Arroyo's Chiang Rai - Day 5

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Hello Everyone,

Well, it’s New Years Eve and we are here and doing well in Chiang Rai. The hotel is lovely and very well appointed. Chiang Rai is much smaller then Chiang Mai, it’s actually how I thought Chiang Mai would be. The people here are just a genuine and we really had a great time today.

We started off around 9am and headed straight for a tea-plantation. It was this little set of buildings with hundreds of acres of tea plants rolling through the hills. It was beautiful. Eddie saw a fountain that he insisted I get a picture of. It was a woman with a bucket on top of her head with water shooting out of her nipples, MEN!!! J We spent some time there and had some dried fruit. The dried kiwi was great!

From there we drove to a Akha tribal festival. It was a lot of fun. They had this large swing that Sophia had a great time with and they had some tribal dancing and singing going on. They of course also had a market. Sophia, Audrey and I purchased matching bracelets, with elephants on them, which is really special. The Akha people were in their tribal wear, which is colorful and beautiful. I found out later that the fur plumes on their head was made out of dog hair, they eat dog. It’s funny though because I was noticing that there weren’t a lot of dogs running around. We had a really good time there.

From there we did a quick drive through of another village, since Audrey fell asleep. We ended up running into the village shauman who was sacrificing a pig because someone in the village was sick. Pretty interesting.

From there we went to Monkey Temple. Before entering, we had a tasty lunch of BBQ chicken, fried rice, weird hot dogs, and some other interesting things followed up by fresh coconut milk. The coconut was young and the pulp was slimy, but it was REALLY good. I really want to find more. All of us loved it!!! After lunch we headed into the temple and what an experience that was. Trillions of wild monkeys running everywhere. They were so cute!!! The babies I just wanted to hug all over. So cute. We had to be careful though, because the were wild and we had to watch where we were walking when walking under trees so we didn’t get pee’d or pooped on. That wouldn’t have been fun!!! OH, we had our first experiance with Squat toilets, I know you are all interested in that. It was wierd at first, but by the end of the day, we were pro's, even Sophia!!! 😊

From there we headed to the market on the border of Bruma. Man, was it busy but we got some cool stuff their. The best was I found an antique shop and bought tons of stuff for so cheap. Now I get to figure out how to get it all home. Eddie is happy about that one, since he is the carry-all guy!! J

Well, it’s New Years Eve and the fireworks are beginning!! Love you all!!

Angie

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Photos

Akha Children
Arn't they beautiful

Comments

[Grandma]

Cute Skirt
Sophia, I love the skirt you are wearing in the pictures. It looks so beautiful on you. Your Mom says your are all having a wonderful time. I am happy you can see Thailand and experience all the different things there. You are very lucky to have a Mom and Dad like yours. Give your sister a big hug and kiss for me. I love you all very much and miss you tons. Tell your Mom thank you for sending blogs. I love hearing what you all do everyday. I love you sweetie, Grandma