed to see the top of volcano Arenal and immediately its gas started creating a cloud and curling around its head and covering it again like Trump’s hair string:
The volcano is active… Belowￂﾠ -papayas are growing, but not in our host’s garden: 
Author: impressions
Costa Rica 2018 – San Jose
The most expensive Central American country. Maybe because it is the safest and the cleanest? That we can’t say because we have not been in the others. We compared everything with Mexico, want it or not. Subconsciously.ￂﾠ Because they have some similarities to our eyes, at least from the first sight. And the first sight of Costa Rica was its capital – San Jose. Like Mexico city – it is in high altitude and therefore-ￂﾠ I needed a sweater for the mornings while walking there. The city is clean – that was my first impression. No dogs, no dog poop! Therefore I could look not down to the pavement, but to the buildings and they didn’t disappoint me! Lots of colonial restored houses, in a tasteful mix with contemporary architecture. Very good museums, very modern and with thoughtful displays. And people- they are extremely nice and pleasant. That, we felt, was a little difference with Mexico :-). Not to forget – Sopa Mariscos – the seafood soup in the central market! Our friends who have more experience than us trying different foods around the world said they have not eaten anywhere such a tasty soup. So there are reasons to visit the capital of Costa Rica. The main pedestrian road meets you with this sculpture:
Their inclination for fat women could be noticed almost in every block:
The first point of interest was the Theater! I could not take the picture of the facade because of the restoration of the square in front of it. The theater has lots of sculptures and frescoes, it is built by Italianￂﾠ masters and is devoted to the Nation – as the guide said-ￂﾠ there are expensive tickets as well as inexpensive ones and anyone can afford to see a play or two and enjoy the lavish interiors!
Bethoven with a Dove on his head and a coffee plant at his feetￂﾠ -the plant symbolizesￂﾠ the source of the money to build the theater:
Then we walked around the central part of the city and enjoyed the buildings, parks and creative graffiti:
This is the central library.ￂﾠ It has some Chinese flair in its architecture. The feeling was that Costa Ricans pay much attention to public education and culture.ￂﾠ Alsoￂﾠ – to social programs. 
I loved this corner…: 
And the color combination on the Library building: 
The next stop was The Museum of Gold (Museo del Oro)! it is located under this main plaza by the side of the theater, with beautiful stair leading down and down through 3 or 4 levels all filled up with rich expositions:
They let you take pictures of all the artifacts except for the very big safe -like doors toￂﾠ the halls. Understandable. There is a lot of gold there. Ancient people in CR territories were creative and skilled. They looked for gold in the river beds, also for copper. They melted the two into an alloy and poured the liquid into clay forms to make those elaborate sculptures and jewelry:
They were also masters of ceramics. The sad part – I felt a huge gap in between those old cultures, indigenous people’s creations and nowadays peoples creations…there were no handmade souvenirs to capture attention, as it is in Thailand or Mexico. So do not promise to bring souvenirs from Costa Rica :-)! Well, unless you buy some copy of an artifact from a museum store. 
The round stones-ￂﾠ ancient people made them without having iron instruments…For them they were like mascots, creating good energy to their homes and families:
The next stop was Children’s museum – which we visited because it looked peculiar on the map and from there the city is nicely seen. It is on a hill and in an old very well refreshed and restored prison:
We didn’t see the Children’s museum – it was closing. But managed to see the other two parts of the petal shaped building: the Prison and the Mafalfa exhibit. 
They usually have life size dolls to better picture realistic scenes. Those prisoners looked a little strange to me, I looked on the plate by the cell, it said – Sex cell…
Mafalda is a cartoon character that we maybe have noticed with the corner of our eyes but never cared about it. it is created by an Argentinian artist.ￂﾠ Evidently it is a popular character in central Americas. Therefore a big exposition devoted to her and her friends with her apartment, playrooms, her car, etc.ￂﾠ 
Stained glass window in the prison building: 
Luckily we had two full days in San Jose, for i visited two more museums of the Big Three-ￂﾠ they sell one ticket to Museo del Oro, National museum and Jade museum. But you can’t visit all three in one day – too much, too saturating! So i went to the National Museum in the morning, to have a fresh head for that! 
The National Museum is also in a fortress. They seemed to have enough of them in this city!ￂﾠ It is also very well restored as well as the square in front of it:
First of all they direct you to a big green area of the fortress where lots of Costa Rica’s treasures are flying around you – the butterfly exhibit. Their English nameￂﾠ implies that they like butter, but there they were eager to nourish on peaces of fruit, fresh and rotting:
Here they are being born from their pupa’s: 
Lots ofￂﾠ different aspects of Costa Rican life are exposed in the museum. Starting from their history, from their ancestors and their beautiful golden, jade and ceramic creations: 
Then some colonial history:
An after deathￂﾠ mask of some well loved priest indicates that maybe death is not so terrible-ￂﾠ I saw serenity and a slight smile in his face…
A view from the museum’s balcony; 
The best part of National museum to me was the halls dedicated to their small island somewhere in Pacific. They have a wide screen movie which you can watch lying on comfy recliners and immerse in clear waters together with their ocean wildlife. Here is the museum’s yard: 
Then the Jade museum. It is in a modern building and is located in several big halls covering maybe 5 floors up! There are many more crafty objects from different shades of jade set up in creative expositions. But there are also lots of golden artifacts and a very big collection of ceramics, too. Two halls are made for you to feel as if you are in the rain forest – it is above you, from the sides and on the floors:
So if you asked me which museum to visit if you have time only for one of them – it would be hard to answer. But any of them have some aspects of the other two, that is for sure! And also for sure you have to visit at least one of them to better understand the country. Here are some more nice buildings, this one-ￂﾠ the Post office:
The Bourbon Market: 
Our hotel Suites Cristina, which I highly recommend! They pick you form the airport and they feed you a very good breakfast buffet!
2017 – Colorado -Telluride and the way home to Utah
After our stay in Ouray we drove back to Ridgeway which is not in the mountains. but by the mountains. Then turned towards Telluride. Our B&B hosts told us to park by the edge of Telluride on the right. There is a free parking lot. Then you just walk into downtown, which seemed a little bigger that the towns we saw before. Restaurants, shops, as usual in a tourist and skiing town. But the biggest attraction is its free gondola! Nowhere else there is a free gondola as far as I have heard. Not one-ￂﾠ even two of them.ￂﾠ The first lift is very steep and a little scary. Then the gondola stops on the top of the mountain ridge:
From there the mountain bikers are riding down. There is a restaurant there with good views. Then the gondola goes down to the other side of the ridge, to the Mountain Village, which is not a village in its classical sense, but a concoction of rich condos. On the way you see the ski tracks for the winter and the surrounding mountains:
And once you get out of that gondola and you are not the one who stays in one of the condosￂﾠ you do not have much to do there. So you go to another gondola, which takes people just over the tops of the condos to a food store-ￂﾠ what a way to go shopping! 🙂 You see the lavish life style in full swing under you and that is the attraction. I guess. Also – you can hike down from the food store-ￂﾠ the hike is not steep. So here you go – taking gondolas was our fun in Telluride. Once there -we drove to the very deep end of it and saw a peculiar thing-ￂﾠ a big house built very close to a waterfall on a steep cliff, with no roads leading to it-ￂﾠ I wonder?!
