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A lot has happened and a few miles travelled since our last blog.
We spent a few days at the Generation Journey project which turned out to be not quite what we were expecting! Their website was somewhat misleading shall we say?
That aside we came away with the knowledge and skills of how to make mud bricks and lots of them. Something which we may consider when doing our next house project! Gayle was able to spend some time with the only two residents in the village - both of whom had neurological problems and were in need of some physio. They were very well treated by a full time carer (a higher level of care than if they were in the UK), and had had some physio input in the past so there were wall bars and parallel bars galore! The carer was amazing and did about half an hour of exercises with each of them each day, Gayle's small input was a little advice on progressing their rehab with the aim of walking independently.
After leaving the project - we spent a couple of days in Sanklaburi relaxing and seeing the sights - including the
longest man made wooden bridge in the world (apparently). It was long and very ricketty! We also had what can only be described as 'something' barbequed on a stick - it was cheap with not a lot of meat - we chose to ask no questions! We're still alive with no ill-effects!
On 1st May we took a seven hour bus trip to Bangkok and spent the night there before flying to Chiang Mai - fortunately only the one night as everything is SO expensive there!
On 2nd May we arrived in Chiang Mai where we have been since- we are staying in a basic but clean-ish guest house on the outskirts of the town. On Monday we had a fantastic day - we hired two mopeds and drove off for a day's explorations of Doi Inthanon National Park - 35 miles from Chiang Mai, and a hell of a lot more miles inside! We had a somewhat basic (useless) map which meant we saw a little more of the Park than we had planned (we did about 100 miles that day)! We rode in all weather conditions including quite possibly the hardest rain we have ever experienced.
Gayle the Physio
Full consent was given by the patient (he knew three words of English!) The roads started off with well maintained tarmac surfaces, then we turned off the main route to take a 'short cut' home. This was the best part of the day - some of the most beautiful pristine tarmac, sweeping gently round lush hillsides, followed by a sudden end to the tarmac. Then it was on to what can only be described as a dirt road - it was all ready for the tarmac to be laid on top of it, so was packed hardcore that had been washed away and softened in the pouring rain - steep downhill followed by steep uphill, we felt like off road Gods when we managed to get to the end without falling off! We put those little 100cc scooters through every kind of motobike experience possible in one day and they responded brilliantly! The whole experience gave us a real taste for motorbike touring - which will quite possibly be the next big trip!
On Tuesday we went off on a day trip to see a Thai organic farm project - was quite nice as it was just the two of us our nice (but rather scatty) tour guide and a driver
- it was a long day but it was one of the few times in our travels so far that we actually mixed with real Thai people!
Today we had an amazing day mountain biking - we were picked up this morning and driven to the top of a very high mountain. Once at the top we were dressed in chest/back/knee protetors, helmets etc and briefed on the downhill ride! At this point we were a little nervous to say the least - particularly as the rest of the group we travelled up with had half the protection and different bikes for their chosen route down the mountain! We headed off in a group of four with two instructors and had 15 minutes of rather scary, steep mountainous terrain. After a little break we decided on one of two routes - the slightly easier one, and off we went. Was a proper adrenaline rush as we had some fast paced downhill cycling mixed with some more technical very slow and steep mountanous stuff! At the end we were picked up and taken to a nice lake for a well earned lunch and a cold beer!
We have a
couple more days here in Chiang Mai before we head further north on Saturday towards the Laos border. Keep in touch!
P.S. We are having problems uploading pics onto our blog - however have put some up on Dave's facebook!
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