I've got a few new pics up on Picasa web but the majority of the good ones were taken by other volunteers, so I'll upload those in a bit:

http://picasaweb.google.com/passionflower24/Thailand#


Laura left home for Australia last night : ( but we got a nice day of sightseeing in before she left. We went to The White Temple...a weird but wonderful place. Here's an interesting article by the artist who designed it:
http://www.tourismchiangrai.com/e-ctmc/index.php?option=rongkhun
My pictures don't really do it too much justice; the work is so intricate and detailed, and there are little bits of mirror stuck in the plaster so the whole thing glitters like crazy. Although it was a touch morbid on the outside (hands and bones representing Hell), the inside was even weirder because the paintings incorporated all these random bits of pop culture into a giant Buddhist spiritual painting...like characters from Star Wars and Keanu Reaves.
After the temple, we hit the world famous Chiang Rai clock tower, which magically lights up and plays music every evening. It's pretty tacky but also spectacular in it's own right.

Earlier in the morning, I took the scooter up to the Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) border to renew my visa. I overstayed by a day and they didn't give me any leeway for being 8 hours late dammit! The fine was about 15$ USD so it's not like it broke the bank but it was rather annoying. I wasn't paying attention with all the stuff going on around here, and Thailand has recently gotten even stricter on their tourist visa limitations. Overland stays are now only 15 days, so if I do end up extending my trip substantially, I'll probably need to make a trip to Malaysia to apply for a 60 day one at the embassy. Again, something that could have been avoided with a bit of forethought but hey YOU LIVE YOU LEARN.

The trip was quite nice, about 60 kms north of Chiang Rai through some really lovely country. I did not take pictures or even look around much because I was very focused on not crashing but on the way back I did get a few ooohs and ahhhs in.

Tomorrow is a big day at the hospital, as we take another 12 kids for their basic medical checkups. It is turning out to be a bit (more) complicated than I had previously planned, as our truck completely DIED on us over the weekend. We are completely without group transportation, and will have to rely on tuk-tuks and songtaews to do our market runs and any group activities. The center has 3 motorbikes which the older kids can use for school, but that means us volunteers are walking/biking into town during the day. Anyhow, we have a wonderful new volunteer named Kate who is working on Community Outreach to try and obtain a corporate sponsor for a new vehicle.

Time is just flying by...I can't believe it's been a month! Projects begin and somehow the time just disappears...I sometimes don't feel like I've accomplished anything, but other days I have an amazing feeling of just being in the right place at the right time. Last night was a giggle-filled laugh-fest with the kids just messing around and being kids-playing the guitar with funny sunglasses, putting way too much talcum powder on their faces, making me pizza out of green clay.

Hasta la pasta (we might splurge on Italian food tonight)-