Now near the Myanmar border

Longnecked women dancers at a local hilltribe talent show last night in Pai.

Bridge on the River Pai.............no kidding.........small slats, you can imagine my excitement............I never made it across the whole bridge.

Trip to the street market with our Cooking teacher.

For you Larry and Arin...........but my elephant photos will really happen once I am with Jami after the 15th of January.

Today we travelled through the very curvy mountainous area from Pai to Mae Hong Son. LARGE Burmese influence here. The street stalls offer very different items than what we have found in the rest of Thailand. Curious wonders...........as in I wonder what the hell it is!!! Some experiementing, lots of smiles and some understanding. It is much calmer here than Pai and that is wonderful. We are each staying in a tiny hut with our own bathroom and mosquito netting. Lovely small place by the lake. There is a chedi in the middle of the lake with someone's ashes in it, that is lit up at night. Beautiful....I will try to send pictures later as I am in an internet cafe and have not downloaded those pictures yet.

Yesterday's cooking class was fantastic. I am ready to start a restaurant!! Just kidding, I have already done that in my life and now I am traveling with one of the people I did that with!!!

Anyhow, besides cooking we took a walk to the local market and samples and learned lots about the ingrediants.....we also all had to taste grasshopper........crispy little critter........tastes like chips. Did you know that a pineapple is ripe and sweet if the size of the pentagon on top is the same as the ones on the bottom and if the crevices are not too deep!!! Or that if you have the choice of more elongated eggs vs squatty oval ones, the elongated one has less cholestoral!!! Oh the things one has to come to Thailand to learn.

I am learning. I am noticing. I am trying to take as much in as I can. I think a lot. I see myself trying to make comparisons to what is familiar......"oh that looks just like.....morning glory" etc. And then I think about that movie "What the Bleep Do We Know" and what I learned there about how much we don't SEE because it is unfamiliar. So I am trying to just open my eyes and heart and take it in. Sometimes I think I won't really know what I am seeing until I come home and see what remains with me. I hope I get to keep discussing it with all of you other travellers. I think it is part of the opportunity of traveling.

Not sure what tomorrow will bring and if it will include internet or not!! Not as easy in the little hut. But tomorrow is Childrens Day in Thailand............they celebrate Father's day on the Kings Birthday..............they LOVE THE KING. And I can't tell you how many people from all over the world are commenting to us about their excitement about Obama. Lots of German/Aussie/British travellers, not many USA....another interesting thing to notice!

Bye for now.....Karen