Lost & found!

So.. since the last time I wrote, we lost our digital camera, our keys for the scooter in a Mae Hong San market, even my melodica our last barcrawl in Pai (in my drunken stupor I swore I brought it home!!) Luckily we have found all these things again due to kind and honest Thai strangers. I must say I feel quite safe in this country- even the drivers seem to take care of others on the road more than in Mexico and Canada. (I am of course am not talking about drivers in Bangkok, that's another story!) Using my off time while C studied Thai cooking, I read 'One flew over the cuckoo's nest'- such a good, sad but inspiring book! I rented a mountainbike and checked out the small villages around Pai- it's so funny to go places and have all the kids yelling hi and waving their hands at you. Sunny Thailand. We went swimming with an elephant named Boonma- which was fun because elephants, like trail horses get awfully bored going for another walk around the block, but get them to do tricks and you will see them respond in a very positive way. It's really like she enjoyed chucking us off into the river- if you've ever seen an elephant laugh, you know what I mean. Anyways, when we get the film from the disposable waterproof camera developed you will see Christian bronco riding an elephant and getting spat in the face with water. Elephants are really smart. The morning before our last day in Pai Serpab the lovely gardener brought us sticky rice and noodles with fish and a very useful lesson in Thai for breakfast. Such a nice guy. Christian's wonderful cooking and carving teacher made us a spectacular meal our last night- a fried Thai fish with amazing herbs and another specialty fish steamed in soysauce- a recipe from Hong Kong. Our last day it rained cats and dogs- the first time we have seen rain since... whenever it rained last in Montreal. We had some time to kill so we went to this fantastic little video rental spot called 'Cinema Pairadiso' which rents you a DVD and then gives your own private livingroom and TV with surround sound. They had an excellent selection of film classics and by coincidence there it was!! I got to see Jack Nicholson in 'One flew over the cuckoo's nest'- man is he ever good. I find the novel stronger, but the casting in that film is fantastic.

I almost got carsick again on the overnight ride to Chiang Saen, but some nice guy gave me a sleeping pill and I passed out for a while. We arrived at around 3:30 am and had no idea that would be the time of arrival, had to find a guest house and wake up a woman, but we found a room luckily. Travel plans are sometimes unpredictable. The next morning we rented a motorcycle and headed off for the golden triangle where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar (formerly Burma) can be seen from the Thai shore of a town called Sop Ruak. The opium museum was quite interesting and we ended up spending the night in the Riverside guesthouse, which was right beside the most northern point of Thailand and gave us a view of Myanmar across the river in a town called Mae Sae. As this is on the border, we found a rather bustling market the next morning everywhere we looked. Everything from flashlights to turtles were for sale. We hopped on the scooter (a 'Click'- a much better machine than the 'Icon' ladyboy-definately rent one of those if you are two travelling together, more comfy and gutsy!) Then we continued to get completely lost and ended up at the border, so C crossed and got a picture taken on the other side- man is it ever beautiful in ex-Burma! All the tourist maps we had didn't have any names on the streets and we got so lost several times that day, sometimes lacking gas, but we always got lucky somehow and arrived to our destination. We found the gorgeous park with caves called Tam Luang and I tried to get a photo of this butterfly and told C to stay away and not scare it for my photo, but then it ended landing on his foot! There were also rabbits there that would eat out of our hands. The caves were really cool, and after we went to a little resto where we ate some spicy green papaya salad and the lady there dared C to eat a deep fried cricket and he said it was interesting. We also both tried deep fried grubs and I almost puked after mine. After that we went to the Royal Palace/garden near Doi Tung which was beautiful, but we got really lost and yes once again found ourselves at the Myanmar border. The area smells like pine needles and flowers-very special place to be lost in. We finally made it late that night to the Chinese-Thai town of Mae Salong where they speak a Yunnanese dialect (somewhat Mandarin) and ride horses. The entertaining owner of the guest house we are staying in (Shin sane-50 baht a night each-wow what a deal!) told us we didn't have to take off our shoes in our room anymore because they are Chinese! It's quite multi-cultural here, there is a Chinese muslim mosque just behind the guesthouse. I had the best Won-Ton soup of my life today and I befriended these 2 Akha women (hilltribe women historically from Tibet, but now their tribe resides in Thailand) You can see the sort of clotted-blood grin of the little woman to the right of my chewing on Betel nut to make her teeth stained dark red (makes them look like funky little vampires.) This is a cool area surrounded by tea fields and different hilltribes (Akha, Mien, Lahu, Lisu, Yapa and Long-necked Karen. )We went to the morning market at 6 am today, and then it started raining so we have been taking it easy- C took a shot of one of the motorbikes passing by with umbrellas- but we are not that ambitious to get moving on yet. Next stop will be Chiang Saen to return the bike, then we will go to Chiang Kong, cross the border to Laos and arrive in Luang Namtha in a few days-depending on the rain.