Sunday, December 14, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Mae Hong Son
Hello all! I am now in the small, quaint town of Mae Hong Son in northern Thailand. I did not update at all while I was in Cambodia because our group was so busy with activities. Cambodia was incredible though! Matt lost his camera somewhere in Cambodia and since I was using his camera to upload pictures, I haven't been able to put much on my blog lately. I will hopefully find an internet cafe here in town that lets me connect my memory card to the computer.
Mae Hong Son is a beautiful city! It is literally surrounded by massive hills that you see from anywhere in town. There are not as many tourists as other parts in SE Asia, so English is less common to come across here. The House of Hope orphanage is great. The children are adorable and so polite. The house mom, Pasein, has been very hospitable and has tried to make me feel at home. I am staying at a guesthouse in town, which is pretty nice. My room in on the lake in the center of the city, so I have a peaceful place to relax in the mornings and at night. I start teaching the children English lessons today, which will be the majority of the work I do while I am there. Most of the children barely know any English, so it might be a challenge at the beginning to get across to them. I am excited to start the work though!
I will update everyone soon, hopefully with pictures on the next post!
Mae Hong Son is a beautiful city! It is literally surrounded by massive hills that you see from anywhere in town. There are not as many tourists as other parts in SE Asia, so English is less common to come across here. The House of Hope orphanage is great. The children are adorable and so polite. The house mom, Pasein, has been very hospitable and has tried to make me feel at home. I am staying at a guesthouse in town, which is pretty nice. My room in on the lake in the center of the city, so I have a peaceful place to relax in the mornings and at night. I start teaching the children English lessons today, which will be the majority of the work I do while I am there. Most of the children barely know any English, so it might be a challenge at the beginning to get across to them. I am excited to start the work though!
I will update everyone soon, hopefully with pictures on the next post!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Updates on the Bangkok airport situation
I have received quite a few concerned e-mails from people back home and thought I should post a quick explanation of my plans to hopefully ease some worries. The PAD protests are still going on strong, but they do remain unviolent in the sense that there have not been any reported murders. Basically, it is just a stressful mess for travelers who are stuck in Bangkok and want to get home. Personally I do not fly out of BKK until Christmas Eve, so I still have about 3 1/2 weeks for things to hopefully cool down and by then the airports should be open. In case you do not already know the gist of what is going on in Thailand, the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) is protesting the current government in Thailand and demanding a complete change. PAD mainly wants the current Prime Minister out of office. The current PM is related (I believe the brother-in-law) to the prior PM, who was ousted in a coup in 2006, so the PAD despise him just as they did the last leader. The protesters outnumber the police force and so they have literally taken over the airports. The Thai army is not getting involved because so far the protest has remained peaceful and non-violent. The highly revered King Rama IX is not getting involved in the protests either. There was a court order today to ban the current PM from politics for 5 years (apparently he took money while campaigning and is now charged with electoral fraud), so that is progress for the protesters. PAD is waiting to see who the new PM will be and if he is pleasing to them, then I see no reason why the protests should continue so strongly. The British Embassy reported tonight that the PAD has announced they will withdraw from the Bangkok airports by 10:00am tomorrow, so I'm really crossing my fingers that they follow through with that.
At this point, I still plan on going to the orphange on December 10th and coming back to Bangkok on the 24th and flying home then. I cannot change my flight just yet because everything is up in the air right now and it is too early to make a decision on whether I will need to fly out of a different location. The Intrepid tour ends on December 10th and I will be going to Chiang Mai from there, where the founder of the House of Hope orphanage will pick us up and drive us to Mae Hong Son. Things really should be cleared up by then and airlines are saying that standing reservations will still go through as planned, if the aiports are open at the time of the flight. Even with all the back-up of flights for currently stranded travelers, they are saying that other passengers should be able to fly out on their originally scheduled flights (if the airports are open by then). If things are not cleared up within the next week I will make other arrangements and possibly fly out of Cambodia while I am there next week. I will keep you all posted. Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers, but please know that I am safe where I am and the protesters have nothing against foreigners traveling in their country. Love and miss you all! I cannot wait until Christmas, where I WILL see you all! :)
At this point, I still plan on going to the orphange on December 10th and coming back to Bangkok on the 24th and flying home then. I cannot change my flight just yet because everything is up in the air right now and it is too early to make a decision on whether I will need to fly out of a different location. The Intrepid tour ends on December 10th and I will be going to Chiang Mai from there, where the founder of the House of Hope orphanage will pick us up and drive us to Mae Hong Son. Things really should be cleared up by then and airlines are saying that standing reservations will still go through as planned, if the aiports are open at the time of the flight. Even with all the back-up of flights for currently stranded travelers, they are saying that other passengers should be able to fly out on their originally scheduled flights (if the airports are open by then). If things are not cleared up within the next week I will make other arrangements and possibly fly out of Cambodia while I am there next week. I will keep you all posted. Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers, but please know that I am safe where I am and the protesters have nothing against foreigners traveling in their country. Love and miss you all! I cannot wait until Christmas, where I WILL see you all! :)
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