First weekend in Thailand

It's been a long time since I published a blog. I think the last time was one day when I went to Ireland. I really thought that I would be able to keep that up - but um....no. Well, I think I'll start again so that everyone knows what is happening with me in Thailand.

I arrived on October 30th. I spent one night near the Bangkok airport. Then next day I flew to Chiang Rai, up in the northern province, the largest Thai city before the Burma/Laos border. That Friday and Saturday, I didn't do much, other than try to get used to life in Thailand and figure out what there is to do.

Chiang Rai has a Night Market where locals sell their goods, where you can get dinner for cents, and free night entertainment. I didn't buy much, but it was nice to be out of the hotel room. The first couple of days were pretty lonely. But everything picked up on Sunday.

Sunday, I was able to get on a tour. We left at nine a.m. We drove to Mae Salong village. This is a Chinese settlement in Thailand. A part of the Chinese army came and settled here years ago. They are no longer considered Chinese, but they speak Chinese and have a Chinese school. In this village we did some Tea taste testing. They served worms as a snack on the side!

After the village, we walked to a hill tribe village. I am working with people from hill tribes in this region of Thailand. They have not integrated into Thai society and are sometimes not considered citizens of Thailand. The organization that I am working for tries to help their problems.

It was terribly interesting to see how these people live. But I will get to that more later because we will be spending the entire weekend there this coming weekend.

On the way out of town, we stopped at the Tea plantation. Then we moved on to a Jade factory.

Then we drove to the Golden Triangle. This is the part of Thailand that touches Burma and Laos. It's called the Golden Triangle because of the drug trade that used to be prominent in that area. Opium used to be called Black Gold. So, here they have an Opium museum, which was really interesting, but unfortunately they didn't hand out free samples. : )

After the museum, we stopped at a very old temple in a very old city. And then, finally we went home.

It was such a long day. I decided that I had to have a Thai massage. That was great. Then, I met some of the other volunteers from my program and we got a bite to eat. They seem really nice with some very interesting stories. I was excited to start working.

I was so in over my head...