Northern Thailand and Burma photos

I was trying to see what I'd look like with dread locks. Can't really tell from this. Would it be a good idea? I finally have hair...

The white temple in Chiang Rai. It looks more impressive than it actually is. It's very small. And very white, with these little mirror chips all over the outside.

I thought this was a little more than creepy. It's just around the white temple. See the one hand with the red fingernail?

Another "rustic" room- it's where I stayed in the hills outside of Chiang Rai- with the "villagers" but it was really a commercial venture and a little bit of nature.

View from the porch in the highlands. Two of the guides lived in the far room.

This was the village we stayed in. You can see they were not hurting for money even if the housing was simple- there's a new pick up hidden under the tarp. Two guys were building a bamboo house, all by hand. All the villagers had TVs and sattelites.

The restaurant overlooked this. Not too bad.

Me working super hard again. I fear for myself when I have to get a real job.

Burma. From the Thailand side. It seems like it would be so easy to swim across.

I so love my blue stuff. This is in Mae Sai, Thailand, the border town with Burma.

My blue lightbulb fetish.

These are just not witty descriptions today. I liked the alley/canal way.

The cutest Buddha belly I've seen in all of Asia. It looks like MY Buddha belly! :)

Just as we crossed into Burma.

The market. People were quite sweet over there.

Rachel. And the cooking ladies behind her.

Me with our eggs, rice and what we thought were cooked peanuts or beans. Then added a little red chili pepper, some pickled greens and soy sauce and, viola! Breakfast of Champions.

Cute little monks in Burma.

The temporary passport you get when entering Burma. (They keep your real one at the border while you are in the country.) I never really like it when I don't have my passport in hand.

The best breakfast in all of Asia. From the sweetest Thai man. I'll miss the fresh fruit and fresh yogurt and all the veges they have over here for such little prices. It's a vegetarian's dream world. Might I add, this coffee gave both Rachel and me caffeine jitters. It might be the first time in Asia on that one too. Thailand likes to give the farangs instant Nescafe. Barf.

Chiang Mai University Art Museum- a lovely peaceful modern art place. Anywhere that has a bike parked outside gets a nod from me.

Sweet little happy art inside.

A lick of Burma and dental remorse

I threw open the door to our room without knocking, afterward thinking, "I hope I picked the right door." But Rachel was at the desk on her matching black Acer computer.

"What did you do today?" she asked.

"I just walked all over town and saw a bunch of art and Wats and went to the dentist. I'm freaked out!" It shot out of my mouth a hundred miles a minute. I'd sped-walk home my face frozen with worry, lip bitten, beating myself up for suddenly deciding to get my teeth cleaned when I passed by a dentist. After years of dental treatments (starting at age 6). feeble-enameled teeth (post-high fever at 9 months), I'm not someone you'd call "dental adventurer." So even with my excellent self-counseling skills, I couldn't convince myself that I'd probably NOT done something stupid in having my teeth cleaned here. I was certain that'd I'd had permanent damage because one tooth was a little sore afterward. After I'd poked my fingers in every tooth in my mouth to look for new holes or pain that is.

I considered taking an Ativan. Instead Rachel convinced me that an alcoholic beverage would do the trick. One glass of red wine and some popcorn later, I was cured of my agony.

And I have clean teeth.

Who is Rachel?

I met her in Mae Sai, the Thai border town with Burma. A few days ago, I decided that I may as well dip across the Burma border, since I was so close. I'd gone into the internet shop and there was Rachel, with the same plan (and she'd spent six years living in Portland, so we had an instant connection). We made plans to meet at 8:30AM for our border walk.

It was akin to a Tijuana trip really. I can mark off that I went to Burma, but what did I really learn in a few hours in a country? I guess we saw that it was poorer than Thailand. And we had the most fantastic breakfast by the sweetest ladies, which was worth the walk and border formalities itself.

After Burma, we bussed to Chiang Mai, where we're staying at Kavil Guesthouse for 180Baht ($5) a night for both of us. Free wifi and NEW flusher-flush western toilets (with the paper labels still on them!) If you don't know what a flusher-flush is versus a self flush, I'll explain: the self-flush has no flusher handle on it. After you use facilities, (and don't dare toss your toilet paper in there), you must pour several buckets of water into the toilet to "flush" it. It does the job, but as much as I'm into simplicity, I prefer the flusher.