I guess you have to stay in a town to fall in love with it.ￂﾠ But it would be hard to love so many towns :-).ￂﾠ So we drove out of Telluride and towards Cortez. Rt. 145 on the map is shown as a scenic road and it was. Very very scenic. But there we heavy clouds and we were tired, so we didn’t stop for every good view. However, we stopped in Rico – it has an authentic house turned into a hostel or a hotel – it was pleasant to walk in its empty corridors and hear the ghosts. It has a wild hot spring close by:
But once we came – there was a company of 5 soaking in it. so the math didn’t work for us…So we drove to Cortez where hotels on its North side are much more expensive than the ones on the South side :-). We picked American Holiday Mesa Verde Inn – it was in front of the restaurant Mi Mexico – that we remembered from long ago – and it was a good choice! The hotel was very quiet and the restaurant served very good Mexican food! We wanted to go to Mesa Verde – but after some analysis figured out that we had no time for it-ￂﾠ it takes at least a day or two to see it well, the drives are long there and you have to take excursions if you want to see at least one of the ancient houses or towns, whatever they were. So we chose to visit Howenweep NM instead. Therefore the next morning we drove on a small road through the Canyons of the Ancientsￂﾠ NM and stopped and walked in one stop. Didn’t walk much -ￂﾠ had no time. But walking on this sandstone was pleasant and it would be a good idea to stay somewhere close by there and hike and hike:
Because all this area is full of signs of Ancient Indians living there! Here is the Howenweep NM – it is a canyon where life flourished ages ago. They have a few structures still standing, as those Twin Towers, and a few mysteries still lingering:
Thenￂﾠ the drive was long…We listened to a book about Albert Einstein, a really good one, but still. We saw Mexican Hat on the way and the the Monument Valley with the place on the highway where everyone stops and takes pictures. Why – because Forest Gump stopped his long run through the US exactly there!
THen we noticed that the glorious Mittens of the Monument Valley are eroding, they have lost their ‘thumbs’ and do not look like mittens any more…
But the rock that looks like a mountain from a fairy tale -ￂﾠ still looks inspiring:
Then a little stop by this monstrosity of the Hydro power station of Lake Powel:
And we returned home to our super hot summer, to our permanent irrigation and tending our peaches and tomatoes!
2017 – Colorado – Silverton
Our best and most efficient day was Sundayￂﾠￂﾠ -we hiked the Perimeter trail in Ouray till we reached the waterfall, then swam in the Hot springs pool, before that we saved a turtle who climbed up from his pond and almost got on a busy road. The turtle expressed his gratitude by peeing on me profoundly…:-)Then we jumped into our car and drove to Silverton on a Million Dollar highway. It was impressive! There are some very orange mountains on top of Ouray, they look like in Utah, but with a lot of rain, and from those mountains an orange stream is flowing:
There were mines along he road and descriptions of them that they mine all the possible metals here and the underground tunnels are 100 mi long…
This was a beautiful landing from a pass, with Silverton already very close:
It is also like in a goblet – all surrounded by mountains. But its ‘goblet’ is much wider that the one of Ouray’s. And so I felt much moreￂﾠ spacious there. 
Those instruments set up in a little town park had a soothing and healing sound! 
Here we ate a funnel cake! But they also have other foods, too. 
This green cross meansￂﾠ “healing with the help of weed” :-):
The is the train station – it is a famous train that goes from Durango to Silverton through the mountains and Canyons. I guessￂﾠ -it is a lot of fun! But it was not in our plans this time. On the way out of Silverton we drove a little towards Durango for the views:
You can see Silverton down below far away.ￂﾠ But the road was being fixed, there were some waits there and also it looked scarier for me that the Million Dollar road to Ouray, so we turned back to Ouray. 
