On Wednesday a workmate and I hired a car for a morning's school program, and then spent the afternoon touring the mountain-top winter palace of the royal family (it was about the 10th public holiday since I've arrived). Nice gardens, with extraordinarily large insects...... they make them big here.
While I'm on this subject, I've solved the mystery of where those annoying cuckoo birds head to after an Aussie Christmas - I think they reside here for the rest of the year, and boy are they annoying! Almost as bad as the local cicadas on steroids (the rain seems to shut them up). Frogs have now come out in force, and the geckos continue to bellow throughout the night whatever the weather.
I also managed to drive around Chiang Mai a fair bit without having any problems. Having so many motorcyclists darting in and out in all directions requires a lot of extra attention.
I've been going to some evening studies hosted by friends I've made at church, and I've met up with the OMF Serve Asia team at their offices. I'll probably get involved by helping out with kids programs at conferences as I'd anticipated, but also might get involved a few afternoons a week teaching english to Thai children in an urban slum area. All this travelling around town has resulted in a few motorcycle lifts, and I'm now keen to make progress on the scooter (and helmet, and extra insurance) purchase in the next few weeks, so I can get around town easier.
On Saturday I rode a bicycle (am allowed to ride those!) out to the town reservior, where swimming is permitted, but only in full attire. The picnic hut set up there is extensive, very elaborate and scenic.
A perspective on Thai work ethics
Lots of Thais work extremely long, hard hours. On closer inspection though, most of the hardest workers are the Shan state labourers - once-refugees from Myanmar (Burma). They seem to work 6-7 days a week on building sites and live onsite in temporary, crude structures or crowd onto the back of utes to commute. Definitely there is a division of labour and financial status here depending on your ethnicity.
Lots of central Thai's seem to have very menial tasks and basically get paid to watch the clock tick. I'm surprised that many of them aren't more enterprising in finding ways to increase their earnings, but hey, I'm still a tourist and my knowledge about how things work here is pretty limited.
More details about the plight of the Burmese refugees
Some fellow Thailand volunteers are working for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Just as a snapshot, in Thailand there around 140,000 mostly Myanmar (Burma) refugees from a number of ethnic groups who live in nine government-run camps along the border. Myanmar has long been plagued by an oppressive militarised government, internal ethnic insurgencies, and refugee harassment.
The UNHCR has an interesting webpage I'd recommend having a look at:
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/photos?set=thailand
A view of part of Mae La Oon Refugee Camp, home to approximately 14,000 people. The camp, which straddles a river flanked by steep hillsides, is plagued by landslides during the rainy season.© UNHCR/J.Redfern
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