Uncle Tin'S Cabin Tak

It was inevitable, we were going to take one of those behemoths through the night at one stage or another, don't get me wrong, I don't mind them but given half a chance I'd rather take a sleeper train or break the journey up a little bit but this one just had to be done. More on that later.....<br><br>Getting up today had a little bit of sadness attached as it was to be our last day in Chiang ...

... watched the horror movie that was forced on us, and tried to get my way through the strange snack that was handed to me by the stewardess. Yes they look like stewardesses on the plane only wear bright yellow and blue outfits, high heels and hand random things throughout the trip, from blankets, water, yogurt and wake you up for the random police checks. I still haven&#8217;t understood why most of the time the police checks don&#8217;t include foreigners&#8230 ...

Right-o-, so, where was I? Oh yes, on the way to Bangkok! Gee golly wiz I'm behind on these blogs, which means I'll skip the small trivial details about our farewell to Liz, or the 3 hour car ride with a driver named Chewy, or our long search for Collin and Beau. These events, although annoyingly hilarious in retrospect, do not seem worthy of your attention. I would even go so far as to say Bangkok in general was a bit anticlimactic. I mean, Thai people go ball to the walls for ...

... to local people - Allowing tourism to add value to local communities through cultural and knowledge exchange - Allowing tourism to contribute to sustainable development, so communities can become self sufficient - Minimising the negative impacts of tourism - Practicing responsible tourism - Practicing community based tourism. This means empowering communities so that they can manage their own projects. We are engaged in ...

... and beautiful to see the robed monks walking down from the monasteries and temples early in the morning. Northern Thailand is know for its handicrafts. There is one road leading out of the city that has "factories" for several of the items made around here. I visited a silver factory, a silk umbrella factory and a woodcarving shop. They all give you ...

Today we arrived in the small peaceful town of Sukhothai and after battling with the ******* sawngthaew (taxi) driver who was adamant he could not speak English when we asked to be taken to the bridge in the middle of town, we gave in and got him to take us to a guest house, at which point he could speak English and knew exactly where we wanted to go and hung around like a ...

... of dusty old instruments, Buddhist and animist statues, Christmas lights, and incense offerings. Several of his students are there. He's friendly and animated for an old man, for some reason he reminds me of Chris Donahue, my musician friend in Bozeman. He speaks a different dialect of Karen, so with the help of a translator, I arrange to come back to record a few of his students. Meanwhile I walk around the camp some more, chatting with guitarists and ...

... La Camp, where one of my former students is waiting for me. She looks nonchalantly up and down the road to check for Thai soldiers and we walk inside, ignoring my paperwork. Mae La the largest of the 9 camps, home to 50,000+ refugees, mostly Karen Christians and Buddhists, but also Burmese Muslim and a few other ethnic groups. We walk inside, watching out for shiny shoes and starched camoflage, and turn down a narrow red dirt path, flattened bamboo fences on either side. Like a ...

... so we went there. After the meal I came back to the car while everyone else had a look around, the most interesting think they came across was a dead lizard on the street (see pic). We had a good first day, the group seems to have gelled pretty well, we had a good laugh on the way down here and its going really well. I am not feeling too good today, just need a good night sleep and hoping the Beachems powder will get me through the next couple of days.

... and sound show - be it a bit late. the temples looked amazing in the night with the lighting. Old Sukhothai shuts down very early - by 10pm, so we resorted to having some chang, and playing UNO at the back of the hostel. The next morning I was up early to visit the museum which went throught the history including Dvaravati, lopburi,sukhothai,lanna, chiangsaen, u-thong, ayutthaya tarranokasin periods. The ...