Suknirand Hotel Chiang Rai

Sawasdee krap again!!

Another day has come and gone but they sure are action packed and thoroughly enjoyable...well??....most activities anyway!!!

The day started in a very relaxed manner...nice late breakfast...Maew picked us up at around lunch time ( with a lawyer friend of his Mr Pisu)...he wanted to be with us so he could improve his English...........perhaps could have chosen a more suitable ...

Day 6

We woke up in our bamboo huts , Thankfully we hadn't been bitten too badly due to our impeccable mosquito net skills. Breakfast was some oddly sweet toast with some scrambled eggs, with a dollop of jam. As all 13 attempted to pile into the one small shower, Tim repeatedly threw up his malarone pills. Shortly after this epic event Dom and JB ventured down into the vast jungle to gather ...

... t complain. Just haven't much cash at the moment. Enough though. Luckily for us, it seems that the USA economy is falling apart because their banks gave out too much money to people who couldn't afford it. In fact a large part of their economy seems to exist on money that doesn't exist which people use to buy things they don't need. So around the world interest rates are almost nothing and people are not making much from ...

... India offering Indian food. He had some of the best snack food that I've ever had in my life, with my favorite being something called "onion crispies." I would compare this to the blooming onion from Outback's Steak House or onion rings, but really I liked this even more. They were also much cheaper at being just 25 baht for a serving. He said that the process to make them lasted over a day, with the first step being to dehydrate the onions. All I know is that I will ...

... and one of the 4 hospitals in Chiang Rai town)- all very smooth, efficient and quick. The doctor gives me a drip and put me in hospital for the night. As my fluids increased I felt much better. Blah blah. Rest of the story doesn't get much more interesting, as it is just me sitting in hospital and feeling better as time passes. --------------------------------------- - Of interest - a private room cost us 800 Baht, and all ...

... the Emerald Buddha statue found in the mid 1400's after lightning struck a pagoda and opened up the ground. The Buddha itself resides in The Grand Palace in Bangkok (we're hoping to see this at the tail end of our trip), but the Temple is still operational and is part of a current school for young Buddhist Monks. Before lunch, we stop at the day market where all of the locals go for their fresh fruit, vegetables, frogs, live birds to set free ...

I will write this soon. Maybe. Basically really busy (and hot) when first settling into Chiang Rai. A Not For Sale group came, then I (at short notice) organised for a visit from Gerald from Volunteer Medics Worldwide, and my Mum came, and it was Songkran, and we are trying to unpack, and we have a baby, and we need to find schools for the kids, and Antipodeans wants me to do all sorts of work for them, and ....... Arrghhh. It all worked out, but it has been a busy period.

... questions like these, unfortunately, because our guide speaks only about as much English as I speak Thai. Less, maybe, since Thai has been his language of choice with me. And, while it's been interesting watching words pop into my conscious brain from where they've been buried for ten years (I lived in Thailand ten years ago and at the time could speak quite well), I'm afraid I haven't yet remembered the words for "pig poop" or "housetrained." Despite ...

... By the time I got back Norm had almost completed his book (novel) and was nicely bronzed from the warm sun. I will suggest that he may have had a few too many beers (as the photo indicates) - however, this particular photo was actually 'staged' one day when we were having lunch in Laos - it wasn't even taken in Thailand. I just thought I include it as I think Norm got the short end of the stick having stayed by the pool all day with such little adventure! Enjoy the pics. Sharon and Norm

... guide must get bored with the normal paths, so he took us down one that was obviously rarely used. At one point he had to stop because our narrow path was blocked by an overgrown tree. So he pulled out his machete, hacked off the offending branches, and fed them to the elephant. The ride was actually more of a long buffet for the animal than any kind of tour geared toward us. It stopped often and ate bamboo, trees ...