Hello there again, I am back in the far north of Thailand after leaving Malaysia, and having a lovely week in Singapore with my family. We celebrated my elder grandaughter, Eva's 1st birthday on the 6th November, and it was a very special time for me. It was so lovely to be back with my family, after 3 months of pretty much solitude, and to see the change and growth in Eva was a joy to behold. On the morning of her birthday Ramesh, his Mum, Achi and I (Deb was at work) took Eva to their Hindu temple for a special blessing, what a cultural treat for me that was. I have posted a heap of photos of her on here, for me being with her, and Deb and Ramesh of course, was a big highlight of the trip so far. It was hard saying goodbye, as always, but at least this time I will see them again soon, as we are all meeting up in Mumbai, India for christmas. I am going a bit earlier and will be there for my other lovely grandaughter's 1st birthday, on the 15th December. Soo, I returned to the beautiful ChiangMai earlier in the week, and have been chilling there for a few days. met up with my dear friends, Eric and James, had another therapeutic massage with Eric, excruciating, but wow, the results are amazing! 4 hours of torture is well worth it for the painfree, grounded, balanced and centred feeling afterwards. And it lasts, 3 days later I still feel great. James cooked a lovely dinner party which I was invited to, and was able to meet some lovely interesting people, and enjoy some NZ lamb (cooked to perfection) and mint sauce, along with many other things. It was so nice to have an opportunity to socialise and meet people. Then yesterday I took a bus north and am now in ChiangRai. From here I am going to organise the border crossing into Lao, and my long awaited slowboat down the Mekong, so I think my next post will be alot more interesting! I ventured out to explore the town last night, and thought that ChiangRai is very charming. Much much smaller than ChiangMai, but it has a character of it's own, and I stumbled across a night market/bazaar which was amazing. After emptying out my pack to reduce the weight while in Singapore, I am now starting to refill it! Ha, but it was mostly xmas shopping, you gotta take the opportunities when they come! OK folks that's it for now, I hope to start my river journey tomorrow or the next day, and am very excited about it. I am also looking forward to seeing a new country, and what new adventures will unfurl before me.
