Arroyo's Doi Mae Salong

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Hi Everyone,

What a great day we had yesterday. A lot of it was spent in the car, but we had a lot of ground to cover in order to get from Chiang Mai to Doi Mae Salong. We started out around 9am, checked out of the Chiang Mai Residence, Sophia didn't want to leave. She loved it there. We immediately headed to a childrens orphanage. Gosh, I wanted to take them all home. The staff was really friendly and you could tell that the children are well cared for. It was so sad though. When we walked in the door the kids got so excited and immediately began running for us and jumping all over us. The boys headed straight for Eddie. At one point he had three 1-3 years olds in his arms saying, "home poppy". Heartbreaking...

From there, we headed to Sergeant Kai's old army base. Civilians arn't able to get in, but because he had been in the army for 18 years, he had connections. We did a quick tour and then stopped off at the horse stables. Gosh, there were some beautiful animals there. There was one horse in particular that I loved, so sweet!! These were horse stables, but the army also breeds mules for transport to the Burma border (we were right near the border). The funny thing is these mules just hang out. I got a couple pictures of one just walking thru the restaurant. Hilarious!!!

Next we stopped off at this crazy and authentic market to grab some road food. I would love to say that we stocked up, but I think I was more freaked out by most of the food then anything. Lots of bugs and things that smelled different then I was used too. It was something I am glad we did though, talk about culture shock.

For there we stopped at a restaurant for lunch. They had the most beautiful flowers there. OK, so the most insane part of our entire trip is how people are responding to the girls. During lunch, they didn't even sit with us. They sat with a family behind us. Most of the locals have never seen caucasion children before and they are crazy for them. The girls are literally being touched to see what thier skin feels like and picked up to see their blue and green eyes all day long by complete strangers. Audrey, has taken to saying "hello" to everyone. I think she thinks she is a baby movie star or something. I have countless pictures of people holding Audrey to take a picture with her, just so you don't think I am kidding. It's pretty funny!!!

From lunch we headed to the Chiang Dao Cave. It was amazing to say the least. About 300 years ago a solitary monk found this cave with ancient carvings of Buddha. They have since added more but the carvings are spectacular. You walk up these long steps into a cave turn a tight corner and look up. There are tons of carvings above you head and all around. The cave is fairly long and at the end the girls sat and played in the sand a bit. The interesting part is that for 2-3 months out of the year, this cave is completely flooded and inaccessable. I really loved it and am so happy we got the chance to experiance it.

From there we headed to the Lahu Tribal Village. This is not a village that is visited by many children and adults so when the kids saw the girls they looked a little taken back. Sophia handed out candy that Sergeant Kai purchased and Audrey chased after some of the kids her age wanting to play, but they just ran from her in not really fear but maybe confusion. We headed through the village meeting people ans seeing how they live their lives when this pack of dogs started coming towards us barking. Sophia has never jumped in my arms so quickly. Sergeant Kai jumped between them and us and talked the dogs. Scared the hell of of me!!!! He then took us over to this woman that was using this primative machine type things to breaking the rice away from the kernals. Eddie tried it and did a pretty good job. From there, we headed back to the car, but we really loved it.

From there, we were about 1-hour away from Doi Mae Salong, so headed straight there. What a new culture shock we were in for when we got there. We went straight from Thailand to little China. We were a bit nervous about our accomodations, but they turned out to be fine. Our room consisted of 2 large rooms so the girls were able to run around and scream. I was a little bugged because they quoted us 1050 baht for the room but when we got there, they said it was 1500 baht. We didn't have a choice since there wasn't anything else in the area, but I felt swindled. We went there specifically to see the cherry blossoms. I thought they would be everywhere, but they weren't I think I saw 5 trees. It was a little dissapointing. Anyhoo, once we got checked in we went into town where they were having a festival, so we got to eat and hang out with the locals. It was pretty fun.

After that, we just went back to the hotel and caught a few winks of shut eye.

Love you all!!

Angie

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Photos

Army Stables
These were really amazing to see!! Makes me want a horse!! Haa, I know :)

Sophia with ancient turtle
Isn't she a doll!

Audrey with tribal children
Barefoot and ready to play. They were more interested in watching her.

Beautiful Tribal Woman and Baby
Her role was to prepare the rice for the tribe. She had such a dear spirit.

Comments

[Betty & Eddie]

Wonderful Travelog
We've seen more of you four on vacation in Thailand, then most other times. Look forward to updates every day!