Saturday-From Pai to Mae Hong Son and The Small World Conference

I was awake early on Saturday morning (sleeping at The Land Split near Pai, Thailand)...partly due to the hard bed and partly due to the lightness of my night's sleep in my little bamboo bungalow. I wasn't afraid or really even nervous. I started to say I was uneasy, but that's too strong and negative a description also. Maybe just restless. So I got up early and wandered with my Chromebook up to the main area of the Land Split where there is WiFi and did some catching up on my blogging project. I sat under this roof and had lots of time to admire it. I've seen lots of them. They are made out of a large heart shaped leaf. Very impressive. Tee says they can last for 3+ years. 

The overlapping leaves would certainly keep out the rain just like wooden shake or shingle roofs in CA.

Here's what it looks like from underneath. Very neat and tidy workmanship. It looks almost like a long side to side length of folded leaves that are then put on just like Phil does shingles...starting at the bottom and overlapping to the top.

We gathered our things and drove the back way into Pai for breakfast. Along the way, we passed by a crematorium. I have only seen one small cemetery here with crosses somewhere in our travels.

The Thai people cremate the remains of folks. See the chimney at the back of this crematorium.

We ended up in Pai, parking on the other side of this river and walking across the bamboo bridge to a beautiful restaurant for breakfast.

 Notice the Christmas tree and Santa (who was holding a saxophone). There were also the typical Christmas cookie tins for sale. 

 Banana pancakes were quite yummy.

Now we're back on the car park side of the river and this shows our restaurant very nicely in the background.

Even Buddha needs to have some fun! : )

We then started on our way to Mae Hong Son.

We traveled north and west and then south to go around the mountain range that stands between Pai and Mae Hong Son. But don't let me saying "around" make you think it is an easy road! Several guides say "Route 1095 is the hardest road in Thailand." To get to Mae Hong Son, you travel 1864 curves! Let me repeat that: 1864 curves!! And lots of them are the horseshoe kind!

Now I want to put in a special "thank you" to Tee for his driving us all this way and around every one of those curves...some uphill and some down. He did great! No car sickness at all and he was so patient with his "ladies on tour." 

"Everybody happy?" he'd ask! So thankful for him!

Just a geographical note: on the map above, the dark country border line you see above the blue driving route is the border between Thailand and Myanmar (or Burma, as it was previously known). The real Korean War story of the movie starring William Holden and Grace Kelly in The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954) happened across the border and a bit north.

 We stopped at one overlook...

These folks dressed in their tribal  regalia wanted me to pay them to take their picture...which I did. The mom told me she had two children and no father.

Finally...

...we arrived at our guest house in Mae Hong Son. This was the view when I got out of the car. Martha say Mae Hong Son is to Chiang Mai like Winters is to Sacramento. It's a nice small town.

Part of our wanting to be here on this day was to participate in the Small World Festival sponsored in part by Toys for Thailand. http://toysforthailand.org/ 

(from the website:) "Toys for Thailand (T4T) will co-host the 7th annual Small World Festival (SWF) a unique cultural event held on December 24, 2016 in Maehongson, Thailand. At the SWF Hill Tribal children from over 50 mountain schools will share their indigenous music, dance, handicrafts and food with Thai’s, tourists and other members of hill tribes. 150 (1000 baht/$30) basic need scholarships will be awarded at the festival."  

The students had all kinds of craft booths and demonstrations. Note the year date at the top of this sign: 2559. That is the year according to the Thai calendar.

 The hill tribes do some wonderful weaving.

 Lots of games for the children.

 Plenty of food stalls as well as the children's crafts.

 As I walked through the park, which is around part of the lake, here is the view across the water.

And just in case we think the world is large, Indira and Martha ran into this woman who is part of the organizing of this event. She is a sister-in-law to our friends Mary Beth and David West, who I know mostly from Peace Camp. It is a small world, after all! The chalk drawings were made by some boys from one of the schools. They had them for sale at their booth and were quite pleased at our choosing to purchase them.

Time to go to bed. Mae Hong Son becomes another world in the late afternoon and after dark. I'll leave it for another post.