100% sweet

 Everything here is so sweet, the coffee, tea, desserts, even som tum salad! 

If there’s any opportunity I do ask to dial down the sugar,  as it really doesn’t fit with my non-sweet tooth. And years ago, you would struggle with getting a good cup of coffee, but now it seems there is a fabulous boutique coffee shop on every street corner. The other day a coffee shop had a percentage line diagram of how much sugar you wanted and the base is obviously 100% very sugary. I plumbed for 50% sugar and they did go as low as 25% catering for all sweet tooth tastes, as they don’t believe you’d ever want no sugar at all! 

I own the coffee shop

 As tourist numbers rise slowly it great to be travelling again. As Thailand is so reliant on tourism within its economy it was hot so hard during lockdown. The van I got to take me to Bea’s house from the bus station was having problems with its battery etc and we must have been such a hilarious sight as me and a couple of old guys were pushing the songthew in the bus station to start it! Our efforts were in vain and it needed a jump start to bring it to life! The driver said it hadn’t got any use during lockdown

It’s wonderful to meet up with friends and be tourists with them. Getting local knowledge and be the recipient of their fab day trip planning is a breeze!. We were in need of an iced coffee in the heat of the day and popped it to one by the university. I was chatting to one of the staff who was telling me that she had completed her Marketing Masters in Leeds and was interested to hear about my travels. We talked about her time in Leeds and I joked about why she was now working in a coffee shop, and her reply was I own it! I completed her on her slogan of ‘it’s a brewtiful day! 

10 rules are enough, 227 are too many

 Couldn’t resist the monk chat sign at the temple in Chaing Mai saying don’t just look come and take part, so we did. It’s a great opportunity to have access to the knowledge, the wisdom, the wit of a monk, and gives them a great opportunity to practice their English, and ability to communicate on demand. 

We found a super chatty monk, and the minute he realised upon our introduction, that Bea was a Thai living and working in London, his eyes lit up.  He requested to me that they talk in Thai and proceeded to quiz be on her journey of becoming a British citizen.  

Chatty monk loves Harry Potter wants to live abroad and now doesn’t want to continue from being a novice monk who lives there, lives by 10 rolls to becoming a fully fledged monk as they live their lives by 227. 

It must be amazing for him as the world turns up at his table to chat, giving him access to so many people, cultures and attitudes. Now it has just given him wanderlust, which I hope can be fulfilled! 

I’m so dizzy

 I’m so dizzy, my head is spinning like a whirlpool! My journey southbound has begun and I’ve completed the first leg from Mae Hong Son back to Chiang Mai. Crikey those roads are a thrill a minute, but the scenery is spectacular. 

There’s always an air of mystery on a long bus trip, and you have to plan carefully. How many tiny sips of water can to take before you are desperate for a wee? When will we stop? Surely the driver is driving crazy fast? So many questions! 

Our driver drove at breakneck speed and we only had one 10 min loo stop, but it meant that the journey was completed in 6 hours, which was great. 

I’ve been so spoilt this trip with friends driving me round, so my quest on arriving at Chiang Mai bus station was to get to my friend’s house, just outside the city perimeter. So two drivers said no and the third agreed, but his van battery was knackered after such little use over lockdown, so me and a couple of old guys had to give him a push start - what a sight at the bus station! 

Farang

 It’s my last night in Mae Hong Son, and tomorrow it’s the start of my journey heading south. I’m at the night and always love the slight confusion of what to order, hearing them hurriedly speak and you can definitely hear them say ‘farang’, meaning ‘foreigner’ as you approach. 

Then I remove my shoes and sit on the raised pavement by the lake, which is now converted to an outdoor seating strip for all the food stalls. My table is a tiny child’s table with the English and Thai alphabet on it and I am looking over the lake to the beautifully lit nearby temple. 

A real highlight in Thailand is the food and with that comes the adventure of going to the amazing food stalls and hoping that you’ve ordered the right thing! 

Hot and cold

 Before I left, I of course checked regularly to see the temperatures in Thailand and they were consistently 30°C, so I did pack accordingly and hoped that when I was forever moving north away from the humid sweaty heat of fabulous Bangkok, the temperatures would decrease. However they have not and it’s still 32° and I’m in the very north of Thailand in May Hong Son in winter I can’t really get any higher in the mountains and it’s like doing hot yoga by just walking around. 

It’s so hot, I’ve got a stinking cold as it’s been a very long time since I’ve had to sleep with air-conditioning on. Normally I hate it. It’s too too cold and I just have a fan but here Aircon is a necessity and I know it’s winter but it’s still hot hot hot, temperatures are not really decreasing loads at night, just down to 18 so the Aircon has now eventually given me a stinking cold. 

Still it’s going to be shock to the system when I get back home next week and have my first sea swim!!! 

Human zoo

 As refugees to Thailand the Burmese Karen Long Neck have for a long time been exploited by becoming virtual prisoners in camps set up by Thai in Northern Thailand. These are not refuge camps, but tourist destinations where they receive small amounts money for keeping their cultural identity. The men work on near by farms and the women sell Chinese made trinkets and weave all day. They are not allowed Thai status and are stuck being exploited. 

Whilst other tribal cultures are on the decline, money makes them continue their traditions of wearing coils on their necks and legs and the next generation of girls are forced long this route, perhaps with no access to education. 

I was on an organised tour and after visiting here I have read up a lot and will never visit one of the places again. It is a sad and shocking reality of Thailand and so many other countries where slavery and trafficking, especially of girls and women is still very much an everyday occurrence.