Quarter Hotel Mae Hong Son

... i was appaling, but Stuart did quite well. Afterwards we started shooting more things but with a gun. I was much better at that, i was the only one to hit the food sachet packet that was the target ill have you know. The walk after that was easy, all slightly downhill. We got a minute away from where we were staying and stuart put his foot in a puddle in a rice field. He had managed to do so well crossing the rivers and streams and muddy parts of the jungle ...

... even with a bath/pool. I had hardly put my bags down when Matt and I were ushered into the gallery to hear a travel writer talk about her adventures traveling in Burma. It was raining, and between the seats the rain dripped onto the floor, it was a group of Burmese activists, we drank wine, we chatted, and this is my first few hours of home CM. <br><br>The next few days I am just making my place feel more homely, setting up abit looking for work, and hanging out with Matt while ...

... children, who struggle to get an education in Thailand and face a lot of mistreatment. He is very passionate about the injustice here and working to prevent it by educating the younger generations. The work they do here happens on so little money and with the goodwill of volunteers it blew me away to hear about it and I've not seen the half of it yet. I won't get to meet the kids until next week.<br><br>I'll be teaching at one local ...

... into Mae Hon Song just to walk around and have some lunch. The town is much bigger than Soppong, but still pretty laid back. We had a relaxing lunch by the small lake in the city-center, checked out some temples, and walked up the mountain to the overlook. It was on this journey that we met the "crazy man on the bus." To be fair, he gave himself that nickname. He drew pictures of flowers with pastels, drank moon-shine out of a water bottle, and loved ...

... Pai river to a long neck Karen village. The most distinguishing characteristic of the Karen tribe is that many of the women use golden coils to elongate their necks. When we arrived at the village it was clear that the tribe has been totally corrupted by the influences of Western tourists. The main road of the village is lined with long neck women sitting in stalls. The women invite the tourists to pose with them in photos and then take advantage of the ...

... airport, only then for another fault to show, my head light was on, but Stephen's light was off.. so we headed back (again), and switched his bike for the one I just returned (and now fixed).. so third time lucky we headed out again.. But low and behold, it started ******* petrol again.. not good, so Jeff for Tony's Bikes came out and switched it with another one ...

... of guys in military fatigues and guns. They looked at us confused, stared at us for a while and then we gave them a nice smile and they waved us through, smiling. Driving off, we were thinking, "Hmm... what was with the checkpoint? I know we are close to Burma...really close to Burma.... but that wasnt the border, right?" "Nah...." We turned left onto a road and after going up 2 major hills on a dirt road ...

... incredible waterfall, twice the size of the first 2 we saw. We found a quaint little bar/restaurant that had live music which became our little place during our stay. The 2 Thai guys playing were by far the best guitarist's Jason and I have ever heard. We took several videos and he even made us a CD that were listening to right now in fact! I got quite sick yesterday ...

... and so Mike and I were able to find a bungalow with an attached bathroom and hot water for just 250 baht. A few days earlier they had been going for 500. The next couple of days we did nothing but listen to the rain, read, and sip tea at the Witching Well. I had heard that Pai was a magical place, but until I got here I didn't understand what people meant. The atmosphere of ...

... he also drove the whole way with the oil and engine lights on, and stopped for a 20 minute "10 minute break" as he called it. we ended up getting to Pai in the dark, but happily in one piece :) as soon as we got there we booked our return ticket to Chiang Mai, which cost us 50 baht less than the trip there. We found a guesthouse to sleep in, a very nice quiet one which had a very rural, hidden appearance but the room was super tidy and the bed was most cozy ...