Le Meridien Chiang Rai Resort

... time with the hilltribe people, particularly the Akha, for whom Finola has great affection. We sought out a group who took us to live with the Akha, and they also took us on a spin to the Golden triangle (home of the opium trade, from where you can see Myanmar, Laos and Thailand simultaneously) and to the border town of Mae Sai, where Finola and I crossed over into Myanmar for all of 15 minutes, so that we could gain Thai visa extensions.

... at any point, let me know ;)<br><br>Ok that&#8217;s all I can fit in for now. Tomorrow I&#8217;m teaching in three different locations, mainly amongst the lush green mountains and rice paddies where dogs, pigs, chickens and kids all run wild. If you look closely enough you might just see me chugging along on my little red 100cc 'Fresh' machine! Life can be so fantastic. If you let it..

On Tuesday the 5th May and we have had another travel and sort out day. We headed to the bus station in Chiang Mai at 8.30am and had to wait until 10.30 for our 3 hour bus ride to Chiang Rai. The aircon was too cold (!) and we were subjected to a Thai comedy, war, romance, drama movie - I'm not sure if it could have packed in many more genres! The scenery was great though and Chiang ...

... far og mor. Om aftenen kom vi til en ny landsby, der var større, og meget mere rig. Her var de fleste huse lavet af træ. Her fik vi alle de bananer vi kunne proppe i os - og fik at vide, at landsbybeboerne sandelig ikke selv spiste bananer, det var bare grisefoder for dem. De smagte nu godt alligevel. På vejen hjem besøgte vi en Akha-landsby, hvor jeg fik et bælte. Her syntes far at det var alt for meget at betale 54 kr. og så blev han sur. Selvom det var h ...

... didn't actually end up using them. Instead I took some pictures of the busy train station and walked around the area looking for a place to eat dinner. We found a great outdoor restaurant, right across the street from the train station, where we tried a new Thai dish called baan. Baan is minced pork with plenty of herbs and spice, with cabbage and basil served on the side. It was a dish that is supposed to be served spicy, but I think we only got a farang (Western ...

... 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 ...

... that was chartered for the day we arrived there. But it only fly's when it was full. So we had a feed in a decent café and boarded this local bus which was an experience in its self. A bus with locals and packages everywhere. All the windows and doors not closed. Clive and Conor sat with the luggage and had huge leg space. We arrived safe and sound in Chiang Kong.

... had to be done in wet, manageable soil. Or in the case of the sticky rice, we had to plough the soil a bit to make it manageable. Some thoughts on all this. It relies a lot on the weather. If there isn't enough water the whole thing won't work and the plants won't survive replanting. This is a concern as we are now heading into an era of unpredictable weather due to human caused climate change. Second thought - at one stage just before ...

... you'll not get it back". however she tried calling our number and managed to get a response but the person who answered said nothing and hung up. I explained that I was certain it must have fallen out of my pocket in the tuk-tuk and that I believed it would be easy to trace the driver as he was clearly known to the doorman at the Wangcombe Hotel; she thought that unlikely so I suggested we try the tourist police. It's amazing how far Thais will go to avoid involving ...

... their neck to elongate it) are almost like freak shows and there's no authenticity or realism to the tours... just a bunch of souvenir stalls set up, no village at all. I don't think the tribes people get much money from the tours either, just a little bit from the government. Anyways so i scooted my way back to the city after a long day of scooting...tried to make it to Chiang Rai beach for the sunset but it was too cloudy though...but still lovely. good place for a ...