Last night in Thaton

We were so sad to leave the adorable little town we'd lived in for three months! We'd worked up to the very last minute on the water filter, and drove through the rain to enjoy a farewell meal with our group at a ...barbeque place.

Riding in the back of the truck in the rain in style

Stump of coals with a heat..plate..thingy. Melt the fat on top and cook whatever meat you desire! So sanitary..not.

Shrimp for the barby

We were being super cautious to not mix the raw meat utensils with the cooked meat utensils, but you can't deny the cross contamination that must have been going on in the boiling pot thingy. {shudder}

 We were getting so sad to leave our awesome friends :(

Tonya and Sydney

Nat and Jonathan

Heidi and Tonya (again..haha)

Justin and I

I'm not sure how I missed the memo on guava fruit the whole time we were in Thailand, but they are delicious! In Northern Thailand they are called 'farang' which is also the word for foreigner, so it's quite humorous for Thai people to see a farang eating a farang. That didn't stop me though!

Us and wave three. We wanted so badly to stay with them!

 We spent the rest of the evening saying goodbye to our friends.

Mr. Honey, the roti man and most popular guy in town. Nothing beats his fried deliciousness!

Oy, Gam, and Pi Ue. These ladies fed us almost every night in Thailand and learned like two words of English the whole time. Pretty wonderful.

It was hard to say goodbye to our little home! We had spent more time here than anywhere else in our whole married life and it was really hard to leave it!

Next stop, Chiang Mai!

More Mae Salong

 7.22.12

We woke up early to visit the Sunday morning market suggested by our Lonely Planet guide. It was exciting to see the locals getting up to sell and buy fresh produce, items for the home, toys, and clothes.

 

Delicious fried dough with hot soy milk. Mmm mm mm it was a great breakfast!

We were anxious to make it back to Thaton early, so we made our way back to our villa across the mountainside. I could get used to these views!!

We said goodbye to our little bungalow and set off for home!

These double doors were just locked with a padlock..sketchy?

One last look across the mountain to the temple

Jungle Bungalow=Jungalow

We had no idea when the song tao was going to come up the mountain so we could head home, so we explored the town and sampled some herbal tea at a little tea shop. We bought some jasmine tea, since it was the obvious souvenir from Mae Salong.

We caught the song tao home with enough time to settle back in for our last work week with HELP International before heading on a week-long vacation to Phuket and then home. Bittersweet, to say the least.

Song taos are usually very crowded so we had to take advantage of the photo op!

Best birthday weekend ever :)

Andrea's birthday that will never be matched in awesomeness

Did I forget to mention we slept with airconditioning in our room for the first time since we had been in Thailand? We felt like royalty!

We rode our bikes to catch the bus to Mae Sai, and before long were crossing the river once again into Burma (or Myanmar if you want to be politically correct. I'm sticking with Burma though).



We were a little shocked at the sights, smells, and (ahem) shopping options in Burma the first time we went and because of that we didn't venture far from the border crossing area, but we decided to make a morning of it this time. We have worked with a lot of people fleeing Burma and wanted to have a little taste of it, even if it was just the roudy border city of Tackhilek. Prepped for what awaited us across the border, we braved the vendors and made it far enough to snag a tuk tuk driver to take us on a tour.

 First stop was a Burmese temple which conveniently matched my shirt exactly. This was the most run down of the three types of temples we visited, interestingly enough.

Burma Buddha isn't my favorite, but it was interesting to see the different style.

Next stop was another Burmese temple over-looking the city. This one reminded me more of what we saw regularly in Thailand.

View of the border from the temple. You just never know how your pictures are gonna turn out when you hand your camera off to your tuk tuk driver..

 Lastly we stopped at a Shan temple, which was the most meaningful to us. We've met a lot of Shan and feel a connection to them and their situation. We appreciated being able to go into one of their temples!

Beautiful Shan writing.

And that was the end of our tour. We were glad to actually go inside Burma and explore the border town a little, but at this point we were anxious to get back to Thailand.

 Back to Thailand safe and sound. Phew!

We had arranged to meet Ting Ting and a friend for lunch, so we rode our bikes back to the village to meet them.

You'd better believe I was telling all these people 'Ni hao!' as we passed!

 A HUGE highlight of the day was our lunch location. We ate on the banks of this secluded lake surrounded by mountains on three sides, overlooking the reflection of the trees in the water. It was AMAZING. One of the coolest places I have ever eaten.

Fried rice, noodles, chicken wings, oh yes and friend chicken elbows, ankles, and knees. They were better than I expected!

Ting Ting was so nice to treat us on my birthday!

We had a bus to catch, but couldn't leave without crossing this amazing bamboo bridge to see a mountainside Buddhist cave.

And we were off again to the Chinese-settled mountain village of Mae Salong! My love for China being the theme of this weekend, we saw it as the perfect opportunity to spend a night there exploring.

It was a happy miracle every time we made it somewhere on public transportation!

Headed to Mae Salong on a song tao

We checked into our villa and were happy to upgrade to one with an awesome view for the same price.
 

We wasted no time and headed right up the mountain to the temple that overlooks the valley!

Justin contemplating the meaning of Buddhism.

Walking up a bumload of stairs. It was a huge workout!

 BUT the views were worth it!

One of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen! Northern Thailand at its finest.

Temple at the top.

 We walked back down and explored the tea fields that lined the mountainsides.

Birthday dinner at our villa. Not quite authentic Chinese but close enough.

It was a marathon, multi-cultural birthday of travel and excitement that will make every birthday from here on out seem pretty dull! It was a little weird to not be surrounded by family and friends on a birthday, and instead be a foreigner and not even being able to communicate to anyone that it's your special day, but it was a blast to spend it with the most important person in my life, and to have his love and complete attention all day. I know there will be birthdays in the future that will get crowded by other things so this was a really memorable birthday for that reason, too. I'm so grateful for Justin and his continual concern for my happiness. He's the world champion at making me happy!