The Land Part II

May I introduce you to The Land. Outside Chiang Mai in northern Thailand there's a mini utophia. An area bought by two Thai artists, and developed into a non-profit foundation where artists from all over the world are invited to create different art/projects. There's organic farming, tree houses in weird shapes and different environmentally friendly inventions. Kamin, who's one of the founders, also showed us his sculpture studio in the forest. What a life!







Quote The Land: "Initiated in 1998, the land was the merging of ideas by different artists to cultivate a place of and for social engagement.

The land is located in proximity to the village of Sanpatong, a twenty minutes drive from the center of the provincial capital Chiang Mai. As some rice farmers are having difficult times in the area, due to the levels of floods and high water level, rice farming has not been very productive. Because of this, some rice fields in the area have been offered for development, as the rice farmers are looking to find better areas for the fields.

Though initially the action to aquire the rice fields were initiated by two artists from Thailand, the land was initiated with anonymity and with out the concept of ownership. The land was to be cultivated as an open space, though with certain intentions towards community, towards discussions and towards experimentation in other fields of thoughts."

Anyone can visit, check it out on: www.thelandfoundation.org

Tokyo Flashbacks

Probably a reason why the kids don't do this at home...



Hoko showed me her summer favourite, ice ice baby!

The Artist's House

Kamin, who's one of the founders of The Land showed us around in his house before going to The Land. He said that people often ask him when the house will be finished, and his answer is of course: it is finished! You either love or hate this style. I love it! What do you Scandinavians think?


Click 'Play' and then in the right bottom corner for full screen.

First pic Kamin. Woman in egg; Marietta von Hausswolff von Baumgarten, the guy in covered face is one of Kamins assistants. The Land and more coming up in the weekend, working on it. Working hard for you my friends. :)

The Land

The reason why I wanted to go to Chiang Mai was because I heard about an art project called 'The Land' built on a piece of land outside of Chiang Mai, supporting sustainable organic agriculture. My friend Marietta von Hausswolff von Baumgarten told me about it since her husband Carl Michael von Hausswolff was a part of this project, building a perfectly unperfect house, as one of many artists participating in the project.

As a pleasant surprise Marietta managed to take some time off to come to Thailand, and hang out with me in Chiang Mai + introduce me to The Land. So today we went there! I was shown around by Kamin who's one of the founders. We also went to his house and artist studios (he's got one at home for painting, another one in the forest for sculpture, and a third for construction of larger art work...) It was an amazing experience - really inspiring! I just came back and it's really late, so I'll tell you more about it + putting up all the pics tomorrow.

Dentist and the spa also coming up! :)

Nite nite...

The Legendary Pancake Man

This is our new friend: The Best Roto Branch Two Banana Pancake Man.



He makes 150 push-ups, swimming half an hour and running 5 km every morning. And look at him - it just makes you want to come back! He chopped the bananas like a samurai and made the pancake better than any Italian pizza master. We love pancakes! These pancakes.







But I have to confess: we didn't make it to the mountains today. We took the scooters to China town first, and didn't get further since we got wonderfully lost in the spice market, after that we went back to the tailor with garments we bought, ending the day with a brutally good Thai massage off the street. And of course...the pancakes...

Chiang Mai - Around town

The main feature today was definitely that I went to the dentist! It was the most high tech dentist I've been to. The name of the sign didn't make it worse; "Elite Smile"... Getting a fabulously professional and kind treatment, paying less than 1/4 of what I would have paid in Sweden, it felt more like going for a treat than the dentist. And I've got this one sent in the e-mail afterwards:



I also met up with a wonderful guy called 'Jumbo' (after the jet plane), who's a passionate Buddhist and documentary filmmaker living in Chiang Mai. I was introduced to him from my cinematographer Sophie Winqvist, and it was a brilliant meeting. He connected me to a Swedish woman who used to live in Ladakh, whom I'll introduce to you later on. In the evening my friend Marietta took me to her favourite tailor, which was an experience in it self, deciding models, sizes and materials. The taior was incredibly professional; you could tell he knew what he was doing. In general I feel like people care about you in a real and honest way, not just to sell stuff, but also to actually take pride in their profession. No matter what it is - from a being a tuc tuc driver to a doctor.

Spa Double Spetziale

Chiang Mai arrival

I had a quite rough year last year, and quite often I was dreaming about going to a place far away with spa treatments and palmtrees. Now the dream has come true! Last night I arrived to The Chedi Hotel in Chiang Mai. This is one of the world's foremost luxory resorts and spa's.

I was picked up at the airport by the sweetest man. He's name is Don, a well educated biologist who's dream was to become a doctor. Since he couldn't afford the last four years of university he's now a cab driver. He took me to the night market later in the evening. Coming straight from Tokyo, it was a huge contrast feeling the humid heat, the smells of thai food and the tribe people coming down to Chiang Mai city to sell handicrafts. Afterwards I went back to the hotel and slept in the softest bed ever...

More Tokyo with Hoko & Wendy

Well...of course I have another thousand pics I haven't been able to upload. I'll edit some more in the next few days, in the meantime we can all agree that Hoko-Wendy-day-is-a-good-day:



Tomorrow we're moving onto Chiang Mai. I just arrived to northern Thailand and went to the night market. Had some tasty ricerolls, sweet and sour chilli salad and sweet potatoe - thought it couldn't get better than Tokyo, but I was wrong...