Trip to Ban AYO

We left Mae Sai around 1:30 PM and headed south on route #1. We stopped about 5 Km south of the check point and had Som Tom Papaya Salad and a small barbecued chicken.

We then continued south turning west on the Doi Mae Solong turnoff. We then went up the hill about 20 Km and stopped at two resorts on top of the mountain.

We decided to go back down and stay at a place by the market on the road to Mae Salong.

We had stayed here before and found it a very comfortable place with nice folks running the place. It is off season so our room was only 350 TB ($10.50 USD).

After we put our two small packs in the room we hopped back on the motorbike and went back about a kilometer to the open market. We had some food and called it a night.

We woke up about 7:00 AM and traveled back to the market area for some coffee and breakfast. Then we checked out of the hotel and headed up the mountain to BAN AYO.

When we arrived at Chom-nom's wife's Mother's home, Chom-nom was not there. That was strange as Daeng had talked with him yesterday and he said he would be there all day.

We spent two hours talking with the family and eating Chinese Pears. They are a cross between an apple and a pear, sweet but crunchy.

We said good-bye to the family and drove down the road to the children's shelter.

When we arrived my heart dropped as it looked like nothing had been done since the last time we were here in the Spring.

My head tells me all kind of things happened. My concern is why didn't Chom-nom show up after we talked with him yesterday? Is he okay?

As far as the shelter goes, Chom-nom told me he had enough money to finish it when we were here in the Spring. What happened?

Like people always tell me: "More will be revealed."

We headed back to Mae Sai stopping to take a family picture. I'm just kidding, it's only a pig. By the way, the word for pig in Thai is "moo".

We also stopped and had some ice cream on the way. The word for ice cream in Thai is "ice cream". See, I can speak some Thai.

Tomorrow, we are packing everything up for storage as we will be heading south to Chiang Rai on Thursday, then onto Chiang Mai the 15th. After visiting there a few days we will be flying to Bangkok and on ward to the ocean.

Ten days by the sea and then to California the 30th of November.

We will keep you updated.