Catching Up (Part 1)

Way, way back at the start of August we spent just under two weeks in a tiny town called Sangkhlaburi. It's pretty much on the Burmese border and home to an interesting mix of ethnicities - Mon and Karen hill tribes, Burmese and Thai. As a fairly long part of our trip was based here we were hoping to see and do a fair bit but this was somewhat hindered by the mystery illness! 5 days of bed rest later and the fun began : ) We spent a lot of time in slightly icky river water rafting, kayaking and generally splashing around. It was much cleaner and safer than the Mekong the fact that it was home to hand sized water spiders made it a very scary place to be! The rafting was especially exciting as the river was flowing fast after a few days of heavy rain. It wasn't only the weather conditions that caused an adrenaline rush, the Thai disregard for health and safety definitely played a part! Our raft captain (who we only knew as blood mouth) assured us that it was fine to have 10 people in a raft/elaborate rubber dinghy even though it had a whole in the bottom and was slowly sinking! We also had the chance to cross the second longest wooden bridge in the world, it was a constant flip flop worry and I've been barefoot ever since!

We split the rest of our time between two orphanages set up for Burmese refugees. One was run by a nun and three monks who had to rely entirely on donations to look after the children whilst the other was a one woman operation, Vic, a completely amazing woman, set up Dream-house by herself and looks after around 40 children from 18 month to 16 years old! It was heartbreaking to hear some of the things the children had been through and shocking to find out that the children were still in danger from sex trafficking and kidnapping but overall it was a completely uplifting experience. The children were so grateful for everything and almost always smiling and happy. Towards the end of our time we were asked to take part in a Mother's Day ceremony, the children picked their mum for the day, took us to school and covered us in flowers and wreaths.

It was a fairly exhausting and emotional couple of weeks that really gave a glimpse of the Thailand that not too many people get to see but it would be a lie to say I wasn't eager to get to the beaches and islands in the south.