Le Meridien Chiang Rai Resort

... a really interesting room with info on local hill tribe customs. This cemented our decision not to do any trekking to see hill tribe villages, after our visit to Sapa in Vietnam we think that organised tours to see ethnic communities tend to provide the wrong incentives and we didn't fancy treating the people like zoo animals. Near here the tribeswomen still sometimes wear the neck rings to make their necks longer. We also learnt that in some tribes twins are seen as bad luck and ...

... food to the temple each day as an offering to the Monks and as there is plenty of food they keep cats there. There were loads of them and they were very friendly and cute.

We finished the day at Walking Street. This is section of road that they cordon off on Saturday nights so they can have a street market with dancing and stalls and food. It was brilliant! No one hassling you, lovely stuff on sale, beautiful ...

... time! I had my own room which was fab and after brief inroductions to the'mother' helpers, I decided to catch up on some much deserved sleep! I woke some four hours later and ventured outside, apart from Juan (who wasn't actually living at the centre) I was the only male volunteer there until (possibly) another guy (possibly) showed up. Caty and Amanda were the directors with Juan as a long term volunteer, aside from those three there were four girls(one ...

... the boatman took the empty boat himself. We had to walk but it meant we were able to dry our shorts a bit. We were able to use the toilet! see picture. Our journey continued and we stopped again at a hill tribe village with elephant rides, only 5 minutes here to stretch our legs. Back in the boat (with a take away noodle dinner) and another set of rapids which sent an even bigger wave over the boatman and ...

... 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 ...

Day 6 We left Bangkok early to get to Don Mueang Airport. This is the airport used for domestic travel within Thailand. We were terrible; we went straight for the Burger King Egg sandwich. Our flight was little over an hour. The scenery from the air was farm land, mountains. We landed and met our guide; our first destination was the monkey cave. This was a long steep mountain with lots of rocks, and a stone stair leading to a cave. We were worried that the ...

... hassle in the tribes to buy souvenirs & local handicrafts. The highlight of the day for me came at the end, with a visit to a local hot spring where I was able to totally relax and enjoy the pool pretty much to myself for a good hour. Bliss to the weary trekker! Tomorrow I plan to move on from Chiang Rai, either to Chiang Khong or directly across the border to Laos. This may well be my last night in Thailand for the foreseeable therefore..

... going to Chiang Mai, we were sprayed with water. This again is in celebration of the Thai New Year. The wetter you become, the more luck you will have in the coming year. We were already getting lucky, as the bus station said there was room on a minibus leaving (today, 4/11) to return to Chiang Mai. The bus system just doesn't go from Pai to Chiang Rai. But we felt ourselves "lucky" and booked passage back to Chiang Mai. The driver was very reasonable in that we ...

... much took his head off. we heard because another of pooki's cousins is a policeman and was part of the investigation squad. speaking of family members in the police, she also has a female cousin who works at the border with thailand at nong khai - what a godesend that was! we'd had an hour or more of chaos coming into the country (i'd decided to get a visa-on-arrival). but when we left, i gave my passport to her the night before and she sorted all the details out ...

... something. Even so, my wife's scar wasn't pretty, but it was cheap. To some extent, you do get what you paid for. Going to an American dentist after my Thai dentist was like riding in a Cadillac after a VW beetle, but guess which one I can afford the easiest? I wouldn't advise buying into the whole Thai system of health care, though. Conceptually it can be a bit disturbing, particularly in the overemphasis on antibiotics. The EU ...