Hot Hot Hot!

Oh Canada, I am home! After 4 airplanes, 5 airports, 26 hours, and 1 cancelled flight, I'm just happy to have made it back safely. I've been stuffing my face with all the foods I missed eating (like my mom's chocolate chip cookies) and telling lots of stories of my adventures.

Before flying home, I spent my last two days in Bangkok, in the blazing summer heat. I stayed in a hotel on Khao San Road - where tourists like to party and shop at the market. I bartered for a new backpack and souvenirs to fill it with.

I also did a bit of gallery hopping around the city and shopping at a huge seven storey mall. I was crossing the street to the art gallery when a tuk tuk driver stopped me to tell me it was closed...hoping he could drive me somewhere else. Don't trust anyone in Bangkok, people say. (It was definitely open!)

The Grand Palace in Bangkok is a complex of historical buildings. It used to be the official residence of the king of Thailand from the 18th-20th century. Every day, thousands of people travel to see the palace's gorgeous jewels and the emerald buddha.

Thank you Erica and Victoria for your marvelous hospitality!!!
Bye for now! Until my next adventure!
Michelle

For one week, I volunteered in the mountain villages north of Chiang Rai, Thailand. The volunteer organization is a volunteer run, non-profit medical social organization helping the poor, underprivileged and marginalized hill-tribe communities of Northern Thailand.

We stayed with the poorest family in the Akha village and brought food to share. The people were so generous and welcoming. We cooked our meals over the open fire inside the house (actually the teenagers did most of the cooking!). The food was so spicy I had to blow my nose after I ate.

We slept in a bamboo hut on the floor with blankets and pillows. We started our day at 7:30 AM, waking to the cackle of roosters. Across the road there was a squatting toilet/bath house built by a group of previous volunteers. In the morning, people from the village came over to see the doctor. My job was to count out the pills for prescriptions, which were mostly vitamins.

We packed up the truck and drove for about an hour, up a mountain and through a river to a new village. A teenage boy and two girls from the Akha villlage traveled with us in the truck (which was donated to the organization). We played a game called Co-co, where the kids piled their flip flops into a pyramid and started chasing me with the ball we made out of bamboo splinters.

The man living at one hut we stayed at took us into the forest to collect bamboo. When we got back, he chopped the bamboo trunks into thin strips lengthwise and dried them flat in the sun. Later we helped him build a side of his house with the dried bamboo slabs.

The next aftenoon we walked down the mountain to a swampy river where the kids fished for little sardines with their bare hands. I ended up knee deep in mud. We cooked the sardines in a piece of bamboo trunk on the fire for supper that night. It was an exhausting day, especially climbing up the hill in the intense heat.

Dr. David has written and published articles about Burma and is an activist for human rights. He will run the organization for three more years, until his students who have been sponsored to go to medical school can come back and take care of the sick people in the villages. He said that he is teaching them to fish for life instead of giving them a fish everyday.

Erica and Victoria teach English at two schools and a hospital in Surat Thani. They took me to their elementary school so I could see what teaching in Thailand is all about. The kids are very cute and full of energy. The huge school building has open air hallways and luscious green landscaping.

I happily watched three English classes in the morning, ranging from kindergarten to grade three. Vikki and Erica are both fantastic teachers who play lots of games with the kids to make learning fun. They often divide the kids into teams for relays and word games.

A few days later Erica told me that her class (the one I visited) had renamed their team name to "Super Smart and Pretty Michelle"! hahaha. She said they will remember me for weeks!

I was very lucky to travel to Chiang Mai, Thailand's biggest city in the north, with another English teacher from Surat Thani. Chiang Mai's night market was filled with tables of gorgeous textiles and handicrafts made by artisans of the northern hill tribes. There was a food market as well with fresh fruits, vegetables, and fish. Training how to care for an elephant at the Elephant Conservation Centre was a highlight of the trip!

The mahouts have a special relationship with the elephants. They fetch their elephant every morning from the jungle, feed it, ride it, and bathe it. The people at the Elephant Conservation Centre also rescue sick elephants at the hospital and make paper out of elephant dung!

As mahouts in training, we bathed our elephants and learned how to command our elephants in Thai. Our guides showed us how to get on our elephants from the side (stepping on the elephant's front leg), the front (leaping onto its trunk), or the back (stepping on the elephant's hind leg and crawling over its back while it is sitting). We tried all three! The elephant is tough and its skin is thick and leathery.

We also went to an umbrella factory, where workers carved, assembled, and painted paper and silk umbrellas.

We flew to Bangkok from Chiang Mai and took a bus to Kanchanaburi, where we climbed seven waterfalls in a national park. The hike was filled with many breathtaking views of plantlife, monkeys, and incredible waterfalls.

(see more on Next page)

You can never rely on anything to be on time in Thailand! The bus just leaves when it's full...we like to say they live on "Thai time"! Erica, Victoria, and I travelled by bus to the province of Krabi where we met up with a few of their friends. When we eventually arrived at the west coast, we sailed on a long tail boat to Railay. We settled on staying at a cheaper cabana because some of the resorts on the beach were way too expensive. I think I'm an official backpacker!

Because of the cheaper price, our cabana lacked some conveniences such as a flush toilet. Instead, we had to pour a container full of water to flush it. And there were a few holes in the walls, so my mosquito net came in handy. Also our cabana was right beside The Jungle Bar (literally)! At night, there was a Muay Thai boxing match at the boxing ring insinde the bar, and an incredible fire dance show. Didn't really enjoy watching the fight, but the dancers were awesome.

We explored the beaches and caves in Railay, climbing over rocks to see amazing stalactites and stalagmites. On the way we walked past lemurs hanging out in the trees. From the side of a cliff we saw a fantastic view of the beach.

Erica and I booked a half day rock climbing adventure with an instructor. It was my first time rock climbing EVER (haven't even climbed the wall at the Science Centre!)!!! Unfortunately, the trip lacked instruction/safety tips so it was a bit scary. The first time I let go of the rock and sat suspended in the air on the side of a cliff with nothing holding me up but a rope and a tiny Thai man, I nearly freaked out! But our instructor wouldn't let me give up. He made me climb right to the top!

When I reached the bottom I was so relieved. I did one more climb and Erica (who has had experience) climbed a few more times. In the end I felt a powerful feeling of accomplishment.