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Ok, so I have now been in province of Chang Rai for over one week now and I love it up here! The weather is a bit cooler (still hot), the people very friendly, and the scenery is very beautiful. I have done so much over the last week.
I arrived into the city of Chang Rai on the sunday 29th at 8:00 in the morning having just got off the overnight bus. I left Sing Buri at 5pm the previous day and spent the entire time travelling from Sing Buri to Bangkok then up to Chang Rai. I was very tired. That day I visited some temples. There is one temple that we visited that was beautiful and stood out from all the other temples we have visited it was called the "white temple". It is a work of art and is stunning. Otherwise the temples are all the same.
The Monday morning was spent being told all about the Akha tribe and their culture in the Akha center in Chang Rai. The Akha people do not speak thai and exist in 5 different countries. After this I did some actual work, helping clear rubble from an area where they are building in the Akha center. I also spent Tuesday doing this.
On wednesday I was taken to a Hill tribe village north of Chang Rai city very close to the border of Burma (Mymar). While there I drank lots of Akha water (their home made and very strong alcohol) ate lots of weird food (nothing like thai food), made lots of cement and got scared by lots of junggle animals at night (I hate frogs). The actual hill tribe people were fascinating. They did a special celebration for getting rid of spirits on my first night. It involved taking a chicken killing it with their hands, de feathering it and chopping everything (skin, bones, head, feet etc) and putting it in a pot of boiling water. Some of this food was offered to the house and the rest was offered to me, and I ate it.
During the day I made cement (yes, again cement made by hand) to create a water resevoir for a farm.
On the saturday we went into the jungle for the day and ate jungle food out of bananna leaves using banboo and other innotive techniques.
I have to go now, I will finish this post when I have more time.........
Golden triangle, Mae Sai, Laos, Boat, Opium museum
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