North in Chiang Mai by Paul

Well, I've been told it's my turn so here I am. It has been a lot of fun so far with many memorable things already. I won't try to fill you in on all of them but here's the short version of what's happened since Darcy last wrote. We had a couple of days in Bangkok before we got our passports back with our new, attractive, Mongolian visas so we spent time seeing the sites. We visited the world's largest reclining Buddha, saw the grand palace, a few other very iimportant Buddhist sites and also a couple of silk shops courtesy of tuktuk drivers (I'm sure a book could be written about them- who, for the most part we found entertaining in their scams, but very slick). Once we got to know the river taxiboats, the skytrain and taxi system getting around Bangkok was getting to seem second nature.

We left on the night train to Chiang Mai. This mode of travel has us looking forward to the trains in our future- it is quite a nice way to go. We started the crib tournament and am sorry to say that Tamara may be the most consistent crib player I've ever played as she has won 4 of 6 games to date. Because points are lost if we get skunked, there is a good chance that Wanda may be in 2nd or 3rd place when she joins us in 6 weeks!

Today we took a cooking class where we learned how to make 6 different Thai dishes. It was fun and tasty. I think Hastings lake Bible camp may have a Thai menu this summer. Tomorrow we head out on a 2 day trek where we will see some of the countryside, a national park, stay in a village adn then ride elephants and take a bamboo raft back down the river. Should be great and I'm sure you'll hear more about it.

I'm going to try to load some pictures now. If they're there, you'll know it worked. If they aren't, you'll know I tried, was in over my technological depth and will have to leave it for one of the others. Hope all is well with you all. Go Oilers!