All in all – Silverton is well worth of a visit whether by train or a car, and to my taste-ￂﾠ it seemed the most beautiful of all the towns we visited. But beauty is not the only reason we visit places…
2017-Colorado – Ouray
From Irvin Lake campground we noticed that there is a more straight road towards Gunnison, but we had to give it up after a short try – it was too narrow and bumpy. So we returned to Crested Butte, which is about 12mi from the campground and were pleased that the road leading to Gunnison was wide and paved. In Gunnison, we walked a little, had a very rich in caloriesￂﾠ and cheeses cowboy lunch and headed towards Montrose. The drive was beautiful, partially by artificial lakes:
and there was a road to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, but we didn’t turn towards there. And then we again found ourselves on the plains. Colorado is in our imagination a state of mountains, but it seems that mountains occupy just a little part of it in patches. Montrose is also a western cowboy town. very similar as was Gunnison. But it has a Nepalese buffet! Wow, what a loss. We were so full after our cowboy lunch. And after the drive to Ridgeway is on plains, only there you start seeing mountains. You head towards them and here you are – in a goblet called Ouray:
The main attractions of Ouray are hiking, of course, and also the hot springs! They bring the warm water from hot springs somewhere further and up the mountains and fill the new pools with it. For my joy there was a lap pool. But for soaking – there are several extensive pools of creative shapes. 
In Ouray we stayed at this Bridal Veil B&B, the left side of the duplex:
It was one of the best B&Bs we ever stayed at! WE had the whole first floor, meaning a bedroom and a bathroom and the entrance hall – how much more can we need. It was quiet, we were fed upstairs with super fancy breakfasts, which were spoiling us tremendously and kicking us out of our healthy eating habits. The owners Connie and Greg were very pleasant and informative. Connie tended for 36 orchids in their home! And Greg is a big hiker and a canioneering specialist. Here are their orchids and Connie’s breakfasts. Each day we had a different orchid on the table matched with the foods and plates served:
The pictures of Ouray are from he Primeter trail. Yes, there is a trail on the edges of the mountains surrounding Ouray. but we had no time to do the whole thing, we did only a part of it (but a scary one) till we reached the falls:
The first evening Andrei went to a hotel with a complicated German name and spent half an hour in their peculiar hot springsￂﾠￂﾠ -they have a cave under the hotel and you can enter it only if you haven’t smoked for 3 months and also if you buy a ticket :-). Smoking was not the reason I didn’t go. I just felt tired. Saved my energy for tomorrow’s swimming in the main hot sprigs pool!
Here are some pictures of Ouray town:
The building on the right is an opera house! Here is the interior of the hotel we see on the left:
We did some more hiking on the last morning, but very little, so much more is left for another time!
Very big crevices in Colorado, I would say – they are scary to those who have sensitivity to it. We also drove to Silverton for a short visit, but that is in another post!
2017- Colorado – Crested Butte
Very soon after you pass Peonia laying in its beautiful valley, you enter the mining area of Colorado. After you pass a big coal mine you turn right onto a dirt road. But a well maintained road, recently spread with oil. Ane here you are-ￂﾠ Colorado mountains:
It is 30 miles to Crested Butte on that road. But at first we turned towards Irvin Lake Campground to secure a place to sleep. Our camp place #20 had this view:
What can be more beautiful?
So we took pictures of this small lake in the evening, in the morning and sat by it consuming its beauty! But as always in life-ￂﾠ nothing is for free. That campground had smelly toilets and a lot of mosquitoes! And no running drinking water or any water except the lake. The price – $18 per night. So we didn’t waste our time and drove down to Crested Butte to see the town and the Wildflower festival. This is what our car was showing on the way down, we never saw it before:
I will point- almost 200 miles per gallon of gas! Our little Prius-ￂﾠ we love it! WE saw the town, but we didn’t see the festival :-).ￂﾠ As there was an abundance of non-wild flowers in town – we didn’t miss it.:
As you can see – there was no lack of flowersￂﾠ and lots of them reminded me of my garden in Lithuania, especially this pink old fashioned flower that my Grandma loved:
All in all Crested Butte seemed to me one of the most attractive towns in Colorado. Funny as it s-ￂﾠ there is a distillery of Rum – the bring sugar canes from somewhere South to this little town crested amid mountains and peaks – and make alcohol, an interesting business venture. And you can sample the rum for free! 
