Ruth / Gordon: We are enjoying two nights in Lampang at Lada’s guest house. We both much prefer Lampang to Chiang Mai and are happy to relax here with grandma Lada as our host. She served us a lovely Thai breakfast of sticky rice, bbq pork, eggs and coffee. Yum! She also suggested we stay on and she would teach us how to make the flower offerings for the temple – very tempting indeed.
Lampang has been a cultural mix of Thai, Burmese, Chinese and Farang (English and Americans) for over a hundred years and each culture has left a mark on the place. Of particular interest are a collection of wooden houses constructed in the early 20th century.
Lampang was a centre for logging and trade, and the largest city in the north of Thailand for many years. That mantle has now passed to Chiang Mai, leaving residents of Lampang to wonder whether an ancient curse by a wrongly executed noblewoman has led to the demotion of the city. There have been a number of ceremonies to seek the forgiveness of the noblewoman, but Chiang Mai is still the big smoke in this region.
Gord insisted that I leave out the power lines in my painting of this house.