Patim House Chiang Rai

Well this morning started with a bit of a panic, the battery on my phone died in the night so we had no alarm clock. Luckily LJ woke up at 6.30 giving us 15mins to shower and finish packing our bags. We had a quick breakfast before the tour bus arrived and we got on that dusty road again. Our driver was a cross between Stevie Wonder and Michael Flatley, he had stevies cornering ability and flatley doing the clutch. No harm done, our first ...

... over it which made it so sparkly! Then back to Chiang Mai for our last meal with Janna :(

Up north - seems to be cooler, the animals a lot more looked after and a lot of Chinese/Burmese influence!

From Janna - Sorry I didn't write much before but I am ok! Having a great time! My last day today!!! Just off to breakfast and then thai cookery class. Then I will be taken to the airport to come home. See you soon. xxxx

... to make sure we found our way, however most ofthe hill tribe don't actually spek Thai, but Lahu one of the hill tribes languages and so even with our guide we were still limited; despite this we where invited into the houses of one of the children at the centre and we spent most of the evening drinking tea and chattingwith her family through Pratia. Despite the many drink and drug related social problems associated with the village, it did have a peaceful atmosphere ...

... and then drove down again. The off road parts were really chaos and a moped just wasn't practical. Still i enjoyed seeing parts most tourists don't get to see. The evening i found myself in a pizza place and ordered a delicious chicken and mushroom spaghetti with cheese and garlic bread. Too much traveling with a sore head made me have an early night as i was off again the next day, so i updated my travel blog, watched a weird film called The Mist, chatted with Cheenee and then off to bed.

... oblige, on avait des courbatures de dormir sur des pseudos matelas et toute cette marche. On a traverse le fleuve pour arriver en Thailande et ainsi se poursuit notre route et notre voyage culinaire, va falloir faire gaffe, ici, ils ne rigolent pas avec les epices! Nous avons decide de descendre tout doucement vers Bangkok, on est tres fatigue de ces longs trajets, on n'ira pas au Cambodge, (trop fatigues et je me traine une grippe depuis 1 semaine...pas de pharmacie) Gros bisous a tous.

... Those that know me well will be well aware of my deep routed fear of jungles and all that could be in them. It didn't take long for me to expertly probe our guide to the dangers that might appear. Apparently we were in a national park and even the sighting of a snake was a rare improbability. So an afternoon of forest trekking, glorious waterfalls, remote hill tribes and tea plantations was welcome therapy from the big eared banana munchers and what i feared would be ...

... some pictures. At the top of the cave it started to rain heavily. Our next stop was the Myanmar boarder you could easily walk across but we decided to have lunch at the boarder town and walk around the markets on the Thailand side this was the only time we really were approached by aggressive sales people mostly the people selling sun glasses. There were sun glass, pocketbooks, hats, many different types of nuts and fruit. Our next desist nation was the ...

... the evening. The following morning I awoke to rain, which my trekking guide, Sibounrang, took great pleasure in informing me was forecast to continue for the whole day, and probably the whole of the next as well. [This was a prophecy he delighted in repeating many MANY times over the course of the 2 days, finding many proofs in nature to support his theory e.g. 'in Thailand when see many ant together (i.e. following an ANT TRAIL ...

... to her we discovered that she has tuberculosis and is an outpatient of Chiang Rai Hospital. We gave her water and eye drops. I discovered that she was struggling to pay for bottled water and the monthly trips to the hospital. I decided to supply her with water as often as I can and take her to the hospital when she needs to go. So Daow (who is from Baan Apa) rang last night to tell us that today was the day that Apair needed to go to ...

... chan. her uncle still lives there, retired from the police, with his wife, children and grandchildren. the bulk of the family live in a three house terrace, with a few sub-families scattered locally. he has ten children and seventeen grandchildren, which came as a great shock to pooki. they are a fantastic family, and in keeping with the culture in se asia, made me feel very welcome - this usually manifested in forcing me to eat as much food and drink as i could ...