Spending quality time with the siblings

This last week has been very hectic but a lot of fun, with visits from my brother Graham, sister Alison, and good friend Amy. My brother was on his way back from a short term mission trip to Bangladesh with church friends, and the A&As were on their way home from a 6 week visit to friends in America, Canada and Dubai.

My brother and I motorcycled north to some caves for a day, then headed a few hours south for 3 days to visit some national parks and the ruins of the first capital of Thailand.

The biggest tree in Thailand


Ruins at Sukhothai, the first capital of Thailand


On the way home we visited an Elephant Conservation Camp (got a ride in) and had a soak in a mineral pool. A nice trip!

On Friday all of their travel itineries co-incided nicely - we were able to spend the afternoon in town and had dinner together.

Possibly our last sibling dinner for 2 years my bro & sis enjoying pineapple shakes

The A&A's and I went nutso and managed to cram lots into their 3 days. We went to another elephant camp (the elephants obviously enjoying themselves while painting, playing relays, soccer and darts etc. was magic).



We also went caving, saw butterflies and orchids, enjoyed a northern Thail traditional dinner and show, and spent a day stiring up a Thai feast (impressive flames included) at a cooking school, amongst others.


we had a refreshing drink at the 5 start Four Seasons chefs in training

Monday arvo: back to work!

odds and sods

I'm thinking Australians have dropped in the Thailand people's opinion stakes at the moment: having beating them in the Asian Football Cup in Bangkok on Monday. They are very gracious though - I can't really see a difference (though the Aussie t-shirt stays in the cupboard!).

Here's a photo showing a Thai "dessert speciality". Yep, it's pumpkin. For dessert? Yeechhh.....

More of the same, really

Just back from a weekend at a nature camp.
This week we planted on a 60 degree slope.
Here are some of the happy snaps!

Lots of Planting and Going With The Flow

Not exactly what I’d anticipated as being low key ……..

On Saturday we had our pinnacle tree planting day in the National Park, in the hills above the Hmong hill tribe. I roped in a group of Chiang Mai buddies to help with the 10,000 tree task. We were joined by a lot of other volunteers, some villagers, an army group and a whole circus of journalists from Bangkok. Might have gotten an action shot and some quotes in the national English-speaking paper, we’ll see. Quite a fun day, and without a doubt the best soil I’ve ever planted trees in. Digging the holes was almost a pleasure.

Language class, aussie volunteer buddies and media at the planting day

And then on Sunday…….. there is absolutely no need for me to embellish this experience (not that I’m in the practice of embellishing my blogs mind you!).

It’s the start of the main white water rafting season and I’ve never gone before. A friend from Bangkok was in town - she’d been a rafting guide in Colorado for 2 years. She swinged an invite for us to tag along for a paddle with a world class rafter from the US and a group of his Bangkok friends on a nearby river called the Mae Teang. I ended up in an inflatable kayak with a local guide, tagging along with the group of solo kayakers. In hindsight my guide and I probably should have stopped BEFORE the grade 4+ rapids. Many of the kayakers did, especially one who dislocated his shoulder on the first one….

However my guide took a “may pen ray” (no worries!) kind of an attitude, who was I to argue the point, and so we continued. We cleared the first rapid fine – “THE MOST EXTREME KAYAKING RAPID IN THAILAND” I found out later, but on the second and much, much longer one we came unstuck (or stuck, I can’t remember) and bounced around in the drink for most of it. Found out there’s not a lot to grab a hold of on an upturned inflatable kayak. Lots of bruises, lots of swallowed water, but I survived. We regrouped. Guide confessed that he really didn’t like that 2nd rapid very much – yeah, thanks for that mate….

There were many more rapids that afternoon, with no more major spills, happily. Again, it was an extreme experience the usual tourist groups don’t get to have. Easily my most terrifying experience in Thailand so far (and, I hope for the rest of the trip) - I’m pretty proud I kept my cool throughout it.

I’m still paying the price for all this fun, in alternatively blue, black, purple, red and yellow splotches.....