Hotel White House Chiang Rai

... Most of the Akha people have been converted to Christianity. The women wear beautiful headresses made of beads, cloth, wood, and pewter or sometimes silver gotten from old coins. Young women get a head dress when they turn 19 or so. The women take great pride in making each head dress, carefully selecting the right ...

... tire or something” Tempting fate is a bad idea on a trip like this. Another hour and a half later a new tire was found and we were on our way again, up the ridiculously bumpy track then up the huge steep hill into the tribe. We were met by the people on the other truck asking what we had been doing for the past hour. The day had been eventful but we where all grateful for the fantastic meal provided for us. We then began to disperse ...

... ultra posh resort, which was quite hilarious, it was taken really seriously, however I am sure you can imagine that having people riding elephants swinging six foot long sticks at a ball while in motion is a recipe for disaster! We got to feed the elephant before the game which was fun, the elephants were just absolutely demolishing whole tables of fruit, whole watermelons in one! I have 5 days left now and actually as things are starting to come ...

... to pay the bill, i waited and waited and finally went to find the staff, they were all snuggly asleep in true thai fashion. *theres one thing that i can never get used to.... no toilet paper! its a mystery to me. there are mostly squat pans (very strange also) and several water devices to wash one self after. but for some reason all the people seem to be dry on thier trousers when they come out of the lav?!? with no toilet paper and hoses to spray ...

... some point in Laos, so that should be interesting. Lowlight: The lowlight of the day was 1.5 hrs into our trip, when we realized we left our camera charger and battery in our hotel room in Chiang Mai. Our guide kind of freaked out, but managed to get the battery onto a bus headed for Chiang Rai and we picked it up at 6:00pm for the hefty fee of $3.00....not bad. We are starting to wonder if we were just not meant to have ...

... torrential downpour which lasted for the remainder of the day. I can think of many worse ways to spend a wet afternoon than sat overlooking a stunning valley view watching clouds roll in, enveloping the surronding hills in an ever-changing landscape of billowing white and grey.. Food No more than five minutes into the walk it started to become obvious the trek was going to be as much a culinary experience as a walk through the ...

... and she is weakened and shy and not to mention that she isn't a Thai citizen. She was born in Burma. So this all makes it pretty hard for her to negotiate through the forms, crowds, nurse's questions, etc. I hadn't realised all this as my Thai isn't that good either. Anyway she had seen the doctor once and now we all went to X-Ray. Apa helped find that and quickly helped the processing. After X-Ray we handed back Apair's paperwork 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 ...