CMHomeboy78

Chiang Mai isn't a very good place to buy professional quality artists' materials. There are a number of places selling art supplies, but what they have is for the most part student grade.

Mineral powder pigments could be obtained from industrial supply houses. They might be suitable for certain types of craftwork, but they would be too coarsely ground for fine arts use.

Are dry pigments necessary for your work? If you could use tube oil colours instead, Lefranc&Bourgeois are available at Udompon [sign in Thai] on Ratwithi near the UN Irish Pub.

Blanc de Meudon I have never seen here. If you need it as an ingredient for making gesso, then perhaps you could substitute good quality plaster of paris, which is easy to find - even in hardware stores.

Good luck with your projects.

What is by consensus the best quality frame shop in Chiang Mai also sells prints.

Ao Framing

121/3-4 Chang Lo. A. Muang.

Located opposite Suan Prung Gate at the intersection of Tippanet Road.

You are in the right place to buy Burma Jadeite.

Chiang Mai and the Burmese border markets have an excellent selection. It comes from the mines in the Hpakan region of Upper Burma.

If you know something about what you are buying and have some bargaining skills you can get good quality jade at reasonable prices.

With a 10X loupe you will be able to see right away if what you are looking at is real stone. The presence of minute bubbles would indicate glass, plastic, or some sort of synthetic. Real jade of the kind used for ordinary jewellery usually has variations in colour, veins, and inclusions that are readily apparent under magnification.

Burma Jadeite is harder than steel, so a knife won't scratch it. Weight is another indication - it is noticeably heavier than glass or plastic.

Detailed information about ways that its colour and translucency can be enhanced can be found online. Although I don't know if there is a quick and easy way that can be detected by the buyer. Jade is usually dipped in wax as a final finishing step. This is considered a normal trade practice.

Caveat emptor and choke dee.

There's a glut of everything in Chiang Mai. Condos, housing projects, shopping malls, shop houses, DIY superstores. The list goes on.

Did I miss anything? Oh yes, a severe lack of infrastructure, planning & public transportation. But who cares about those

Agreed... too much of everything at present.

I think the condos and housing projects will eventually find buyers if the population continues to increase. That is, if they are attractive places to live and within commuting distance from the city.

The glut of shop houses is something else. The concrete boxes that serve as residences above the commercial units on the ground floor are undesirable places to live, in most cases. The primary selling point would have to be their potential as shops or businesses.

They make up much of the urban sprawl that encircles Chiang Mai and are an unwelcome change from the rice fields, orchards, and market gardens that they replaced.

What became the first circus elephant in America was originally purchased by a Somers, New York farmer named Hachaliah Bailey in 1805. He intended to use the elephant for farm work, but it attracted so much interest that he decided to take it on tour throughout the northeast.

Bailey, with other family members, added a menagerie of exotic animals and the American circus was born.

Hachaliah Bailey's grandson went into partnership with the flamboyant showman P.T.Barnum in 1881 to create the Barnum & Bailey Circus. This in turn was bought out by the Ringling brothers in 1907 and renamed the Ringling Brothers - Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows.

The removal of elephants from the show ends an era that started in the small town of Somers in 1805.

I thought that no harm can ever come upon Indiana Jones.

I like the man very much and I wish a speedy recovery for him.

So do I.

He has a ranch near my brother's place in Wyoming.

The local people out there seem to like him. He has a good reputation.

Get well soon.

On my last trip a German friend took me to the Sunday brunch at the Auf der Au in Saraphi, just south of the intersection of the 121 and the 106. It was one of the best western food buffets I've encountered in the region consisting almost entirely of German food and the hostess was charming. The place was packed with jovial Germans who clearly made this spot a weekly meeting place. I don't think I could do it more than once a month as it took me a few days to recover as the food was that good. They also have the same buffet Friday and Saturday nights.

And yes, in town, the Bierstube still has lots of German dishes on their extensive menu, and you won't find a friendlier restaurant in town.

Disclaimer: I am not German

Bierstube may have "lots of German dishes on their extensive menu" but sadly the food is crap. You will rarely see any German Expats there, maybe a few German tourists who stumble upon the place while roaming around the Tapae tourist-trap Area. The good German restaurants in CM that have been mentioned by others here already are all far away from downtown and need own wheels to get there. Though the reward coming out from the kitchen may well be worth it....

For sure... get out of the tourist areas.

The trip out to Doi Saket/San Kampaeng is well worth it to eat at the G&M Restaurant.

A facetious remark has been made about Gunther, the owner, who has been in Chiang Mai for well over 30 years.

Yes, he tipples now and then, but he's a great guy and very friendly.

Another one of us drinkers who have a slight working problem.

Why does it need to be a foreign cemetery?

