Hi everyone!!
Before I start I must say I'm devastated to hear about the bushfires in Victoria... each day I have been logging onto the Sydney Morning Herald website and have been shocked and saddened as the death toll has continued to rise dramatically. I hope that no one in our family has lost any close friends or people they know.

Okay.... so since I last 'blogged' A LOT has happened! I’ll try to be brief, but the photos will give you a good idea of what we did and saw.
On Wednesday morning us new volunteers departed for our “homestay”. It was an amazing couple of days! First off we went to Wat Phra Kaew Temple, which was beautiful. We then went on an elephant ride around a small village, through the countryside and also through a river! At the elephant camp there were a few market stalls and also a snake enclosure, so I was able to experience holding a boa constrictor without dying of fear! Check out the photos... it was pretty cool.
After the elephant camp we went to a peaceful place in the jungle for lunch, which was sticky rice, pumpkin and a yummy marinated meat wrapped up in banana leaf. We then walked to a waterfall and another volunteer from Canada, Keith, and I were brave enough to swim in it! It was FREEZING! However when we began to hike we decided we were clever because the trek was long and very steep uphill in the boiling midday sun. I had swum fully clothed as that’s the modest thing to do in Thailand, and by the time we reached the top I was dry!
The village we reached on Wednesday night was Yafu, home to the Lahu hill tribe people. The people were lovely and hospitable, but fairly shy. I stayed in the home of a family with two young children – a boy and a girl – with two other volunteers, Erica and Tessa. Their home was a bamboo hut which had two rooms – a big open room with no furniture, which had a clay platform for cooking on. They put down three mattresses in this room for us to sleep on. The rest of the family slept in a tiny room in one corner of the hut. Outside was another bamboo hut with a bucket of water to wash with, and my favourite – a squat toilet (ha, ha). Oh and it also housed four gigantic huntsmen (also my favourite!).
My Lahu family cooked us a lovely dinner and breakfast in the morning, too. After dinner we dressed up in their traditional dress and danced around a fire with them, which was nice (although their traditional dance is somewhat monotonous!!). All the kids were fascinated by my beaded hair, so Erica decided to braid our host’s daughter’s hair in pigtails. She loved it; as did the captive audience that formed as she was doing it – she ended up braiding four other girls’ hair as well!
The next day we trekked in the heat up a long steep hill but at the top the view was definitely worth it!! Whilst up there we cooked our lunch completely in bamboo, and we carved chopsticks out of bamboo to eat with. Lunch was delicious (as all meals here have been!).
Afterwards we trekked back to the Lahu village, said our farewells and began our next trek, to a village called Apha, populated by the Akha hill tribe people. The Akha people were completely different to the Lahu, as was their village. The people were extremely friendly and very outgoing, knew a few words of English and really wanted to include us in everything. Their village was a lot more modern than the Lahu one – they had a paved road rather than a dirt one, some of the houses were concrete rather than bamboo (although bamboo ones existed too) and the house I stayed in actually had a cold shower, western toilet and fridge!! However, despite modernising their homes the Akha people seemed to be maintaining their traditional culture more than the Lahu people – whilst many Lahus were in western clothing, many of the Akha people wore their traditional dress even to work in, and even a lot of the kids and babies wore it. They were very proud of their culture – everytime they showed us something, e.g. the food they’d cooked, the jewellery they’d made, a dance they did, they would say “Akha people, Akha people”. This has since become a catch phrase amongst us volunteers!!
The food at the Akha village was delicious too, and plentiful. Our ‘mumma’ (as she called herself – so cute!) wouldn’t stop giving us food. She was sooo adorable. As soon as we arrived, three of us (Erica, Biaina and I) followed her to her house and she grabbed my hand and led me. For the entire stay I felt so loved – she kept stroking my arm, commenting on my ‘beautiful’ hair and smiling at me. When we left she cried!! It was so sad – she wiped her eyes on my sleeve and wouldn’t let go of my arm. In a strange way she reminded me of Micheline (my host mum in France – random!). When we left she gave us all beaded bracelets and blessed us and gave us plenty of bananas to eat on the way home, as well as letting us keep our bamboo cups that her husband had carved for us. Though she gave the other girls one she gave me two! I felt a bit embarrassed but also flattered by her blatant favouritism haha.
At night in the Akha village we dressed in their traditional dress, which was a lot more decorative than the Lahu’s. Their dance was also more interesting, and they involved us a lot more. We all loved the Akha people so much!! At night Biaina, Erica and I stayed in a little room near the house, which we nicknamed “the love shack”, because we think that that was its use! Unlike the Lahu people, who sleep together, the Akha women and men sleep in different rooms of their house. When one of the volunteers dared to ask our guide how they have so many children he explained that there was usually a separate room outside the house which they could both go in. As our ‘mumma’ had ten children we felt our accommodation had been well-used!!
