Often tone, volume, and non-verbal clues can increase your understanding of the local activities as you travel.
A composite of several encounters in our first 6 months of this yearlong adventure. 

The pillars and center cap are reminders of the Buddhist sacred elements: Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space. Earth - the large rectangular base. Water - the lotus petals. Fire - the flame tips at the corners. Air - the vase shape. Space - the tapering peak. 

This really was on the way from Vientiane to Luan Probang, Laos. This ferry is built with empty, plastic storage drums and uses the flow of the Nam Xong River to push it from shore to shore along an anchoring cable.  No fuel needed. No moving parts. And low exterior maintenance.

Due to technical and timing conflicts, we have fallen woefully behind in our posting. 
Therefore, we are changing out postings to almost exclusively show photographic images with short captions while seeking to post more days to make up for our almost 2 month backlog.
For those wishing to view narratives, please, friend and/or follow Jane on Facebook as  https://www.facebook.com/jane.henninger  

Today is Don’s Birthday!
I had bought a birthday card for him that I actually knew where it was and had it for the trip, but it was about camping and it was supposed to be when were in New Zealand or Australia. I bought it a good year before the trip. At least I had a card for him.
Today we are taking a Thai cooking class at a farm where they grow some of the produce. We are going to a market before to learn what the local products are. Don loves taking pictures at markets so this will be a good start to his day.

Don woke and returned to the Plaza of the Three Kings for the early morning sunlight to best light the statue. To his surprise a worker was busily placing flower leis and golden sash belts on the statues. This helped bright the scene greatly
After our now standard noodle breakfast, we engaged a local taxi driver to take us outside the ancient city walls with their protective moat to both Wat Umong, the Tunnel Temple, and Wat Sri Suphan, the Silver Temple. After breakfast there were two other Wats I wanted to see. One was the silver wat and the other was outside the old city in caves on the outskirts of Chiang Mai. We got a cab to take us to the cave one and had him wait so he could take us to the one in town.