thailand blog

We went on a team building activity this morning through the smokey mountains. We were driving through the clouds, which made it look that way. It was unlike anything I have ever seen before. It was so green, misty & mysterious. & actually kinda chilly. We drove on these windy roads to the top of the mountain. The hills were so steep our truck could hardly make it up them. In fact, we had to take a few breaks to give the pour guy a breather. At the top of the mountain was the Burma border & a small market with some older ladies selling ponchos & blankets, along with some other random things. A lot of the older ladies here chew "this thing" I'm calling it "this thing" because I don't know exactly what it is. But it's kinda like tobacco to them. It must be so addicting because their teeth are just rotting & falling out. (If they have any at all) It kinda felt like a scary movie walking through the market. (Not in a mean way) but picture crippled old ladies with rotted teeth that looked like their mouths were filled with blood, desperate for you to buy their merchandise. It was kinda sad actually. I did buy some pretty cool stuff there though that I'm excited about! We then went to the royal agricultural center, it was just a few minutes from the top of the mountain where we were at. It's basically where a lot of Thailand's produce is grown. It seemed like a national park but not cause people still lived there, even though we had to pay to get in... Idk. It was so beautiful. We had lunch there at a really nice restaurant. It was kinda like an Asian park city feel. I finally had that coconut soup I've been dying to have! Then we just toured around for a bit & walked through some beautiful gardens they had there before heading back home. We didn't get back until about 5 (we left at 9 & our plan was to get back home by 12, oops) that's one thing that I've realized since being here is that our plans are always changing. Things take longer than you think. So we kinda got a lot of the day off. It was actually a really great break. We did go to the Lahu village after though & teach first aid & aerobics. When we first got there they were we're going crazy with the stickers & sticking them on us. I had like 5 on my shirt & 3 on my forehead! Haha Sawanii, a cute little girl there made & gave me a cute pink bracelet. I love it!   She sticks around me a lot it's funny, I think she likes me yay! I taught some of the kids how to play rock, paper, scissors. & also thumb wars. They loved it! We did Aerobics inside because of the rain. Monsoon season has definitely kicked into gear. It's really hot most of the day but down pours usually at least once. It's good for the drought. Well that's all for today! The following pictures are from our adventure in the mountains today.

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Liz, Madison, Mel, and Abby

Older lady at Burma border near a small market

Mel and Abby