Bus station to station

No journey is complete without a long journey by bus, a mad early morning dash to catch a imminently departing form of transport and a hot sweaty walk to catch an overpriced tuc tuc I explained to the children. In order to fully arrive you have to get there. Of course, as with 4 hours travelling on a bus from Maesot to Chiang Mai, they were'nt in a mood to believe me - even if they did. However by 2.00pm today we arived safely back in Chiang Mai in time to be taken out for an evening meal by our former landlord and his lovely family.

But before I mention that let me go return to Saturday and our trip, courtesy of Su, to visit the Elephant Farm in Mae Sai, an hours drive north of Chiang Mai. At the time of course it was very special but writing about it several days later makes it harder to convey the special feeling this day trip evoked. Suffice to say we all - 4 children and 3 adults - all squeezed into Su's car for a misty drive up the hills to arrive at the farm for elephants. As I am sure you can imagine it is hard not to have fun when elephants are involved and this morning was no exception. The farm was set in a valley surrounded bhy rocks and towering trees and a fast flowing river in which the first elephants we saw were bathing. Next the 'show' began. Now I know 'Elephant and Show' are instrinsically wrong should not be in same sentence. However, putting reservations aside I have to admit what we saw was remarkeble. As the pictures show the elephants had been trained to play football, paint beautiful watercolours and, bizzarely of all, play darts. Which is where Samina came in. Selected by the Thai '

mahmoots'to play against an elephant she strode into the ring alone, surrounded by some of the biggest animals in the world! A thousand words at this point will be written by posting the picture of the

match



Going back to Maesot, here are a few additional pictures of the visit to Esther and the refugee camp - Maela- near to Maesot in which over 40,000 indigenous refugees from Burma stay. (And have done for over 20 years).

For technical reasons, allignment of text and image at midnight in thailand is not proving possible. Therefore the folink to llowing captions relate to the subsequent images. Does that make sense ??!

1) Samina and Su's two daughters - Schapo and Sharmi - are entranced by the show

2) Children's right to play - taken for granted

3) A solitary palm tree greets sunrise over Maesot

4) Imposing mountains seperate Burma from Thailand overshadow the sports area of Maela refugee camp

5) Spot the new Karen kid in class !

6) Could one image capture more kindness ? Miriah, Janaki and Esther - together again after 15 years - when (and where) will i see you again...

7) Sitting in th back of a pick up truck - Jehan'ss new preferred form of transport.