The other reason I liked Crested Butte most of all -there was a number of peculiar shops, especially this one where Asian antiques were mingling with SteamPunk art:
Again – flowers and flowers.ￂﾠ 
Also – this town attracted several families form Nepalￂﾠ -therefore two-or three Nepaleseￂﾠ restaurants! Here is the Nepalese waitress we liked so much:
Whatever was left of the day we wanted to hike a little. So we drove towards where the hikes are. Andrei prepared to find them form the internet.ￂﾠ 
CRested Butte is considered a wild flower capital of Colorado, but from our small experience – nothing beats Alta area in Utah in that sense: 
They likeￂﾠ signs like this. It sais No Parking Waiting, picking up From Now and Forever…It makes hiking long 🙂 
Doesn’t this lake look like is is bending? 
And the flowers are wilting, for it was a big droughtￂﾠ then:
I love this picture:
Then we returned to our campground and started the fire to bake potatoes and Andrei’s sausages:
As I couldn’t pick the nicest picture of ‘our” lake-ￂﾠ I several of them for your judgement-ￂﾠ in the evening, in the morning:
ￂﾠ 
ￂﾠ 
They looked like little tulips by the lake… And the last pic of CB:
2017 -Colorado, from Utah to Paonia
Here in Southern Utah this summer is super hot. Being a temperature freak I register the top and bottom temperatures every day for 7 years. And they are rising… So to get some relief from this heat we did our usual once a week big irrigation, arranged some friends to irrigate sensitive areas and tomatoes in between the week and left for a 6 day trip towards the Colorado mountains. It is not a short trip. It took us a day and a half to get to the first views of them. As we left after 4pmￂﾠ – we reached Calf Creek campground just a little East from Escalante town close to the sunset. On the way we checked if there are vacancies in Escalante motels, there were. Because usually the Calf Creek campground is full. This time it wasn’t, plenty of beautiful places with the creek making its soothing sound all through the quiet night. Yes, it was a hot day, a hot night, but bearably hot. So funnyￂﾠ -I am taking out our sleeping bags and all from the tent-ￂﾠ and the bottom of it where the mattresses were is hot! Here is our campground:
The next day the driving was beautiful – again on Rt 12 -the very scenic Utah route, we passed through Boulder with its bird paradise lake, walked by it for a little rest:
and then through Capitol Reef NP to Green River where everybody refuels and has lunch and further to Grand Junction. All the time temperatures outside were soaringￂﾠ -up to 107F. So we didn’t even stop in any store , anywhere on our way except when we got to a cute town Hotchkiss. A book store with sculptures in front of it caught my attention:
Because we were already tired, we stopped at the first motel that was on our way, Hotchkiss Lodge:
It was a motel with breakfast, all clean, welcoming and owned by a Polish couple. There I looked that they are already have views of lower mountains. And the night there was already not hot at all, alas! The next day we drove towards Crested Butte via a small town Paonia and were stunned to see that some new Gaudi is living there:ￂﾠ 
There are creative people all over, not only in clusters, and that made me happy! There were also different kind of collections of transportation or agriculture devices:
And so we proceeded towards Crested Butte, where the Wild flower festival was expected.
Thailand 2017 – from Sukhotai to BKK and home
Sukhotai airport demands a separate blog. It was beyond all expectations. We decided not to suffer a long trip in a bus and to fly 1 h flight to Bangkok with Bangkok airlines. Good. But the airport was peculiarly far away form the Old and New cities – it took us an hour with a taxi shuttle, which picks you at your hotel. Once we came closer to it- I saw this temple shining in all its grandeur:
Then the airport seemed to be something not regular – it had gardens, elaborate flower beds, semi precious stones, sculptures, wood creations and more. But they only bring you there half hour before your flight-ￂﾠ when to find time to see all that abundance of interesting things. There were also cafeterias, but I didn’t see a hotel – lots of questions started vibrating in my head – why all of that?
