We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming...

I live and work in Dubai. The land of glitz and glamour, and today while I was at work, my friend and I crashed a fashion show. Because it happened AT WORK. 

What? You don't have fashion shows at your work? 

Gold chairs lined the runway, decked out with goody bags. I'm all about the goody bags. We sat. And we became the VIPs that deserved those goody bags.

The MCs came out, and I really have no idea what they were saying because it was in a mix of Arabic and English and the acoustics were terrible, but whatever. Bring out the girls!

(This works best if you play club music really loudly in your head)

Wait, stop. Do you want a cookie? 
Yes, I'll take the Mercedes Benz cookie and the cameo broach, thank you very much.

(Club music resumes...)

Wait, stop. Would you like an extremely small sandwich on a stick wrapped in cellophane?

Why yes, that's exactly what I was wanting, how did you know?

(Club music resumes...)

Wait, stop. Who's that?
That is fashion boy.

(Club music resumes...)

Wait, stop. Canape?

(back to the music)

Who's that?

Don't know, but they look very important.
Like super VIP.

And stop. Would you like a gold-dusted raspberry tart?

Just what I was craving.

(click on any picture to get a better looksy!)

Doi Saket

About 20 minutes away from Chiang Mai city lies a village called Doi Saket, and in this little village lies the next part of our adventure.

I cannot say enough wonderful things about our home stay. This place alone would have been enough to satisfy my thirst for new locations. A family run establishment with only 4 guesthouses, it was quaint and perfect and lovely.

We stayed in a bamboo hut on beautifully landscaped private property, backed up right to some rice paddy fields. Inside the open air hut was all we needed because we are SO not high maintenance.

Plus, mosquito nets are ultra cool.

View from porch

Front porch

No joke, I could really just hang out on the porch of my bamboo hut all day, reading a book and I WOULD BE JUST FINE.

But alas, there's more out there to see, plus my kids would no doubt put an end to that serenity.
So, onward we go.

A tiny perk of staying here was the use of bikes to ride around the village. This actually made me nervous, as I have not ridden a bike in 17 years. Plus, the 5-yr-old hasn't mastered balance yet so that meant him precariously dangling off the edge. At least to my mind it did. 

But we managed to get those kinks worked out and explore the village we did.

Hey there, Mr. Ox.

                            

Buddhist alter/fireplace

Local shop

STOP

Nong, the owner of the home stay along with her husband Koko, was teaching us some traditional dance moves. I don't have that extra cool wrist flexibility that she is showing off here, but now I can at least say I've got a move down.

Along with the dancing, we asked to light a lantern. I understand this can be done at any time of the year, to celebrate any event. The family that happened to be there during our trip got married, and in their case, this was the reason for the lantern.  Tradition holds that these lanterns take the bad luck away.

Hold up, did you say "bad luck be gone"? Sign me up.
I just wanted to float a lantern, so I say we were celebrating being on vacation. Good enough reason, right?

There it goes, all of our bad luck floating up, up, and away. Between this and the birds, we should be all set.

This was quite magical though, and if anything, I would love to one day visit during Loi Krathong, the lantern festival that takes place around November.

Because one day, I will see this for my very own eyes: