Lanna Hill House Chiang Mai

... come when you don't expect them, hence the need for instinct.
Fright, flight, fight.
The fright had come. Flight would be a bad idea at this point. I know dogs - they love to chase something that runs, and it gives them the idea that you are weak and they are strong, which will generally intensify their aggression. And there's four of them. Which leaves fight. These thoughts flitted through me in the nanosecond after the dog snapping at my hand.
In a flash my ...

... this place are composed of virgin forests and flowing rivers, smiley natives in funny clothes and hats and boat rides on peaceful lakes. Imagine my surprise and disappointment to see a sprawling city, full of high rise buildings, large boulevards and condo towers.

The attractiveness of this place is not in the city itself but is rather related to the activities done in nature, ouside of the city limits: kayaking in the rivers, ATV or ...

... My official title is Research and Advocacy Advisor. Shangklaburi is the most remote border town where humanitarian organisations work. It is the end of the road, and yet the beginning of the road for many Burmese refugees fleeing into Thailand. There is a lake, I might call a houseboat home and apparently there is a stray Austrian who makes delicious cakes! If you swung a cat by its tail and let go it would land well outside the town, just to give you an indication of the ...

... wrong :), but the weather was beautiful, so it wasn't all bad. The star attractions for us were the Pandas, Hippos, Gibbons and Giraffes, unfortunately the orangutans were hiding, but we will get to see them in a few months in Borneo.

It was great fun taking photos and we both felt like children again, standing and staring in awe. Emma's favourite animals were the Pandas and Giraffes, while mine were the Gibbons, although my pictures do make some of ...

... doll with pink hair to one little girl trying to explain that she could share it, she bowed with hands together and ran off in delight whilst the others stood looking at their balloons! Back at the hut, we sit outside eating yet another gorgeous meal and sipping beers, afterwards Sang teaches us the 'elephant song and dance' round the fire, he seemed to think my enthusiasm for the dance was hilarious and the infectious laugh howled a lot!

Onto the drinking games, but not ...

... After breakfast we walked to a rafting center where we were introduced to the basics of rafting before jumping on board with our mental raft guide, whose entire aim in life seemed to be to get us each in turn on a rotation into the water. rafting was brilliant fun though, if pretty tiring (and very wet). For the final 15mins we swapped onto a bamboo raft which he sort of "punted" down the river, pointing at every stick along the way claiming it was a snake. On the ...

... no happy ending!!!"......quite funny actually...but the foot massage was great. So we figure hey lets get some local bug juice for our little elephant adventure....just in case. So we find a pharmacy..no problem they are everywhere out here....10 staff in a 10 by 10 foot shop...so service was excellant...so we ask for some bug juice and one of the guys in nice english says "oh you want this as it is good!" and hands us a bottle...they ask why we ...

... and never seen the other teams until we arrived at the bamboo rafts. I wasn't really sure how bamboo rafts were supposed to work but this wasn't the image I came up with. The raft were long enough to hold eight people with their legs stretched out without touching each other and about as wide as your arms. I would guess at 5 x 20 maybe. That was fine but if you got to many people in one spot it would start sinking. Which we managed several times trying to get ...

... fully when it's in book form hahahaha]. The bamboo rafts were about 20ft long and made by the villagers "fresh" that day. The bamboo floats well, even with six people on the raft as well as all our bags - put above the waterline using another couple of bamboo sticks. Sometimes we had to sit down or just brace when we went through some quicker rapids, with rocks inches below the water level. But Nu and the Lahu-with-the-tree-legs were very ...

... with Helen recieving some upsetting news we are starting to miss the people a little more too, the job market does not look too bad for us with positions in Saudi and Europe (the sunny bits) appealing to us and even Oz has been mentioned but that can all wait a while............. We still have this to enjoy and we are off to a piano recital tonight and then I have a Thai cookery day on wednesday................. Pictures hopefully to follow..