Our Trip North - part 2

Thursday, we started by going on one of the worst roads I’ve ever been on (dirt) heading North to Mae Sai. Mae Sai is the border town - bordering the country to our West. Definitely the most rice fields I have ever seen! We stopped to pick up one of the SIL translators who lives up here and works on a project in a local village in the mountain. He was going to take us there. Unfortunately, as we headed up the mountain, the police had closed the road to the village because there was a huge festival going on. At the top of he mountain was where some of the royal family and lived and vacationed. It cas called "Doi Tung Royal Villa". It just so happened that it was the anniversary of the queen’s birthday and a HUGE festival was going on. So we went to the festival instead. It was amazing. People dressed up in traditional Thai clothing from the different ethnic groups. Music and drama going on. We got to the go in the vacation house and see the beautiful Mae Fah Luang garden. The kids got TONS of attention here. A lot of these people have never seen a white child before…other then maybe pictures. They got touched and pinched a lot and had quite a few people taking pictures with them. It’s funny because sometimes they don’t mind it and sometimes they do. Today Orin was fine saying “cheese” when someone asked but Micaiah wasn’t cooperating. It’s hard to know how much to make them cooperate. We want them to be kind and respectful, but we also don’t want them to do things that make them uncomfortable.

Sora looking cute during one of our rest stops. They were really good about making sure we stopped often for the kids to have a break.

Caiah sharing his orange juice with Sora.

You could easily spot our group! We had fun looking at all of the shops that you see in the background.

Where's Waldo? I mean, Micaiah. He wanted me to take a picture of him standing on a rock. I thought it was funny.

Sora and I outside of the Queen's Villa. Like my outfit? There are strict dress codes any time you go anywhere around something "Royal." We didn't know we'd be going here so I didn't dress accordingly. My pants were a little too short..they need to go almost all of the way down to the ankle. And the sleeves on my shirt were a little too short as well. So they hand out these clothes to people as they enter the compound to wear and then return when you leave.

Beautiful view! Oh, and a pretty cute kid!

We bribed the kids into taking a picture by telling them they could be silly. :-)

People had all of these crazy flower arrangements. They were amazing.

There was a parade that was about to start as we were leaving. Different groups had signs...I wish I knew what they said.

After Doi Tung we drove to the border at Mae Sai. We decided not to actually cross because it’s only been one month of the three that we have before we must cross, and it cost$500Baht. That would be about $15 for each of us. We decided we’ll just wait the 2 months and come back. Or we may fly to see friends in the country West of us…or maybe even go to Singapore or Hong Kong. We’ll see. It’s funny because boarders everywhere are so similar. It reminded me a lot of the boarder city between the US and Mexico that we went to a few times when we lived in Tucson that we would go to sometimes. Lots of vendors…mostly selling pretty junky stuff. Although I did get a pair of genuine (LOL) Ray Ban sunglasses for 60 baht (which is about $1.80). They were right by the Guess and Gucci glasses! Wink, wink.

The boarder at Mae Sai.

There was the HUGE Buddha statue close to our hotel that we went to see one night. It was incredible. It's hard to see how big it is in the picture.

Buddhism is just EVERYWHERE. Over 98% of people living in Thailand are Buddhists. I'll have to write more about it sometime.

The statue during the day. You can see it much better.

We spent a lot of time in the car but the kids all did well. Our van had our three kids as well as the other family and their three kids (and a few brave single people and a married couple).

Micaiah and the little girl Lyia (who is 6) sat together and played the ENTIRE first day. That boy is such a charmer he worries me. J He’s always going for the older girls and they seem to love him. Orin had his turn to sit by her too the day we drove home. He taught her how to play his Leapster. ;-)

Ok, this was the funniest thing ever. The gas stations here are all full services (I'm so glad someone motioned this to me in passing before we had to get gas the first time or I would have just gotten out and started pumping. Anyway, we pulled up to this station and this is what we found. It was hilarious. They were all sleeping on each other...and even the dogs had gotten in on the action!