Huaen Kham Resort Mae Sai

... that they had given us a 100cc bike. We had already travelled too far to turn back and so we bit the bullet and decided to push on. We did manage to make up a little time on the flat roads but whenever we came to a mountain pass we dropped to a snails pace. If it wasn't for the amazing landscapes we drove through I'm sure we wouldn't have continued. The sight of jagged mountains, covered in dense jungle and thick mist, kept our moral high and spurred us onwards. What ...

... on it as a novice traveler until I developed my own ideas and did not need theirs. Ditch the book--you'll see cool stuff.<br><br>Johnny Cash wrote a song about things in this world worth giving a pass. The refrain:<br><br>There ain't no good in an evil- hearted woman<br>And I ain't cut out to be no Jesse James<br>And don't go writin' hot checks<br>Down in Mississippi<br>And there ain't no good chain ...

... that we worked around it really well. We started with name tags, and had all the kids make one and decorate it. Then we worked with the maps for a while, "Hello, my name is Melissa and I am from America", that sort of thing. We had all of them introduce themselves and tell us where they were from. We even got into continents and the oceans. I think they had a lot of fun with it. They listened well and were pretty ...

... house. Hopefully we will be able to begin construction next week, it all depends on the weather conditions because we need the area around the pump to dry before we can do anything. Then we need to order the materials and wait for their arrival. Hopefully if weather permits we will be able to complete it in a timely fashion once our funding has cleared. We will also be teaching at 2 seperate schools ...

... Sot. Mae Sot is about a 5 hour bus journey from Chiang Mai so I was glad to go upscale for once. Saturday morning I pack all my stuff, say goodbye to the folks at the Guesthouse and meet Mariel and Mr. Boon. We laugh that we are on a Thelma and Louise roadtrip, hoping to find Brad Pitt along the way. As I am putting my stuff in the trunk......I mention a temple that would be good to see. Hmmm....seems like that temple isn't on the way to where ...

... friend not foe! So the Mekong River - hot chocolate bubbling, brewing and swirling its way downstream. Also "that's a big River" was what Dean and I both said, simultaneously, when crossing it for the first time by bridge. It will always be a River of legend and myth to me. From as long as I can remember I've been looking at it on maps and even when the countries around it have been going haywire it's water has provided for the people that rely on it. To be on ...

... walk. For this type of an animal, you would definitely need the industrial gallon version of Beano to work things out. Thereafter, we took the elephants back to bed. Day 3 was our last mahout training day and a reporter from Britain had joined us which was cool. She was asking questions and got our names and everything. She was a skin cancer victim and was on tour reporting on different places to go to have fun and stay out of the sun. After the trip down, feeding, training, and bath ...

... will gain a day. So we, along with 8 others, hop on a tuk tuk and go to the bus station. We arrive at our station and there's a bus this time instead of a van, but there's no way this bus could be our bus. It looked like something that someone pulled out of the Mekong River. After asking around, sure enough, that was it. It had no air conditioning, just open windows, seats that a 7 year old would have a hard time getting comfortable in because the ...

... of the Ruak and Mekong rivers. What makes this triangle infamous are the drugs that pass through it. Most of the heroin circulating our world comes from Myanmar and has passed through this triangle.* The opium is grown by farmers up in Myanmar, brought by donkey caravan to refineries along the Thailand-Burma border, turned into heroine, transported across the border in Thailand ...

... but I doubt it&#8217;ll be too relaxing. Immigration dread has replaced the customs clearance dread I used to go through a couple times a month back in the US when I was an importer and did my own brokering, fun fun. <br><br>Tachilek is a classic border town, full of markets in the streets catering to all the Thai tourists who wander up and cross over for the day. Thais love to tieow and this is one of their favorite spots, in conjunction with ...