Nakhon Phrae

... had been beaten to the room by an engineer who sorted the water in seconds. We later worked out, when the hot water stopped again, what the receptionist meant by "adjust the meter"; it appears this hotel has discovered a way to stop guests from wasting power, restrict the timer on the hot water heater. The afternoon was spent in true Thai tradition, sheltering from the forty degree heat of the day. Only once the heat was out of the sun did we issue forth in search of ...

... river rafting. Best day so far on trip I reckon. At night we went around Chiang Mai. So relaxed here and still a lot of backpackers but no where near as commercial. We lost our cards so no poker. Pool score now 22-29 Kindred. We went to watch another Muay Thai night. Was in a pool hall which was huge bonus. We watched 9 fights. One with children; about 7 years old, and one with women; English girl whooped the Thai girl. The ...

... a bit of "curve withdrawal symptoms"...Kevin is not feeling well and decided to stay in Chiang Mai and do some shopping here, so I will go first and meet him either tonight or later in the trip. Have to get get some rubber off the side of my tyres!!! Oh and I managed to get a picture with a Thai policeman today...He was in a "love mood" as he was at a flower shop so I thought it was a good time to ask...

... The fighting started with kids of about 13 years old trying to hit each other, then with each successive bout the age of the fighters increased by a year or two. Some people may find this a little weird, even unsettling, seeing kids trying to beat the snot out of each other. I suppose you gotta earn your crust somehow. After the fighting finished, we were a little worried about getting mugged, but luckily our worries were for nought, as we got back safely.

... il nous a emmene dans sa maison, un peu a l'exterieur de la ville. Il fait son ecole dans sa maison, et est aide de sa femme et son cousin. On avait chacun une petite table avec un rond, un wok des casseroles et differents ustensiles dont un couteau super! On a appris differentes techniques utiles et plusieurs plat typiquement thais. On a meme fait flamber des legumes sautes! J'ai des photos vous allez voir. On a tellement mange on voulait mourrir ...

I couldnt of gone to Thailand and not visited my favorite place! Rosie and I had left the apartment and headed straight to the station where we could catch our night train to Chiang Mai, praying that there would be a place that we could stash our lugguage! Thankfully there was.. We booked our night train for the same night, dumped our bags and headed straight to the shopping mall.. good old 7storey MBK! It was fashion galore, i hadnt taken notice before.. and Rosie made ...

... you? Thanks to Marni, we were able to visit this Mlabri village (there are three) and the Long family. [Hi-Kate taking over here for just a bit...] Gene and Mary went above and beyond to kindly meet us in Phrae the night before they were leaving on their first trip to the U.S. in over six years. We visited over pizza and ice cream--a good prep for their trip and our first pizza in 2 months--before we headed (via truck, driven by a Mlabri) to the ...

... enough to walk through...motorbikes are a nice touch. We doubled the "frang" population in phayo when we stepped off the bus. There are only a few westerners living there. Needless to say, I had to use squat toilets all weekend-but I'm getting better at it! We freshed up, went for some Pad Thai and then went to "the place of happiness" for some drinks. After that, we went to a club full of young people. I ...

... to reach some fields where the peasants stopped their hard labour to check them out and welcome them as heros... Then they discovered that one of the bearing of the back wheel of the freaky knight's motorbike had broke down. They finally decided to reach Chiang Mai where they could have it repaired and thanked the Gods to have helped them through this unbelievable adventure. The End. (for now, but i'll be back)

... lot/lobby of the hotel. When we returned to our hotel in the evening, we realized that we didn't really know how special our hotel really was when we checked in. In the lobby, there were quite a few young and nicely made up women hanging around waiting for customers. This made us more determined to leave Phrae for Chiang Mai the next morning. What's next We'll spend some time in Chiang Mai, seeing the sights there and renting a scooter to see the outlying sights.