So, since the last entry I have taken some antibiotics and am better! Yay! Right now I am sitting by the Pai river, on the deck of my bungalo which is 300 baht per night! Pai seems to be the laid back hippy town of Thailand. There are also more Thai Muslims here.
So I arrived a few nights ago and ended up being convinced to go on a 2 day white water rafting expedition on the Pai river. Rapids were between class 1 and 4 and it was really crazy!! Though I didn't fall out of the boat once!! (I almost did a few times but the guide pushed me back). Unfortunately I didn't meet anyone on the trip - there was a Dutch family who were nice bust they were in their own boat, 3 Parisian girls who just spoke French to each other the whole time and were not that friendly, and a really weird 18 year old German guy who I am sure had ADHD - everyone wanted to throw him into the river and leave him there!!
Overnight was nice though - we stayed in bamboo huts which was cool. Along the river we also saw 2 Kingfisher birds and 2 peacocks!! Amazing!
So I came back yesterday night and finally met some people who were more my kind!! (it is actually not that easy to meet nice people - lots of Israelis who are mainly just rude). So the woman I met has been volunteering at an orphanage just out of Chiang Mai for over 2 years - there are deaf kids there and she signs. The children are from the hill tribes and are either children who have disabilities which the hill tribes see as evil, or they are children of parents with substance abuse issues. And so I plan to go there and stay for a bit - she said they have visitors!
I have also since found out that the "long neck people" village that I went to on my trek was probably a fake village - hill tribe people get paid to come and live there for the tourists. I have also found out that most people do not wear rings around their necks anymore - most do it for the tourists and they put the rings on their young daughters just for this reason and condemn them to a life of being in a human zoo.
So, this is all part of the learning experience...
Today I am not sure what I am doing. Lots of people rent scooters here and rive around but I'm too scared to try it on my own! I will have to find someone to go on the back of...I'll let you know how I go. Chris - it so reminds me of when we went scootering around the Cook Islands - I wish you were here now - we could do it again! Oh well, another time.
So, thats probably it for now :)
xxx Orna