The church I attend in Pattaya operates a cemetery and repository for cremation urn. It's intended for people who are members of the denomination, but certainly not restricted to foreigners.

You might check on cemetery arrangements through whatever religious establishment matches your needs ,,, if any. In my case, the burial plot is for 30 years, after which, if the space is needed, whatever is left of me could get the heave-ho, although there are present;y a number of graves over 30 years old.

In 1898 King Rama V granted a plot of land to Chiang Mai's resident Western foreign community. The plot was placed into the care of the resident British Consul. The plot was to be used as a graveyard for foreigners and was granted under two conditions, the plot may never be sold and only foreigners may be buried there.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=2221799

Thanks for the link that includes the interesting - and somewhat unsettling - information that "...over a quarter of the burials are 21st century interments..."

Even the cemetery is becoming overcrowded.

The photo of the Queen Victoria statue is the best I've ever seen. I always like to imagine what she looked like in her original location at the old British Consulate among well-tended gardens and fruit trees on the Ping River.

Roy Hudson, in a 1980 preface to R.W.Wood's De Mortuis told how the statue came to Chiang Mai:

"A recent addition to the cemetery has been a monument in memory of Queen Victoria [1819-1901] which stood for many years by the gate of the old British Consulate in Chiang Mai. The monument consists of a bronze statue of Queen Victoria on a square column and plinth. An inscribed marble plaque records that the monument was erected by 'British subjects of every race residing in Northern Siam'. The statue was cast in England and consigned by sea to Bangkok. When it became apparent that the ship would not arrive in time for the statue to be brought up [by river in those days] to Chiang Mai in time for the traditional Christmas meeting of the forest companies, a telegram was dispatched requesting that the statue be offloaded in Rangoon, Burma. From there it was sent by rail up north, and then transported by various means, including elephants and pack mules through the Shan States and over rivers, hills and the border to arrive in Chiang Mai in time for the unveiling ceremony in December 1903. After the British Consulate was closed in 1978, the statue was moved to its new location at the northern apex of the Chiang Mai Foreign Cemetery."

Long may she remain there... I just hope she doesn't get crowded out anytime soon.

Weren't the sculptures that were recently returned to Cambodian museums from this collection identified as fakes?

If the artwork put up for sale at this auction is also of questionable provenance, then the whole thing will descend into farce.

The blind leading the blind, and the corrupt ripping-off the corrupt.

I hope she can escape from the real criminals.

No chance of that.

She's one of them. They're all family.

Some confusion here...

Red Hook, New York is a town in Dutchess County on the Hudson River. I'm quite familiar with the area myself, having grown up near the Hudson Highlands.

Red Hook, Brooklyn - where the restaurant is located - is a neighbourhood in that borough. It played a significant role during the Revolution, and was the site of Fort Defiance and extensive earthworks facing New York Bay.

From the 1920s to the the 1960s it was the busiest freight port in the world. It was also one of the toughest hoods in NY, producing thugs as diverse as Al Capone, Norman Mailer, and Busta Rhymes. Marlon Brando's film 'On the Waterfront' made it well known to people who otherwise wouldn't have gone anywhere near it.

In recent years it has undergone some gentrification and the Khao Soy Restaurant seems to be part of that trend. Even during its worst years it was famous for what many consider to be the best pizza in New York.

Buon appetito!

Rememberable.

It's a politically driven prosecution most likely.

Que bono.

Thanks, CMHomeboy. I've read two other of Wyatt' histories but was unaware until now of The Chiang Mai Chronicle. Bought a copy this morning at the Suriwong Book Centre on Sridonchai.

You're quite welcome.

The palm-leaf chronicles provide a lot of interesting information - albeit sometimes fabulous. They end in the 1820s.

Systematic and credible history writing began with the farangs who took up residence in Chiang Mai beginning in the mid-19th century.

The Rev.Daniel McGilvary's A Half Century Among the Siamese and the Lao. 1912 [reprint White Lotus 2001], could be recommended. The British railway surveyor, Holt Hallett's A Thousand Miles on an Elephant in the Shan States. 1890 [reprint White Lotus 1988], is another first-person account dealing with events that took place in Lanna T'ai during the late 19th century that led to the loss of sovereignty and dominance by the central government in Bangkok.

Silkworm, White Lotus, and Oxford in Asia have reprinted many texts that are relevant to Northern Thai history.

Good luck.

New York hands down..

20130301_111817.jpg

To say that, you must have visited or lived there at some time in your life.

Duke's, by consensus, is the best in Chiang Mai, and it is good, but it's just that - good.

Little Italy, Brooklyn, and the Bronx are where the New York Italians make real pizza like nowhere else.

Brooklyn reigns supreme in all the neighbourhoods that haven't become combat zones. Hole-in-the-wall places on Court Street... Frank Sinatra's favorite under the elevated approaches to the Brooklyn Bridge. He used to have it delivered when he was staying at the Plaza. The delivery boys could always count on a C-Note as a tip.

