Yunnan Hotel Mae Sai

... Above the reception desk was a beautiful, blue-green mural of Thai mermaids. Quite pretty! Lunch was a buffet and nothing special. I did like the tempura vegetables though. Although tempura is Japanese, right? <br><br>We had such a short amount of time in the area after lunch (maybe 20 minutes), that as soon as each of us finished eating we left to go catch the shopping and see a bit of the town right ...

... apply for the 60 day tourist visa.<br><br>Our last stop before heading south to Chiang Mai were 2 hill tribe villages, Akha and Yuan. Just a tourist trap although day to day living still does exist the families receive assistance from the Thai government which most hill tribes exist on their own without any help. The children run up to you asking for coins or sell you their handmade bracelets. I could have done without this stop after my exhaustive border crossing.

... No, don't smoke, don't need a lighter. You want Boom Boom? No. You want taxi? No.<br><br>Spent about one hour walking around Taliceik, then crossed back to Mae Sai. Caught the bus home to the farm--four hours, pretty comfortable. Thai police and soldiers had 4 checkpoints, checked ID's (never mine) and took one kid off the bus. They did shake down my pack-- a first for me-- and asked what the DOxycycline was. "Anti-malaria" says me. "OK".

... and left. Luckily, the kids that stayed behind participated and seemed to enjoy all the activities that we had planned. Tomorrow should be a lot better, though. The kids who come to Harbor House seem to be a lot more willing to participate and learn as opposed to the ones at DEP. We've got some really fun activities planned for tomorrow, and on Sunday we'll be making the girls lunch and doing the bears :) More soon, Peach

... attentive and a bit more rowdy than our 42 on Saturday. I think that's mainly because there are so many of them. After the crests we split them up in half and did some games with them. We did some stretching games, Red Light Green Light, etc. It was a pretty crazy first day. Hopefully Friday goes better. We're going to plan out many more activities to keep them occupied and entertained...hopefully it'll all work out. More soon, Peach

... no desks even or chairs in one classroom and they were looking for any help they could. Voila - I missed them and I was ready to give back a little. Good thing was it was all ready to go - fully set up, bad thing is - Mae Sot is the hottest town in Thailand, during the hottest week of the year and I was already puddling with every movement. Oh well, suck it up Princess I told myself and emailed saying I was on my way. Lucky lucky from the ...

... right place? We were assured that this was the bus to Jinghong and that the weather report was a ripe old temperature of 30 degrees at the end of the line. OK so now we're talking! The journey was great as well, half full coach, jaw dropping scenery and only 8 hours. I know that still sounds long but believe me going from Bristol to Scotland will never be the same again. Jinghong turned into our home for 3 days and we suddenly felt like we were in the tropics (well ...

... his animal friend in "The Neverending Story." Eventually, we got down to bathtime. One of the volunteer trainers that had been there for a couple of months joined us. She was from Scotland and the other Thai "mahout" trainers loved torturing her. She jumped on the back of one of the elephants to help out in the bathing. We were out washing the elephants and were getting dunked by the elephant's heads while they bathed and one of the elephants decided to go #2 in the pond during this ...

... stamp, and your on your way. After our visas were done we headed to a restaurant that was near our slow boat because our guide told us to wait there. The guide who was helping everyone, gathered the group together for a proposition. He said that since the river is flooded the boat driver is going to have to drive slower due to debris floating, underwater trees he can't see, ect. The boat was going to travel for a couple of hours and then port at ...

... huge tables in wooden shacks for us to see. The village attache to the shopping huts wasn't more than a few more huts, lots of chickens running around, and kids playing in puddles in the mud. I wandered away from the shops to try to play with the kids, but they were so calloused that when I didn't give them the money they all asked of me, they all ran off. So I've been to Laos, but I wouldn't say that I've seen it at all.