I am now in Bangkok after a long day out in the humidity and heat.  Less than one full day left until I make the voyage home.

Friday we did another clinic in a village in the mountains.  I learned a lot more about the villages on Friday.  This village is from the Akha tribe.  There are 7 tribes in northern Thailand, each having their own type of houses, food, music, language (which is very different from Thai and from other tribal languages), etc.  We had to use an English to Thai, Thai to Akha translation.  So there were about as many workers and translators as patients.  This day we saw about 60 patients.  Had some sad ones, like a young woman in her 30’s with a neck mass that was obviously thyroid cancer and an AV malformation in a finger that was causing heart failure.  The people in this village, like the last one, were all so hospitable.  They stopped being seen by us to they could feed us. They set up their own clinic, feed us lunch, then take down their own clinic.  It’s truly amazing.

On our way home we stopped by a dorm that’s run by friends of the Gibsons.  It houses school age kids whose parents are off working and can’t take care of them or orphans, or any kids that need help.  They go to the regular schools and just stay here for their home.  They grow tea and sell it to help make money.  We got to see their tea fields.

Friday night I went with Drs. Seekaow and Sanong to the World Colors Festival.  I wish we would’ve known about it sooner so we could’ve spent more time there.  It was one of the highlights of my time in Chang Rai.  The festival is supposed to highlight a lot of different cultures around the world.  They got people from Puerto Rico and India to come play music and dance (and likely a lot of other places too, those are just the specific ones I heard).  They had a Native American exhibit, but it was Thai people dressed up instead of people from America.  Around the perimeter of the festival all of the tribes of Northern Thailand got some space where they set up a sample house, had some tools or instruments specific to their tribe, some had food, some were dancing, some were selling things they make, they were wearing their tribal clothes.  I got to see how different each tribe is.  It was very interactive.  I got to go inside the houses, try the food, do some of the dances, play with the tools.  One tribe had a swing that I played on forever.  We only made it through half of the festival before we had to leave.  I would’ve loved to have had more time.

Saturday we had a free day.  We rented a truck to take us around.  First we went to the White Temple.  It was a Buddhist temple that is all white and shiny.  It was huge and gorgeous!  The detail that went into making it was so intricate and unbelievable.  Google it and see how amazing it looks.

Then we went into the mountains to a waterfall.  We hiked in to the main part of it, but you could continue to hike up further.  Of course we did.  I slipped and fell on a rock and got carried away a few meters.  It sounds more dramatic than it was, but it was a little scary.  Since I was already wet, I just finished getting in the water and went under the waterfall.

From there you could keep hiking to go to an Akha village.  They have a lot of hiking tourists pass through so they have it set up for us. They were selling things they made and drinks.  They have two rooms in huts that you can rent for your hotel.  I want to do it!  We got lucky because it was the grand opening for their village Akha museum!  One of the village guys said it was his dream to do, and he did it and did it well.  They gave us sprite in a cup made out of bamboo.  They gave us a bracelet.  We got to go in a house (made all of bamboo).  They had tools and things in the house to look at.  They had some food that I ate with them.  The best part was in the back they had one of those same swings as at the festival and they had a home made little two person ferris wheel.  Me and Seekaow got on it.  We were the first people on it.  It was so much fun.  They had weapons like sling shots and bows and arrows you could do target practice with.  It was so much fun to get to be there and see their culture and way of life.  That was 100%, without a doubt, my favorite part of the entire month.  The mountains are just so absolutely beautiful here, so even without the village it would’ve been a great time in the mountains.  I went back to the hotel very satisfied with my day.  We flew back to Bangkok that night.

Today in Bangkok we saw the Grand Palace.  There are a ton of different Buddhas to see.  A tuk tuk took us to see lucky Buddha, happy Buddha, white Buddha, and probably a few other ones.  They’re all running together.  There was a reclining Buddha too, but we were all Buddha’d out and very sweaty from the Thailand heat.

Don’t know what our plan is for tomorrow, but we’ll take it easy to get ready for our long flight home.  Can’t wait to kiss my husband and snuggle my puppy and kitty babies.  Thank you all for reading my posts this month.  I definitely will be back in Thailand some day and hope to bring the hubby with me.  If you want to see more pictures or have questions about anything, comment or e-mail.