So we left our cushy teaching positions of paper pushing and brain press ups to the real deal. Manual labour, probably the first decent batch of hard work we have had all year. Finally, something that doesn’t involve planning and reading. Although those are fun.

We mished it to Chang Rai, which shouldnt be confused with Chang Mai, which is where the Juniper tree is. Chang Rai is about as close as you can get to Burma without getting shot. In the space of about 5 minutes we made it into Burmese waters (I refuse to say we were in Burma, water just does not count, try starting a civilization on water. Waterworld being the exception, but thats cause they had nowhere else to go. So for the record I haven’t been to burma, and neither has the rest of the team, so when the thailand team tells you we went to three countries in one day just slap them and say that water doesnt count.) three countries you say bemusedly? Yes, Laos was also right there, the three countries all meet at the fork in a river, which consequently runs through China as well. We spent about an hour on Laos, they seem to deal mostly in Vodka pickled snakes. I think its meant to improve how verile you are. Or how much a tourist is willing to pay for a poisones pest sitting in a bottle of vodka. No. I didn’t buy one.

So on my birthday I got to visit two and a half countries. well, when I say visit for Thaialand I really mean spend three more weeks in. So in actual fact I got to visit 1.5 countries on my birthday. In fact I cant even legally say I even set foot on Laos. So I actually Visited .7 countries on my birthday… Ok thats just rediculious, Ill stop there.

My birthday was alright, although it was mostly spent in travel to Chang Rai. The team still managed to suprise me with an upside down cake.. It wasnt actually meant to be upside down, its just the way it came out after a few hours travel. But that didn’t stop it from tasting alright. And over the day I got given a few bottles of death syrup (AKA, fizzy drink)

Also we got to visit the white palace. Its amazing, until you realize that in buddhist culture it all represents hell. Poetic and grotesque. Inside the main hall is a huge painting, which is still being worked on, its done in a traditional style, but interlaced into it is guns, starwars characters, bombs, Neo, Alien, sexual stuff, Predator, oil fields and other blatantly western things. And up the top are two eyes. If you look closely you can see George bush in one eye and Osama in the other. Haunting, but at least now I have a good excuse to not wear white.

Now I started talking about building, yea, I did that to. Lol. We spent most of the week helping to build a rabbit hutch. Its going to be used for a breeding program, The christian organization we were working with wants to make hilltribes self suffisient, and not having to rely upon drugs and prostitution. They are bringing over NZ rabbits, which are apparently very plump for eating, sorry Bex, they eat rabbits, not pet them and give them wack names. But Like most New Zealanders the wee jumpy things have problems with the weather, so they need a cooler shed than most other animals so they can multiply properly.

Man im tired of writing, Ill finish this later.