The next day we returned to Mirror, which was sad because we’d felt so welcomed at the Akha village, and had such a great time. Although it was lovely to be ‘home’ to have a cold shower and put on some fresh clothes!
Friday afternoon we packed little bags with sugar, rice and garlic to make offerings to the monks on Monday morning (a Buddhist holiday here). Friday night we all got driven into town and taken out to dinner by the Mirror Foundation, as well as driven to “Big C’s”, a GIGANTIC shopping place kind of like “Big W”. Everyone stocked up on toiletries, snacks, etc. I bought some porridge to make for breakfast because a few of us have decided spicy food first thing in the morning isn’t really our thing. Although we don’t have milk or anything to put on it, plain porridge actually isn’t that bad!! We cook it in a plastic cup – ie we put the oats in a cup and pour on hot water because we don’t have anything to cook it in – but it works surprisingly well. If Jo was here I know she’d make a comment about wearing fingerless gloves (referring to Oliver Twist and the time I had baked beans for dinner).
After Big C’s we went to the night bazaar and then searched around for a guesthouse. There was a group of six of us looking and we kept arguing over what we wanted, but finally after about eight guesthouses we found a lovely one that provided breakfast and was right near the centre of town. We then went to a bar called “Teepee”, which is the wackiest but coolest bar I’ve ever been to – ever! It was very small and grungy, with black walls and rock posters and random haunted things hanging from the walls and ceiling. The ‘tables’ were cages filled with mutilated barbie dolls and rubber bloodied arms, etc. Along one wall was a row of crazy wigs which we all put on and danced in – very amusing! The music was great – all old-school punk and rock, lots of classics. We loved it. We’ve made a pact to go back each Friday! Another cool thing about the place was that we met two deaf mutes. Despite the obvious language barrier we actually managed to communicate quite well and they taught me a lot of signs. Unfortunately the alphabet that Elena taught me seems to be different to theirs, but I’ve learnt how to say ‘hello’, ‘how are you?’, ‘good’, ‘I will remember you’, ‘I love you’ as well as many others. We also made great use of our drawing skills and managed to communicate quite a lot – I learnt where they live, how old they are, what they do, what they think of Australia/Canada/America, and much more. We’ve arranged to meet them next Friday at the same time! I’m looking forward to it.
On Saturday we woke up early to say goodbye to a volunteer who was only in Thailand for a week, Hannah. We then hung around the Mirror Guesthouse to witness some of the official opening ceremony, including the monks praying. In the afternoon we went to the White Temple – an amazing new temple that is still being constructed, but which is already very beautiful (and very unusual!). It is a modern-style temple, all in white with mirrors on the outside, and a beautiful coloured mural on the inside. At the top of the mural is Buddha, and moving down the wall the motifs represent more and more evil. I thought the mural was quite controversial as it seemed very anti-American! Towards the bottom was a picture of George Bush, pepsi, a yellow taxi, Osama Bin-Laden and various other American icons (yes, I know Osama isn’t American).
Next we went to a walking market, then a delicious Indian restaurant for dinner, followed by a long and much-needed (after our trekking!) Thai massage.
On Sunday a few of us did a day trip to the Golden Triangle, which was great. We visited a monkey cave, the border crossing to Burma at Mae Sai (the “northern most of Thailand” as the sign said – I wonder where the northern least is? Haha), the ‘Golden Triangle’ (on the Mekhong River, the place where Burma, Laos and Thailand meet), an opium museum and Chiang Saen, the ancient capital of the Lanna kingdom, which was a walled city full of ruins, some of which are 1000 years old.
Yesterday (Monday) was meant to be another busy day for me, as I’d signed up and paid to help pave a road up near an orphanage in Mae Sai. I got up at 5.15am, ready to leave at 5.30 to give alms to the monks, but wasn’t feeling too great. By the time I’d got into town I was feeling really ill so I got dropped at the Mirror guesthouse, where I promptly fell asleep for five hours. So unfortunately I missed out on the monks and the labour, but felt a lot better in the afternoon. Last night we went back to the beautiful Wat Phra Kaew for a candle-lighting ceremony. It was a really magical atmosphere. Everyone got a bunch of flowers with three incense sticks and a candle, which we lit. We then walked around the temple grounds three times. The idea was to think of Buddha on the first round, Buddhist teachings on the second, and pray for the monks on the third.
This morning I went to a childcare – in a different village to last time – with three other volunteers: Tessa, Alisa and Ian. The kids were much better behaved than the last bunch, although less outgoing. It seemed quite a mix of abilities, too. One girl was very bright and reminded me of Xanthe, because she seemed to know all the answers when many of the other kids didn’t, and I think she was probably pretty bored with the whole exercise (she kept playing with my hair, seemingly not concentrating and yet still being the first to answer every question!).
SO – that’s about it for now (congratulations if you managed to read all this!!).
Hope you are all well, and surviving both the snow and the extreme heat (46 degrees – I can’t believe it!)
Tonnes of love to you all,
Bec xxxxx