Golden Pai & Suite Resort Hotel Mae Hong Son

... i was appaling, but Stuart did quite well. Afterwards we started shooting more things but with a gun. I was much better at that, i was the only one to hit the food sachet packet that was the target ill have you know. The walk after that was easy, all slightly downhill. We got a minute away from where we were staying and stuart put his foot in a puddle in a rice field. He had managed to do so well crossing the rivers and streams and muddy parts of the jungle ...

... even with a bath/pool. I had hardly put my bags down when Matt and I were ushered into the gallery to hear a travel writer talk about her adventures traveling in Burma. It was raining, and between the seats the rain dripped onto the floor, it was a group of Burmese activists, we drank wine, we chatted, and this is my first few hours of home CM. 

The next few days I am just making my place feel more homely, setting up abit looking for work, and hanging out with Matt while ...

... children, who struggle to get an education in Thailand and face a lot of mistreatment. He is very passionate about the injustice here and working to prevent it by educating the younger generations. The work they do here happens on so little money and with the goodwill of volunteers it blew me away to hear about it and I've not seen the half of it yet. I won't get to meet the kids until next week.

I'll be teaching at one local ...

I went to the bus station here in beautiful Pai a few days ago. While waiting for the 4pm minivan to Chiang Mai I observed the hens, chicks and cocks running around, the dogs lying in the middle of the station generally behaving like they own the place, and a primary school aged girl dropping a woman off. She was perhaps 10, definitely not much more, and the woman was maybe 35 or 40, and it amused me that somehow, it’s seems so normal for a child to drive her mum to the ...

... treks and such like. The book was right, Pai (actually pronounced Bye) is brilliant. Even the dogs are relaxed, they just kip in the middle of the road as motorbikes drive around them. Although the dog at our place, a tiny thing with long white fur and a scrunched up face, is pure evil. As you get close to it the top lip starts quivering as he sets himself to attack, even the owner said he bites her. The first thing we did was sign up for a 2 day white water rafting trip at ...

... and lived on it for 2 weeks (no running water, no electricity, middle of nowhere), got very in touch with nature, came back to Pai and signed up for a Reiki / Meditation course and is on top of a mountain (methaporically as well as physically I suppose) having really got in touch with life. After her tough job at home she says she's beginning to feel normal again!

It's exhausting meeting so many cool people discovering the joys of healthy living and life ...

... sort of) hard work fun, topped off with a 1.5 hour drive home in the back of a pickup. The setting sun gave way to stars bright enough to (almost) touch, and as we weaved our way over the mountain tops and the Thai boys sang Thai songs, I once again felt on top of the world and wondered why we don't all drive around the world in open air vehicles where we can hear and smell nature and generally be more connected with the wonderful world. And all for about €30...

... banana flower and rice for breakfast (with local herbs such as bush lemon grass, chili, garlic, onion) before setting off. Been raining all night and was still raining when we left. Trying to avoid the taste of Smokey water (we'd been drinking boiled water off the fire for 2 days), we had collected water off the roof in banana leaves, but alas it still tasted foul due to all the smoke rising out of the hut (no chimney) and through holes in the tin ...

... to push a variety of chatchkees. At the end of the road is a school, the classrooms of which are open-air and situated in front of benches so that tourists can sit and take pictures of the students as they learn. At one point I tried to ask our tour guide whether the golden coils cause any permanent structural damage to the necks of the women. She had no idea what I was asking. I then tried to communicate my question with gestures and mimicked a ...