Those decorative chairs seemed to be made form some jungle tree roots, I guess they are brought from somewhere far away…
Table and chairs form semipreciousￂﾠ stones:
The museum of religions and Buddhism: 
A small copy of Ankgor Wat: 
And ancient kiln: 
So I asked the only guy who spoke English and was standing by the check-in counter – who built all this and why? have in mind – that the airport serves only 3 flights a day.ￂﾠ He explainedￂﾠ – a rich doctor had a dream to build all those beauties and he did it. The Airways belong toￂﾠ his company as well as the airport-town. I bet that doctor is a really good one and his patients are Americans :-). But what a wonderful dream to have and to have it fulfilled! I will never forget it. What a generous doctor – to share his dream with others. We tried to count- there are no profits from this enterprise to him at all/ Once we entered the secure zone – there was a buffet table all covered with drinks and finger foods. Then in that 1 h flight we were fed well, and one ticket costed $40…Even the side of runway all the way was planted with flowers:
From rags to riches. that how the saying goes. We flew from riches to rags. Bangkok airport was very crowded, then the Dwell hotel shuttle took us to the hotel, which is the closest to the airport and most praised on the internet. Yes, the hotel itself was nice and modern and had a free shuttle service to BKK airport:
But look at the surroundings…It is in a swamp, literally. where people dump their stuff. Nevertheless we, being big walkers, walked some 1.5 mi to where there was civilization and a market to buy some spices. Our receptionist widened her eyes when we said we are going for a walk. But – we saw a beautiful sunset, it wasn’t scary at all and had a good farewell with Thailand!
Thailand 2017 – Sukhotai
We have been to Sukhotai once many years ago andￂﾠ already posted some photos of it then. But then I didn’t see much of it for I was not feeling well and Andrei was completely bed bound by his meniscus problem, so we decided to visit again the ancient Thai capital, one of them :-), and see what is left of it. So we took a bus from Phrae and in three hours or so we were in New Sukhotai. While on the road from the front top seatￂﾠ the views were not bad:
So from New Sukhotai we had to get to the Old one. That is where all the ruins are mostly concentrated. And that was a little tricky. Just a little There was a songthai waiting for us and we expected it to go the the Old town. But it started doing round trips on the highway, as sometimes they like to do, and then stopped in teh center of the New town to wait for more tourists. After a long trip on a bus I get impatient, my problem. So once we came to the Old town, which is half hour awayￂﾠ -we checked into the Old Town Guesthouse by sentiment. Yes, it is in perfect location, the closest to the biggest ruins and restaurants and all. It looks also very authentic and inviting. And last time we had a room in a one story section, that was a perfect room. This time the room was OK, but the noise…Not a big noise, but as i noticed – all rooms in one section of the hotel are separated only by a thin board wall and we could hear everything from 2 rooms on both sides-ￂﾠ even the cracking of a plastic bag…Not speaking about a lot of French talk, and when you don’t understand a word – it gets annoying :-).ￂﾠ That evening we rushed to see the main part of the ancient capital, and to admire the sunset there and also something unexpected. Those ruins are mostly the temples and Chedis, because everything else was not built from sturdy materials and perished. And lots of them are restored and turned into a well preserved and cared park:
What an interestingￂﾠ tree – such a long and horizontal branch like a tentacle of a giant squid:
One temple there was built by Khmers -ￂﾠ in Ankgor Wat style:
Andrei is intensively photographing: 
So we walked and we walked and enjoyed what we saw. As Thailand is mostly on swamps there are many ponds to catch the excess water and also to use it in the dry seasonￂﾠ -which we experienced – it is very dry in winter!ￂﾠ Those ponds were so good for reflections!
