December 15th - More Mountains and Views

I neglected to take a photo of our room before we messed it up but this is a nice place with a lovely patio. 

We ate breakfast on the restaurant patio, left of photo. 

View from our room

Coconut tree outside our room. 

This is us. 

The route starts out pretty gently but it’s not long before we’re heading up and over mountains and along fantastic winding roads with mountains stretching off into the distance across the Myanmar border.

It says: Maela (for the Maela River beside it), and “friends bring happiness into your life. Best friends bring coffee.”

Garlic fields (green area)

The coffee hut. 

We don’t stop and get coffee to go. It’s a decent stop with coffee in a proper cup. 

And time spent around the table 

The baristas 

Our guides

Enjoying the view 

Lisa taking a photo of Kevin and Bronwyn 

The bamboo flooring looked a bit precarious. It’s just a thin layer of bamboo strips. 

Maela Coffee Shop

A different brand of soda water today. 

Coconut crackers - tasty

Dad’s Garden

We stopped for lunch at what is Northern Thailand’s best road side restaurant - the perfect place to get seriously adventurous with our food (raw buffalo anyone?) before continuing on along these fantastic roads towards our overnight destination just outside Mae Hong Son town.

Kilometer markers

Decorative concrete porch

View from our table 

Juniper’s Thai tea

Spicy Thai basil chicken w/rice

Pork fried rice

You can see we did not get adventurous. 

Flamingo lily

Water shield 

Water spinach or kangkung 

Rosemary

Ruffled fan palm

Queens wreath

Unusual rhododendron 

Japanese garden juniper 

Can anyone read today’s specials? 

Stir-fried basil with pork, chicken, or beef 

Stir-fried noodles with soy sauce (pork, chicken, seafood) Spaghetti Carbonara (Drunken style) 

Club sandwich

Tuna sandwich 

Grilled pork with wasabi

Grilled pork salad

Pork with lime

Lime salad

Cheese pizza

Hawaiian pizza

Sad Tuna

Sad Bacon

Mixed fruit with yogurt and honey

Crown of thorns, Christ plant, or Christ’s thorn

All of these plants were at the restaurant 

After driving for another hour, we stopped at a market with toilet. This lady is the owner and she was precious. She is 58, doesn’t have a single wrinkle, is almost bald, and had just told Bronwyn how beautiful her hair was. 

Mountain monks - have more respect than the city monks 

They are fierce looking

The power lines are practically hanging on the ground. In places we saw them propped up with branches. 

Juniper had read that Thailand had the best coconut ice cream. We had not seen any on our trip so I asked the guide about it. He said yes, they do. Shortly before arriving at our hotel, we stopped at another market and he pointed here and said, Cawo, coconut ice cream! It had one scoop of sticky rice, multiple scoops of ice cream, peanuts, and coconut cream drizzled over the top! 

 Have you ever seen the likes? It was amazing! I told Juniper we can’t have it anywhere else because nothing will compare to that. 

Eating our ice cream and looking out on the mountain. This is how I pictured Thailand 

And it’s gone. Not a drop or coconut shred left. 

Bronwyn and Kevin enjoyed the ice cream too. 

1,789 curves on this road. Enjoy the view from Pha Bor Cliff 

Many, many curves and our self-driver is not confident around the curves at all. 

Our bags are still firmly attached as we leave the coconut ice cream stop behind 

By late afternoon we arrived at the magnificent Fern Resort, our base for the next two nights. ‘Fern’ is fast becoming a legend among Tuk Tuk Club travelers and with its lovely bungalows set around rice paddies, surrounded by forest and complete with infinity pool, I can understand why. It’s absolutely stunning!

We are greeted with a glass of lemongrass tea wrapped with a banana leaf rose. She is just bubbly, happy and adorable! We tried to guess her age and everyone guessed around 15-16. She is 25. 

After we’ve all been checked in, we receive the run down. Bring laundry to the office before dinner and it will be delivered to our room tomorrow, washed, sun-dried, and folded. $70 THB per kilogram (~$1 per pound)

Breakfast and dinner are in the restaurant, lunch is at the infinity pool bar. Massages are available on-site. Bath soap is in the banana leaf fish in the bathroom. If we need anything, just ask. 

We immediately gathered our laundry and took it to the office and booked a massage. $17.50 including tip for one hour. 

The view from our patio. 

The little stream running below our windows that we get to listen to all night. So peaceful!

We all met for dinner in the restaurant at 7 pm. 

I had Chicken Pad Thai 

Juniper had the red curry with chicken 

The infinity pool

Sunset over the infinity pool

Now Thy gracious kingdom bring

Watching the news is a wearisome task, and I admit to avoiding it at all costs. Each day seems to bring more death, destruction, pain, and suffering around the world—and close to home. Violence, oppression, insurrections, wars, global catastrophes, shattered relationships, and personal tragedies remind us that brokenness is everywhere. Such is life in a fallen world. No one said it would be easy. But goodness, it can be a bit overwhelming.

And here we are, in an annual season of celebration and reflection. As Advent candles glow, the world seems to burn. What are we to make of this bitter dichotomy? How do we properly observe sacred moments amid pervasive brokenness?

We look heavenward, and we hope. Isn't this what Advent is all about? Hope for change. Hope for peace. Hope for salvation. Hope for a kingdom far better than the one in which we groan. Two thousand years ago, hope incarnated in a Near Eastern cattle trough. Quietly. Humbly. Powerfully. The eternal Son of God took on flesh as a baby to save His people from their sins.

Yet brokenness remains. It’s everywhere. It infects the ground we walk on and the air we breathe. It lurks outside our doors and wages war in our hearts. Our very bones cry out from under its weight.

But the story is not over. Christ’s first advent wasn’t the final chapter. It was the miraculous climax that foreshadows a future finale beyond anything we can imagine. If you thought the first act was good, wait ‘til you see the second! As the old hymn says, Jesus brings “strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.”

Shortly before going to the cross, Jesus told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world….If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here” (John 18:36).

All earthly kingdoms fail. But not the one from heaven! By conquering sin and death, Jesus Christ now rules “far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come” (Ephesians 1:21). And one day, He will return in glory to renew creation and establish His everlasting kingdom, one that “will never be destroyed” (Daniel 2:44). No more death. No more destruction. No more pain. No more suffering. What a glorious day that will be!

Until then, we wait. This is the hard part. Brokenness remains. Weariness assails. Sadness gnaws. But as citizens of the kingdom of heaven, we do not wait as dreamers or wishful thinkers. We wait as those whose hope is secure in the eternal, conquering King.

So lift up your head, weary sojourner. The King is coming back. He is coming to vanquish evil. He is coming to restore all things. He is coming to call us home. Until that day, He bids us to wait patiently. Prayerfully. Expectantly. Hopefully. Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus.