happy thanksgiving!

Woke up in Chiang Mai on a perfect Thanksgiving Day. Our hotel is so peaceful it will be hard to leave to go look for beads…harder yet to leave the breakfast buffet.

We have made progress in the shopping arena: spent most of Wed in Hang Dong (wood working town about 30 min south west of Chiang Mai,) viewing every craft that was ever made in Thailand for the past 1000 years. Did you know Thomas the Engine was first developed in Northern Thailand?

This was not to be a container trip but as usual one finds something they can not live without….this time cool décor items with a Burmese flair. Heading back to negotiate on Sat afternoon. I’ll buy the collection piecemeal and when I save enough I can ship it all home ….Or if everyone reading this blog sends $1.00 we can ship sooner.

The night Market has been a source for true inspirations….finding the gal that has a “Sundance style” and a guy who does leather bracelets and our favorite Tee-shirt so far. Can’t tell you what it states ‘cause it will wreck a gift or two and possibly offend you. We are not offended, but we are from New Jersey.

Forgot to mention from day one….waiting in Tokyo to board the last leg  of the trip, an elder gentlemen sat down next to us …we struck up a chat and it turned out he raised his family in Pitman, New Jersey…Amy and Sally’s home town. Small town and small, small world…he was on his way to Burma to help with building a school. Very cool. He would be offended by Our new favorite Tee-shirt.

Today is silver sample day. Silver is hovering at $18.50 an ounce, which means you all pay more. All the same we’ll see what styles are available. One of my suppliers that I have worked with for the past 20 years has opened a restaurant….guess you can’t eat silver. We are to have dinner there on Friday evening. …more on that later.

Our new favorite way to get back and forth from the breakfast buffet (and one morning the gym!) is to play ninja behind the giant ceramic pots in the courtyard.  If you are lucky we will post the video!