Paluang Indigo Home

The Royal Family in Thailand has a huge influence on the people of Thailand and is greatly loved by the people. The present King became king when he was only 19 years old and has reigned for over 60 years. He as no political power but works very hard to improve the life of the people of Thailand.
The Queen is very active in visiting, promoting, and helping the women of the villages to develop cottage industry to help raise the standard of living for the rural people. We visited one such place, the Paluang Indigo Home in Thunghong Phrae. This family as received recognition from the Queen for there work and proudly displays pictures with members of the royal family. Here cotton is printed with wax designs using block prints. The material is then dyed using dye from the indigo plant. The finished product is used for many things including a shirt I got, tablecloths, and bags.
As you can see in the picture of Marilyn making her print, we got an opportunity to make a small print using some small wire patterns, which they dyed for us and we got the next morning. To make their designs they use larger wooden blocks with more designs in each block than the simple wire frame we used. Some of the block designs are shown in the picture. In my picture I am wearing the shirt that I bought at the Paluang Indigo Home.

Elephant Trek

There are always activities that you look forward to doing when you look over the itinerary for a trip. The elephant trek was one of the things we were anticipating on this trip. We had done an elephant ride on your trip to Africa but still it sounded interesting.
It was really much more than a ride. The elephants are very import in Thailand for many reasons. In the past they were a big part of the logging of teak lumber. Now that the logging as decreased many of the elephants were unemployed. The tourist trade has been just what they needed. It is easier work and earns their food. Of course you must remember that elephants only work until noon. After that it is too hot and they need to rest and enjoy life.
We started with the ride up and down hill and through the river. Of course all the elephants knew just where a number of stations had been established with people selling banana and sugar cane. We had a nice ride but going down hill was the hardest to keep in the seat and keep my camera from hitting a restraining bar. There was no place to put your feet so you couldn’t just that to help you hold your position.
After the ride there was ample time to interact with the elephants. The younger elephants that were in training were there to ride and feed for a small tip. They would take the tip from you and give to the trainer. They also went to the river to play and spray water at the people watching.
They then game a program of some of the activities they had learned in their training. There was soccer, basketball, and logging along with other demonstrations on skill and strength. The big finish was three of the elephants painting a picture as we watched.

PAIN and Thai Massage

Today I will write about my only bad experience on the Thailand trip, the Thai Massage. It might be because of my size and the fact that I am on blood thinner but this experience is still haunting me.
Since I am on a blood thinner, when I bump my leg I get a small bump from blood building up under the skin. Well I have a few on my leg and the lady giving the massage took them as muscle cramps and applied an oil and tried to work them out. This was very painful and in the end I had to take the leg away from her.
The second pain I am not sure what happen or if the pain is a cracked rib, as I assume. I have had cracked ribs before so am aware of the pain and know there is not much you can do but take painkillers. I did not see a doctor but the pain on the bottom left rib started during her working on my back and still hurts today. It is better and I know that some of the yard work I am doing is not the best for it but I will recover. Maybe she felt the bigger they are the harder you have to push. It was defiantly a deep muscle massage and maybe just TOO deep.
All that said, it was only one experience that I would not recommend of the many outstanding things we did on the trip.

Home Again

We are back from our OAT trip to Cambodia and Thailand. It was a good trip and I hope to add some notes about the trip each day for a few days. I have over 2000 photographs to edit and process, yard work that needs to be done, and a few other things to do so it will take awhile.
The weather was good and we only had rain on parts of a few days. The storm that hit Myanmar did not cause damage in northern Thailand but did give some rain. The trip provide and great many experiences in food, travel, culture, and sites that are difficult to show in pictures or explain in word but I will try.
It was a good trip and very nice people. Our leader Lin was knowledgeable and funny and it was great traveling with her. Our group started with 14 but one woman tore ligaments in her ankle and had to return home early in the trip. Her sister that was traveling with her went with her to assist in the travel.
I will continue to add some pictures to my flickr account as I get some processed.