That's pizza, baby.

She has been very quiet since the vote....though for some reason this is the only Poster of the Year thread still open.

She and David48 ran off to Cambodia together.

You're not old enough to remember Aimee Semple McPherson, are you?

You are living in this country and you are asking if you should learn the language?

Back in your own country, I bet you insist that foreigners should learn your language if they want to live there?

What is different here?

Or it's the usual thing.........everybody in this world should speak my language......I'm not going to do the slightest effort to learn theirs as they are beneath me?

What you are missing?

Everything, as you can't communicate with the native people and you will never know about them.

But don't worry it's always TVF to bash them on, as you will never understand them.

Excellent post, Costas. Insightful and concise.

To me, you are the real P.O.T.Y.

They were also extensively used by the Thai government in the fight against the Thai communists, because the Thai military were pretty well useless - -- seems nothing much changes.

Your statement that "...the Thai military were pretty well useless..." in the fight against Communists is untrue and shouldn't go unchallenged.

When I first came here in the late 1970s large areas of the North and Northeast were controlled by Communist insurgents. The border regions of Laos and Cambodia were no-go areas. They were just outside Nan, and as close to Chiang Mai as Samoeng.

Thai Army units and BPP rangers throughout the 1980s fought courageously against this threat until the Communists were decisively defeated in the early '90s.

Your uninformed comment is an insult to the thousands of Thai soldiers - including two from my wife's family - who lost their lives in the fighting.

Without setting out to re-write history or to go over known facts, the Thai military didn't decisively defeat the communists, by the time the military finally got on top there were only a few handful's of active communist fighters left. The "defeat" as you like to call it, came from improved economic and social reforms and other factors aimed at bringing the problem to an end together with input from the very top.

Members of my wife's family also lost their lives in the conflict as did many other people from both sides including the Kuomintang recruited by the Thai's in an effort to bolster the militaries expertise.

You're wrong, the Thai military did indeed decisively defeat the Communist insurgency of the 1970s and 80s.

Economic factors contributed, but the role played by the Thai Army, the BPP, and the Village Defense Volunteers was the most important and shouldn't be minimized.

"Caramel apples or taffy apples are created by dipping or rolling apples-on-a-stick in hot caramel, "

Taffy apples ...that must be the Welsh version...Toffee apple possibly...best "lost in translation" I have seen for at least 2 days

For some weird reason, Taffy in America is Toffee in the UK. Its an aluminIum thing, with a little coloUr thrown in for good measure.

That said, who the hell in Thailnad eats toffee apples? Never seen them. And if so, why on earth would anyone import them into thailand. Its not as though they cant dip an apply in toffee

As a kid growing up in the Northeastern US, taffy and toffee were two different things.

There was taffy, usually white, but sometimes fruit flavored. The best known being from Atlantic City, Saltwater Taffy.

Then there was toffee. Quite similar to taffy, but softer and light brown, with a coffee-like flavor. The best was usually a UK import.

History lesson: They were widely known to be in the pay of, and under the control of the CIA who were using them to try & overthrow Mao. There were 10s of thousands of them from Lao to Burma, and many were killed in skirmishes with the Chinese. Although some (few) were repatriated to Taiwan most were eventually abandoned by the CIA after Nixon got pally with the Chinese and the political wind direction changed. Read Air America or Ravens. You will love them. Learn things you never knew. I am on my third read in the last 15 years.

They were also extensively used by the Thai government in the fight against the Thai communists, because the Thai military were pretty well useless - -- seems nothing much changes.

Your statement that "...the Thai military were pretty well useless..." in the fight against Communists is untrue and shouldn't go unchallenged.

When I first came here in the late 1970s large areas of the North and Northeast were controlled by Communist insurgents. The border regions of Laos and Cambodia were no-go areas. They were just outside Nan, and as close to Chiang Mai as Samoeng.

Thai Army units and BPP rangers throughout the 1980s fought courageously against this threat until the Communists were decisively defeated in the early '90s.

Your uninformed comment is an insult to the thousands of Thai soldiers - including two from my wife's family - who lost their lives in the fighting.

My experience in late November was the same. They willingly accepted a $20 bill and gave me a crisp $10 back as change.

The whole procedure of entering Tachilek is much easier and faster than it used to be. Not only that, the immigration officers - both Thai and Burmese - seem to have received some lessons in basic courtesy, The surliness that was so common before is rarely encountered now, at least by me and the others I've talked to recently.

Jerry Brown is the greatest governor California ever had. Too bad he failed in his bid to be president.

He must have learned a thing or two from his old man. The Jesuits probably taught him some lessons as well.

Then of course there was Linda Ronstadt...