on to laos

Today, I went up to Doi Suthep with John and Jenny (an Australian working at Chiang Mai University on a forest restoration project through a grant from the Australian government). Jenny was a great tour guide as she had already been up there a couple of times and showed us some of the different tree species as well as a waterfall and the temple on top of the mountain-a really grand Buddhist temple. I was amazed at how many places there are for people to give money around the temple. There are many buddhas all around and bowls in front of each of them and donation boxes for everything under the sun. The temple was very ornate and gold covered almost all of it. When we walked in there was a large group of people all dressed in white-Malee said this was a meditation service. Interesting anyway. Yesterday, Malee and Bryan took John and I to see the silk factory, area where they sell wood products (furniture, etc.), the umbrella factory where i got a butterfly painted on my purse-they have people who will paint on anything you have for 50 baht (approx $1.50), the jewelry factory, and the Empress Hotel for a buffet lunch-really good...overall, it was a good day and showed me the rest of Chiang Mai that I had not seen yet. The new volunteer arrived today who will be staying at Ban San Faan for one year. I will be leaving Saturday for Laos with John. We will take a minibus to the Laos border, then a boat down the Mekong to Luang Prabang. Our plan as of now is to take a bus south to Vieng Vian (sp?) and then east to Hanoi, Vietnam. I will continue to write about my travels here though again, these have nothing to do with Ban San Faan nor with any money raised for Ban San Faan. love, Brittany