Gift House Tak

... it didn't feel fun at all to be packing up our bags and handing them over to be stored for the day, but alas! his is the nature of travel and Chiang Mai is one place we will most definitely be making it back to. <br><br>We spent most of the day lounging around and drinking coffee, I still can't get over how good the coffee is up her and wished that I had of picked up a bag, although we are ...

... would pay all my expenses, I would live in the residence of the Karen Woman&#8217;s Organisation and on the side run The Branch Foundation, and go to MHS on weekends to catch up with the Ethnic Migrant Family Society of which The Branch Foundation is a donor organisation.  So good start really. <br><br>I did catch up with Markus a friend from the Gypsy Tea Rooms in Bangkok and just ate yummy food, drank cold beer, went for walks in the heat and discovered abit more ...

... then. We found three chairs, an empty space on the floor and set up camp. After countless numbers of well deserved dirty looks, 2 bags of chips, 3 chocolate candy bars (eaten mostly by Emma) and 4 hours later, we got on a comfortable bus and headed to Tak. Let me tell you about Tak for just a second: it's a city that has a 7eleven. That's it. That is all I have to say about Tak. Not a single Thai person we've met even knows what Tak is! Why fate brought us there I have no idea but I ...

Ok, so I decided to write a blog something I never thought I would do as it's not really me, but I guess time calls for change. Due to my recent 'relocation' to Northern Thailand I figured it's the best way to keep friends and family updated on what I'm doing out here, instead of regurgitating the same thing in emails and also to spread the news about what I'm trying to do out here. So...... what exactly am I doing out ...

... until we got to the Thai-Myanmar border. We wandered through the border markets and chatted to some black market Burmese traders standing on the other side of the wall trying to sell us cigarettes. (They didn't succeed!). We were tempted to cross the border for the sake of it, but it was too hot, and we couldn't be bothered with the paperwork and $10 payment. We headed back to Tak and had a quiet night in the ...

Almost 10pm, ancient, old capital of Thai (Lanna) kingdom-Sukothai. Cool, bright fluorescent lights, timer program on PC showing cost minute by minute, uploading videos of elephant riding Mood: glad to be here, missing company, twinge of sad on bus Today I had a leisurely morning as didn't sleep wel last few nights. Mattress was thin and hard, and actually got chilly under the fan. Thinking about ...

We took the night bus from Bangkok to Sukhothai. It was a seven hour bus ride so we arrived in Sukhothai at about 5 am. We eventually submitted to the persistent tuk-tuk drivers and took one to New Sukhothai. We found a place once we got there and it was dirt cheap, I'm talking 120 baht (about $4 CAD). We took the songthaew (pick-up truck converted to a ...

... stopping at teashops and temples, trying to learn about Burmese astrology (there are 8 days in the week, Wednesday night being separate, and the day of your birth decides your fate...). There's one temple built on top of a crocodile statue, another with what I can only call the "disco buddha." Shops sell even cheaper knock-off products than those in Thailand; Chinese-pirated DVD's, their cases covered in dust, really fake Rolexes, fake cell phones... There's ...

... workers a year. She's been nominated for the Nobel prize and I'd interviewed her previously. But the road to the clinic passes through several checkpoints, and he doesn't have the 12 dollars to buy the checkpoint. I promise to bring him some bandages, antibiotics, and paracetemol. When I return the next day, he's waiting for me and tells me his story, grateful for the medicine. The SPDC forced him to be a porter a few years ago. He carried weapons for them ...

... s rights. I'm speechless, saddened not only by her story. While I can grasp her English, there's no way the American radio listener will understand. Although she desperately wants me to broadcast her story, I know it will never reach the airwaves. Since I have the recording gear with me, Khangsai wants me to interview another rape victim for her radio program. The woman just arrived in the camp from Karen State inside Burma. In November 2005, an SPDC soldier raped her and she ...