the blog

Wat Chiang Man: The Oldest Temple in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Temples are everywhere in Chiang Mai; there are more than 300 scattered throughout the walled Old City, surrounding neighborhoods, and into the nearby mountains. While they’re all worth visiting, these three stood out to me the most. This post is part of a short series featuring some of my favorite temples in
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Wat Pha Lat: A Hidden Jungle Temple in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Chiang Mai is a city of temples. In fact, there are more than 300 Buddhist temples scattered throughout the old city, surrounding neighborhoods and nearby mountains. While they’re all worth visiting, three stood out to me the most. This article is part of a short series featuring some of my favorite temples
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Where Bloggers Live: Glimmers: Life’s Little Miracles

Welcome! “Where Bloggers Live” started out kind of like HGTV’s “Celebrities at Home,” but…with bloggers! We all like to peek behind the scenes and see inside people’s homes, interests, and lives, so every month this wonderful  family of amazing women shares their work-spaces, homes, towns, and thoughts, with posts based on specific
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That Time I Took A Thai Cooking Class

On the agenda: a Thai cooking class with my TikTok friend, who’s in Chiang Mai for a week. These classes are everywhere here…half- or full-day sessions run by local cooking schools. Some are even accredited; enroll long-term and you can qualify for Thailand’s “soft power” (DTV) student visa. Thailand promotes its soft
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Life This Week in Chiang Mai, Thailand: Jan 26-Feb 1, 2026

Monday, Jan 26 Kept things pretty simple today…and just toodled over to a coffee shop that I realized is very close to me. It’s called Double Eleven and it’s on the first floor of the other condo in this 2-condo condo complex. It was small but neat. Empty, except for The Guy, who I
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Life This Week in Chiang Mai, Thailand: Jan 19-25, 2026

Monday, Jan 19 For dinner I went to Kao Soi Nimmin, a charming indoor/outdoor restaurant with lush ferns and tropical plants, the omnipresent Thai lanterns blowing gently in the light evening breeze, and a mouth-watering menu book. I wanted to taste their specialty, Kao Soi, the Northern Thai dish I’ve had here
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Life This Week in Chiang Mai, Thailand: Jan 11-18, 2026

Monday, Jan 11 Intentionally did not do anything fun today. I wanted to spend The Day catching up on Thai vocab and grammar. Some things are just not sticking with me. It’s a very tonal language…which means the way you say the word is as important as the word itself, and they really
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Life This Week in Chiang Mai Thailand: Jan 6-10, 2026

Tuesday, Jan 6 Today was mellow. I had my first in-person Thai class in the early evening, so I stayed in, worked a bit, finished a book – just enjoyed being a retired person. I got to class early, but it was okay as there is a little coffee shop next door
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Life This Week+ in Chiang Mai Thailand: Jan 1-5, 2026

I’m Over Here Now! Since these were the longest 10 days in history, I made an executive decision and cut this post in half, so this is Part 1 and Part 2 will go up in a few days. It said it was 28 minutes reading time at its full length. Ain’t
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Life These Weeks in Japan: December 15-31, 2025

Grab a snack, this is long. Monday, Dec 15 A not thrilling day. I went first thing in the morning to the local Yamato (Japanese UPS) office to find out about getting my package redelivered. I had to taxi there since all the Google Maps options were like “Train A to Train
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Life This Week in Japan: Dec 8-14, 2025

Monday, Dec 8 When we last saw our hero, she was sleeping in Kyoto in a room with no windows. I got up pretty early to head over to Kyoto’s Gion district. It’s the city’s most famous geisha area; originally a cluster of teahouses serving visitors to Yasaka Shrine, but over time
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Life This Week in Japan: Dec 1-7, 2025

Monday, Dec 1 A stay at home day. I finally sorted through my piles of plastic into the appropriate recycling categories: burnable, non-burnable, regular plastic, PET plastic…removed all the labels, crushed the cans and bottles. Trash disposal is even more complicated/labor-intensive here than it was in Korea. Tuesday, Dec 2 Just sort
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Where Bloggers Live: Best of 2025

Welcome! “Where Bloggers Live” started out kind of like HGTV’s “Celebrities at Home,” but…with bloggers! We all like to peek behind the scenes and see inside people’s homes, interests, and lives, so every month this wonderful  family of amazing women shares their work-spaces, homes, towns, and thoughts, with posts based on specific
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Life This Week in Japan: Nov 10-16, 2025

Monday, Nov 10 Highlights of the Day: Getting a Costco rotisserie chicken delivered to my door Putting a second comforter on while I lay in bed listening to my audiobook – it was so cozy! I struggled with the trash separation. Japan is as anal about trash separation and recycling as Korea…but
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Where Bloggers Live: Choosing Sides (literally) on Thanksgiving

Welcome! “Where Bloggers Live” started out kind of like HGTV’s “Celebrities at Home,” but…with bloggers! We all like to peek behind the scenes and see inside people’s homes, interests, and lives, so every month this wonderful  family of amazing women shares their work-spaces, homes, towns, and thoughts, with posts based on specific
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Life This Week in Japan: Nov 3-9, 2025

Monday, Nov 3 My “rule” for myself when traveling is when I get someplace new I get two days to rest, recover, veg, sleep, whatever my mind and body need. Traveling is exhausting always, but going to a totally new place is…oofah. So, while yesterday I really just rested, today I (after
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This Week in San Antonio & Japan: Oct 27-Nov 2, 2025

Monday, Oct 27 Well, THAT was an annoying day 🙁 Trying to get a refund from ebay…cancelling some things…emailed the Japanese Powers That Be about my application to bring Wellbutrin, because I have never heard back and when I looked at the website today it said my application could not be found!
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