Wednesday - 11 June 08 - THE BLOG!

Wednesday

Well what can we say but another great day was had in 'Changers' again. It really does feel more and more like home and we really live here.

We started out our day a bit later than usual as we both slept in until 8.30 am having sat up till late watching some aussie movie on cable. Then it was down to the lobby to do all the usual email and internet stuff, I swear I spend more time on it here than I ever did at home.

We have yet again had problems with the Real Estate that manages our unit in Hervey Bay which has taken a lot of our time trying to sort it out from here, but the upside of it is we are now rid of the tenant that has been paying 50 bucks below market rent for the last couple of years and we told the useless real estate wbere they could go and what they could do and now have a more reputable real estate who will be managing the property and at the right market rent which is a bonus for us. I can't believe the bullshit they try to feed you while they collect the management fees for doing nothing. We also now have the house on the Sunshine Coast rented out for a lot more than we were previously getting, so things should settle down from here on.

We did our usual McShit brunch and then went for a walk to pick up our laundry. We have decided to head of to Pai for a day or two next week to have a look so we stopped at a travel agent to check out the price of the mini bus to get there. I did want to go to Mae Hong Son but its 5 hours from here and we probably will run out of time as we do our visa run to the Golden Triangle next Thursday and then we are leaving Chaing Mai (boo hoo) probably the next day and hopefully flying to Sukkothai for a couple of days before heading back south to Phi Phi and Kamala Beach, Phuket. We now have only four weeks till we get on that plane back to Australia and I must say I am not impressed with how quickly the time is going as I know there is no way I will be ready to leave here when the time comes.

The rest of the arvo was spent relaxing in our little home as we had quite a storm and lots of heavy rain, besides we wanted to rest before our big night out at the Cultural show tonight.

The Cultural Show was fantastic and the food was awsome. We were picked up by mini bus at 7pm from our hotel and the Cultural Centre was only about 10 mins from our hotel. When we are arrived we greeted and shown to our table. What a restaurant, it was similar to Japanese style dining where you sit on the floor and they deliver you a small table with bowls of different sorts of Thai food (like your own little smorgasbord) and they keep coming and topping it up. It was soooooo delicious that Rick and I made porky's of ourselves and figured if they keep topping it up we will keep eating it. We had a photo taken of us sitting and 2 of the hilltribe dancers standing behind us and let me tell you its not good, we both look like porkers, yuk. I won't be showing that photo to anyone when we get back.

The Thai dancing was excellent and its so soothing to sit and watch them dance. They are so precise and elegant and the costumes are very colourful. The Thai dancing went on for an hour or so and then we had a break and moved to the outdoor arena where we watched the hilltribe dancing. That was awsome and I got some great photos. If you scroll down from this blog you will see I have posted 2 or 3 pages of the photos. It was a great night and so good to see that there is still so much of the Thai culture being kept alive and commercialism has totally destroyed it, especially up here in the North.

Our mini bus was there waiting to bring us home when the show finished and there were 3 (older) aussie ladies that were being dropped of at the hotel down the road from us. We chatted and laughed with them all the way back, swapping stories about trying to buy things and find your way around when so few people speak english. Seems they have had the same frustrations as we have, but we all laughed about them. They have been in Thailand for 2 weeks and came for a conference in Chiang Rai. They belong to a womens organisation similar to the Mens Rotary and they raise money and donate it to some of the Hilltribe villages along the borders, so every 2 years they come for a conference and visit they places they donate to. How Cool! Might think about joining!

Well we finally got home at around 10.30pm at we were uncomfortably fof (full of food) our own fault of course but still managed to fit in a cuppa before we hit the sack. Everything we have done and seen in Chiang Mai has been well worth it, so anyone thinking of heading to Thailand at all in the future, put Changers at the top of your list.

So once again, time to go. Until tomorrow stay tuned!!!!!