Here is a monument for the last King that Thaisￂﾠ were still mourning:
The Chedis in a for of upside bell are considered built in the Shri Lankan style: 
And here is what we didn’t expectￂﾠ -out Saturday surprise – we noticed little clay pots with candles set here and there on the ruins – once the sun satￂﾠￂﾠ -some guys very fast ran around them and lit themￂﾠ – it was like magic: 
My advice – try to be in Sukhotai on Saturday, only then they lit the candles. The eve we visited the shops and restaurants that we remembered from last time. enjoyed the foods we liked last time and planned where to stay the next nights. Because of scarce availability we ended up staying one night in Thai Thai Sukhotai resort and then the last 2 nights in Sawadee Sukhotai Resort. Bot were very good! They ae not very close to the ruins. You have to take a taxi to get there, but they are all in one cluster and there are some restaurants close by. But stillￂﾠ -to get to the man part of the town you have to walk on a busy highway or drive a bike or take a taxi. But everything else was super! Here are the receptionists,ￂﾠ the corridor of Tai Tai Sukhotai and its pool:
But the next morning we didn’t waste our time – we rented bikes and drove to another part of the ancient capital with other but similar ruins andￂﾠ views:
This one has a lot of elephants at the bottom. 
A peculiar tree – no leaves, just blooms: 
Toￂﾠ think about how many people worked with good intentions to make so many bricks. then to build so many structures, and then how they admired their temples, how they prayed and felt their hearts uplifted…To me those ancient temples are still emanating pleasant and positive energy, but you can argue :-). 
Here we found a garden with newly built temples. It had peculiar sayings written on trees.ￂﾠ One read: “Facts are stubborn things”.
Then there was another Temple area:ￂﾠ 
And very slim cows – but there was a lot of grass… 
The last two days and nights we spent in the Sawadee Resort cottage, and that was beyond amazing! I can’t recommend it more! Both resorts served wonderful buffet breakfasts, both had super nice staff, but to have your own cottage in a spacious manicured garden with views to the fields and far away mountains-ￂﾠ nothing beats that!
The housekeepers: 
The gardener:
Elephants everywhere: 
The poolￂﾠ – in the hot weather it was perfect to have a chance to swim:
The last day we again drove bikes around the town, through farming fields, saw remnants of temples here and there – it had been a big city in a big kingdom:
THat evening glow was so amazing all the 4 evenings we were there! It reminded me of my childhood summer eves in Lithuania, minus the ruins :-):
Poor cows…This bullￂﾠ -maybe they raise it for its ears…
Here it was a shocking experience. There is a pond and a temple on the island in it in the very center of Old town. So we walked, looked at the Buddha foot there, then walked towards the water edgeￂﾠ because of some noise – those catfish were eating with chop-chop sounds and so many of them, they were crawling all over – plain unbelievable! No wonder there were so many fried catfish for sale in the farmers market. 
How beautifully the roots have overgrown an old structure: 
Andrei’s pet: 
Thailand 2017 – Phrae
Phrae in tourist books is described as a Thai analog to Luang Prabang in Laos. And also as a town of super nice people. How can you resist such descriptions while it was also on our way to Sukhotai. There are lots of buses going that direction belonging to at least three companies. We picked a big fancy double-Decker and got the very front top seats. It was a beautiful 3 h drive. Unlike than in Phayo -there were taxi drivers waiting for us at the station and we were taken to our hotelￂﾠ with a strange name Come Moon. Seems like Thai people were studying English but didn’t learn well enough. But were smart and skillful enough to build a really good hotel! Two stories only not sticking out from the surrounding old style buildings, but with a modern zest!
