Golden Iyara Villa Chiang Rai

... heroin) this was Thailand and Vietnam's main export for years and probably still goes on in some parts but officially from them has stopped! after this we got to visit the next country called Laos. This was much poorer than Thailand and straight away you could see that. still a very enjoyable experience though

... the baking sun but got some great views of the surrounding hills and the small rice paddies the hill tribe villages make. When we arrived at the Hill House Nicole had recently arrived and our bags arrived an hour or so later. While waiting for our bags Nicole and I went and checked out the nearby waterfall. It was awesome sitting under it - so refreshing after a long day of sweating ...

... had a nice little museum and a jade replica of the famous Buddha image. According to something Tony had read, you were still supposed to be able to see the spot where the lightening struck the chedi, but that information must have been out of date as the chedi had been completely restored some time back and now resembled every other golden chedi. By this time, I was starting to get more than a little bored of ...

... our way to the Eastern bus station of Bangkok. The train was a little more expensive than a bus for the same journey, but I have never been on a bus anywhere near as comfortable as that train was. We got off the train a little bit before the end of the line, at a stop called Bangsol, because it had easy access to Bangkok's subway system (which the end stop did not). The subway was able to take us to the Ekamai bus station, which had a subway station by the same name.

... adhere. However surprisingly, the car delivered burst of reasonable short torques at 3000rpm where I needed to negotiate the bends at speeds my mother would complain. I drove more then 600km in all exploring the area and had heaps of fun shifting between 3rd and 4th gears. Ascends and descends aplenty, long stretches ...

... bus to Chiang Mai. I spent two hours concentrating on not throwing up or moving my head, and Kim sat bolt upright trying to see out of the front windscreen so she wouldn't be sick either. Kim had picked a hostel out of the book and we got a tuktuk straight there through what appeared to be an extensive red light district with young thai girls everywhere, some being picked up by aging western men. By this point i could barely move my neck and i slept badly.

... She is such a huge part of life and family that 3 months doesn't seem right. She must be older? She is really good and she smiles so much and such big smiles - but almost never when we try to take a picture. She still doesn't have much hair on her head. Kanchana is with her so much and is starting to know what sort of person she is already. Her character is starting to come out. And it is all good so far. She is happy and patient and concentrates well and ...

I: We have visited both Chiang Mai (major touristic town in Northern Thailand) and Chiang Rai (smaller, quieter version), and for me the choice of which one is nicer is easy; it's definitely Chiang Rai. Chiang Mai is just too touristic, although the Sunday market is excellent for shopping. But also Chiang Rai has a nice night market. Mostly we've only ...

From my journal: The Mekong river trip from Chang Kong in thailand then to Pak Beng and into Luang Prabang was well...something to remember as a footnote to what I put up with on this trip. It sucked!! Pak Beng was a swindlers haven and home and hole to absolutely the worst this country could offer. Of course that was just my momentary reality there and didn't impede on the subtle moments of children playing and good food that were other simultaneous realities. The river boat was ...

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The other story is about the immigration hassles for an ex-pat, trying to conduct his life outside the country of birth, in this case an American in Thailand. One of the reasons I settled in/on Thailand was that it was easy. I could get business visas easily, or I could just stamp in and out, thirty days at the time. Well, they cut out the easy business visas long ago, at least in LA, though they can still be had sometimes in some places. Then ...