Off to Chiang Rai

This morning, I hopped on the sweetest bus in all of Thailand. Drop-down video screens, on which they played Anaconda 3, dubbed in Thai. Glad I saw that after our trek through the jungle. A little dude who checked your bag into the under-bus compartment, gave you a little ticket, and checked your bag back out after the journey. And free chocolate creme cookies! Yum!

I slept most of the way, with my handy-dandy blow-up neck pillow, and in 3.5 hours, I was in Chiang Rai. Scott, the director of the MMF, picked me up in his 4WD pickup with his sons in the back. And we headed off to his house in one of the first gated community developments in Chiang Rai, built some 20 years ago. Apparently, all the houses leak. But I guess they were chic at the time?

We hung out there for a few minutes and then I went for Khao Soi noodles with Scott and his wife. A little hole in the wall, but delicious food. Fairly the norm over here. We ran a couple of other errands and then headed off for the MMF. Its a little ways outside of town, situated beautifully surrounded by rice fields. Which are golden now, and just waiting to be harvested. The building itself is lovely--all cool stone floors and big open spaces.

After hanging out with the students and the showing the leadership toolkit to the youth team, we went to dinner at one of the church families house. They are new to Chiang Rai--only been here for 2 months, apparently. The dad had an organizational development business which he sold when they decided to "serve." There are three girls, probably betweent the ages of 8 and 14. They live in the "Beverly Hills" of Chiang Rai. The house was gorgeous. Massive rooms. Like, really, really MASSIVE. And several floors of house and living areas. Plus a little guest cabin. The bathrooms were the size of the guesthouse rooms we've been staying in. But the most magnficent were the views. Since the house is on the side of the mountain, it overlooks the rice fields, and some other parts of town and then cuts off in the mountains. Elephant Mountain, apparently. We got to watch the sun set behind it.

And now I am in the guest room typing this up and soon I will go to sleep!