Wat Phra That Lampang Luang

It was a very hot day!

 My daughter, Felicia

A beautiful sight but the smell of the horse dung is awful!

 Trying to place the coin upright

 That's my coin in the centre

The Wat Phra That Lampang Luang is a Lanna-style Buddhist temple situated in the province of Lampang, about 100km south-east of Chiang Mai. Wat Phra That Lampang Luang's literal translation is Temple (Wat) of Buddha Relic (Phra That) of Lampang (Lampang Luang is the old name of Lampang). We stopped at this temple on the way back to Sankhaburi to offer our prayers and to get more blessings! 

Night Bazaar @ Chiang Mai

 My godson, Jacky

 A young street performer

 Street artist at work

 That's my foot!

We arrived at this particular Night Bazaar at around 4.00pm this afternoon when all the vendors were just starting to set up their stalls. This is not an ideal time to visit as the weather was hot and humid and I thought all these while that the weather in Chiang Mai would be cool! However when night falls, the Night Bazaar suddenly came to life as more and more tourists started coming and the streets became very crowded. You can loiter here for hours as the place is huge and we even had a 30 minutes foot massage on the foot path for THB90-00 to relieve our tired legs. We left the Night Bazaar at around 9.30pm after dinner at a Thai restaurant located along the street.

Visit to a Strawberry Farm @ Chiang Mai

 You can try the samples first before buying

 No strawberries to pick!

 Strawberry field

 The stalls at the bottom of the hill where the strawberries were sold

In Chiang Mai, wherever you wish to go will take you ages as most of the tourist attractions are far apart! This particular strawberry farm up in the mountains in Mae Rim District is no different as it took us almost an hour to reach there. You are allowed to take photos but will be charged if you pick the strawberries at the farm. Anyway, there's not much strawberries on the plants itself but there's a lot of big, ripe strawberries at the stalls at the bottom of the hill; wondered where those strawberries came from! 

Royal Sankampaeng Hot Springs

The public foot bath

My godson, Jacky, peeling away at the quail egg

Here you can hang the eggs (in a straw basket) onto the hooks on the edge of the pond to cook the eggs

 This sign indicates how long you should cook your eggs

Today, we visited the Royal Sankampaeng Hot Springs in Chiang Mai. Getting there wasn't much of a problem as we hired a commuter van from Sankhaburi complete with a driver for three days. The van costs us THB2,000 per day excluding fuel. The entrance fee to the hot springs is THB100 per person and we also bought some quail eggs to be boiled later at the hot springs. There were numerous souvenir shops and Thai massage centres in the vicinity of the hot springs itself. We only soaked our feet in the public foot bath which was free! But I can certainly attest to the benefits of this hot springs as the mosquito bite on my foot felt much better after the foot bath!

Humanitarian Aid to Limbang Flood Victims

Mr. James Lee, PWM President

 Volunteers from HEART

 TYT with volunteers from the various associations

 TYT greeted by YB Paulus Palu Ngumbang at Kuala Lurah

 Press conference at District Office, Limbang

 TYT with YB Dato Sri Dr. James Dawos Mamit 

 Symbolic handover of donations

 Hosted lunch at Musbee Cafe

Yesterday morning, Pusat Belia dan Sukan (the organizers), Persatuan Warganegara Malaysia (PWM), Persatuan Kereta Tahan Lasak Brunei (PKTLB) and Humanitarian Emergency Aid Response Team (HEART), gathered at Pusat Belia (Youth Centre) to prepare for the despatch of humanitarian aid, consisting mostly of foodstuff and bottled water, to Limbang via a convoy of fifteen 4x4 vehicles from PKTLB. His Excellency, Datuk Hj Ag Sahak bin Hj Ag Salleh (TYT), the Malaysian High Commissioner to Brunei Darussalam and Mr. James Lee, the President of PWM also accompanied the convoy. We were welcomed by YB Paulus Palu Ngumbang, a State Assembly member from Batu Danau at Kuala Lurah and proceeded to Limbang where a press conference and briefing was conducted at the District Office. The Deputy Minister of Resources and Environment, YB Dato Sri Dr. James Dawos Mamit also flew in from Kuching to attend the press conference and gave us an insight into the flood situation in Limbang. After the press conference, we were also invited to lunch at a nearby cafe. If I had known that there's going to be a press conference and hosted lunch, I would not have gone in my shorts!