Ruby with 6 diamonds.

33 Pave Set Ruby Ring

Ruby and 22KT Gold Heart pendant

Sapphires on 22 karat Gold.

Lotus

Another busy week.

The visa run went well, although there was a little hiccup. My lovely bank decided charges made in Mae Sot, Thailand must be fraud, so they froze my ATM card. That definitely made things a little more complicated. Luckily, Na had some money, so we made it through the weekend. Other than that, the mountains were beautiful. It was lush and green, and the rivers were full. It was quite a contrast from my first trip there in the dry season. The pictures below were from Sukothai. It was one of the first capitals of Thailand. I just learned that. During this period (1277), there were three different kingdoms that were eventually united. Sukothai was a nice addition to the trip to Mae Sot. It's on the banks of the Yom river. The river has got so much water that it's flooded miles and miles of land around it. It was pretty amazing view from up in the plane. Sukothai is a pretty small town, and their airport is pretty small as well. It's small, but it couldn't be more beautiful. The entire airport is open air, and surrounded by impeccably well maintained gardens. In the center of it all is a pond that was full of Lotus blossoms. This is such a beautiful country.

Now were back in Bangkok. I picked up some of the rudy and sapphire for my jewelry on Monday. After that I went to see my caster/jewel setter to check out the casting. It's all turning out really beautiful. I spent a bit more money on stones to get some really high quality, and I cast the line in 22 karat gold. It's gonna be beautiful, I hope it sells. Wish me luck.

Dirty Blog Spammers are posting in the comment section, so I turned on word verification. That means if you post a comment anonymously you have to type in a series of letters that appear above the "publish" button. It's meant to stop robots that do these spam comments.

Na and me at Sukothai.

Sukothai....another former capitol of Thailand.

Back to Burma….

My cousin Patricia and her boyfriend Brian from Vancouver are in town for a couple days, so last night we met them at their hotel. They’re staying at the Oriental which is one of the oldest and most famous hotel in Bangkok. It’s a really beautiful place. After that we went to Patpong for dinner and a little shopping. Patpong was wacky as usual, but we had a good time. It was nice to see Pat, She and Brian are just finishing what sounded like a great trip.

Last weekend in Jomtien was nice. Iro went all out on Friday night…Barbeque, and Polo shirts With Flying Dolphins written on them for everyone. It was a really fun night…BBQ, pool, friends, drinks….and elephants. The rest of the weekend was really pretty mellow, but that’s what I needed after last week.

It’s visa run time, so this weekend Na and I are going to go to Mae Sot. That’s a town on the border of Thailand and Burma. I can walk across the border and get another 30 days when I walk back into Thailand a few minutes later. That’s about all there is to do cuz the town on the Burma side doesn’t have a lot to offer. On The Thai side it’s mountains and forest that are really beautiful. The last time I went it was dry season, so I’m looking foreword to seeing the forest with some rain on it. The trees looked pretty thirsty last time I went.

Hi Mo, Louise, and Jess. Nice to see you found the comment section.

I passed….finally.

I just finished my second try at the gem ID final, and passed. What a relief. Some of the people in the class were on their third attempt. Well, that’s done, and now I just need to finish a one month class on synthetics, and I’ll be an accredited gemologist. The program ends November 2, but I’m going to take a class in computer jewelry design after that. It’s only 17 more days, so I’m just gonna go for it. My plan had been to go back to LA for a visit after school, but if I manage to get some jewelry orders for the Christmas season, I’m not going to be able to do anything from LA. I’ll know how that’s going as it gets closer to November. The other thing is I can’t just fly back to LA, or I have to change the name of my blog to “Mikey goes round the world someday”. I could just fly to LA by way of Europe (Amsterdam…?)….like I said I’ll know more as I get closer to the end of school.

Aside from being busy as hell, life is really good. Every weekend in Jomtien is a really nice break from Bangkok. Hanging with Harvey and Sage every Friday night at The Flying Dolphins has turned into an institution. Iro the owner came up to us last Friday to tell us that Friday nights are “Mikey Night”. It’s kinda like Friday in LA, but I get to feed Elephants, and the only time I have to talk to the cops is when their having a drink with me.