Steel glass and concrete! And very very grey, oh it looked good with any color you bring into the room: 
Very good for rest, for cooling off after our usual long walks and this time – bike rides. And it had breakfastￂﾠ -some dishes were traditional Thai, like breakfast soup, some were American – like toasts and jam and fruit. I so much recommend this place for your stay there! “Come Moon”ￂﾠ -and only $22/night, how can they pay off their building… The location is perfectￂﾠ -just immediately behind the moat and the surrounding wall, in a quiet neighborhood and there was even a pizza place which we didn’t notice the first afternoon. Yes, we came, settled and felt so hungry, so we ran towards the center in search for food and because we were so hungry – evidently we couldn’t see well, so we missed a couple of restaurants. then reached the center where they were closing early with the idea that everybody eats at the so called Night market – if a town is not touristy, then do not expect dozens of restaurants around you like in Chang Mai. Locals like to eat out. And they jump onto their motorcycles and drive to the Night market which opens way before darkness comes. They are so not eager to cook at home, that lots of them drive to buy already cooked food for their families that they get packed into plastic bags! and drive home to eat. Yes, hot food in plastic bags, hard to comprehend…Poor people, they need some education. We ate there from paper plates. That is better. But as many street foods as we experienced – nothing beats the Sunday Market in Chang Mai, nothing. Here those would be my signature pictures of Phrae:
As we figured out the next day – the best way to walk there is not the direct route to the center, but on side streets, especially the ones that led us by the remnants of the ancient city wall and the moat. In some places there is a path to walk on that hill that the city wall was built on. From there the view towards numerous temples was amazing, and also for the sunset. And yes, there were lots of temples like in Luang Prabang, but unlike in Luang Prabangthey they were scattered, not on some main drag, and also – there was no touristy flair as in LP, which creates some celebratory holiday atmosphere. As for the people – they were the same nice as in other cities or towns, they are Thais, that is why we go and enjoy their country and their hospitality, their patience and putting up with us!
In one of the yards I saw those horses made from driftwood – they reminded me Tamra’s horses in her yard in our Town Rockville. Which reminded me that we are all the same, very much the same, people of this planet. Even our tastes, aesthetics, methods of creating coincide, being from so far apart! 
Here are not one but two crematoriums, of which we haven’t seen non till we reached this part of the country. They usually have them here in a remote temple garden with some dining spaces for the relatives who, as we noticed usually celebrate their deceased while his or hers spirit is flying out a chimney.
We spent three nights there which means we had two full days and were not bored at all. During mid day it is better to stay home and read for the heat is scorching. But mornings and evenings were glorious! We drove on bikes to the river which is not very spectacular, but it is a river:
WE especially enjoyed this temple with lots of shooting towards the sky decors. To give you the size of the reclining Buddha I sat by his side: 
Maybeￂﾠ I took too many pictures of this architectural concept of striving for the Absolute or becoming Buddha or Bodhisattva, or at least sending your wishes to the Universeￂﾠ – but I couldn’t help myself, it was so plain beautiful!
In the temple – here is what we saw – flags made from 5 20baht money bills dangling from the ceiling – the way of raising money in an aesthetic way: 
There were many other temples, there were also prominent old houses with a lot of wood carving decors, so cozy, so pleasant:
This a different Chedi, not like Iￂﾠ showed before. But my aiming was not good: 
As we all know the sunset brings out warm orange glow onto surfaces-ￂﾠ this time a bunch of totem poles and a big tree:
This a a rather strange temple by a busy street. It looks like this from the back:ￂﾠ 
Then you take off your shoes, climb with care (low ceiling) one of the 3 staircases, turn around and find yourself in front of this: 
I happened to be there at the exact time that my aunt in Lithuania was being buried, a sad situation for me, so I lit a special candle for her, at least… 
Here it shows how Thais revere their prominent monks who have reached the Buddha or Bodhisattva state and have done good deeds for their people. Going on a bike we could see more temples on the outskirts, or this close to the bus station, which was all wood and as in old times it was still used for crafts, weaving, embriodering, umbrella making, etc:
I can’t issue a blog without at least one flower picture :-): 
Here is only one small pat of a long , very long fresco in one of the temples. Usually they have frescoes not in the main building, but in the side walls that enclose the temple gardens. This one was interesting to me because it described all their celebrations through the year, especially the full moon and the figures in it were all in motion, all vivid: 
