Christmas etc.

Thanks to all of you concerned about us during the recent disaster here in Thailand. In particular thanks to Christine, Meghan and Barbara who sent comments via the blog. David talked to Marion and Stan earlier today, so they are reassured. We are watching the BBC news while we write this posting. It sounds bad - about 25,000 dead in all countries concerned. We feel as separate from it as you probably do in that we aren't affected in any direct way by it and we cannot talk to people about it and the one English language newspaper is always a day late here in Chiang Khong.

So, what have we been up to and where have we been lately?

Well as you know we left Chiang Mai and traveled southeast to Lampang, east to Phrae, northeast to Nan, continuing northeast to the mountains close to the Thai/Laos border, then northwest to just beyond Chiang Khan for the night. Now we are in the north in a small town called Chiang Khong next to the Mekong River.

We traveled with Nancy Peters and a male driver named Pee (sp?). We couldn't talk with him but he seemed nice and we smiled and spoke our own languages to each other and felt that there was some communication going on even if we didn't understand the words. Nancy is fluent in Thai so we were in excellent hands otherwise.

In Lampang we visited the Elephant Conservation Centre. We saw a half dozen or so elephants having a morning bath with their mahouts. These mahouts sit on their backs while the elephants dip and spray water around. One elephant in particular was on its own and really went right under the water and rolled around. It was a hoot to see. From there the elephants and their mahouts demonstrated the kinds of skills elephants had to be useful in harvesting teak trees in the Thai forests. These are Asian elephants as opposed to the larger African elephant. Courtney and I fed bananas to the elephants after the show. We also saw several baby elephants with their moms and a elephant hospital - interesting to see how a sick elephant is so different from a healthy one. One of the hill tribes from this area has a small business making paper products from elephant dung. They are located at this conservation centre.

We went from there to a very old wat (probably 12th century). One of the interesting things there was a camera obscura. This was a small hole in the side of one of the buildings that allowed a view of the stupa (large structure housing a relic of the Buddha) to be reflected onto a piece of cloth located in that same building.

On to Phrae where we spent the night in a Chinese run hotel - very basic. The beds were extremely hard. There was no hot water so we didn't brave a shower. The toilets were the Asian squat toilet. This was David and Courtney's first experience with these. There is no flushing mechanism so you have to get practice in being able to flush the toilet by pouring a container of water down the hole. We're getting better at it. There is no toilet paper provided so so far we are bringing our own and disposing of it. We haven't all mastered cleaning with just a spray of water and/or using the same container that's used for flushing to clean yourself. All very complicated to get used to a new system for these basics of life.

Had a great supper at the night market in Phrae. All of these Thailand towns/cities have night markets where you can buy a variety of ready made food and/or sit at a little outdoor table and have small dishes of any number of types of food. Produce and non food items are also available. Beer and liquor are available everywhere but beer is a luxury for many Thais. It's actually cheaper to drink a local whiskey called Mekong - about $2.15 for 375ml. Beer is $2/quart bottle for the cheapest which is called Chang.

Lots of old teak houses in Phrae. It's hard to find anything anywhere made of wood in Thailand so far that isn't made of teak.

We spent Christmas in a very special place. We climbed very high through windy (sp?) steep roads in the dark to find ourselves in a small village on the side of a mountain. We stayed in small huts completely made of bamboo on stilts and with thatched roofs - very basic but wonderful. This place was run by a Lu family - members of a hilltribe group. The little boys were very cute and Mom and Dad were lovely people. We stayed there for two nights with the beautiful misty mountains in constant view. Took a great walk down the side of one mountain into the valley where there was a river. The moon was big and bright.

Anyway, it's getting late and I think the proprietor wants to go to bed, so we will sign off for now and update you again soon.