Trip to Ban AYO & Kids

We had our normal breakfast of chicken, sticky rice, coffee and Pa thong Ko at the Ban Pa Meat Morning Market. We then headed south from Mae Sai stopping in the little settlement, Huai Khrai, just south of the immigrations check point.

Daeng bought cookies, salt, small fish and fruit to take to Chom-nom's Mother in Ban AYO. While we were at the main market I saw a big truck with what looked like an arm. We walked over and sure enough it was part of a large statue. From the looks of it it is a rival for anything made in Texas.

In the pick-up truck in front is a life size statue and in the tractor-trailer is just part of the right arm. When it is put together is will be huge.

We made our way down route #1 and turned west on route #1130. From there we wound up the hill making sure we did not follow the directions on our GPS as it would take us through the villages and not on the new road.

When we got to the Ban AYO turn off sign we could see the burnt ground from the recent fires.

At the shelter area we could see that much of the over grown vegetation had been cut back and burned, as well.

Just to bring everyone up to date, we worked with Chom-nom to help build a children's shelter for children at risk. It was close to being inhabited when Chom-nom was arrested for possession of drugs and went to prison for a couple of years.

Here is a link to those stories: http://terrysstories.blogspot.com/2011/10/ban-ayo-trip-tears-anger.html

When we arrived at Meechue's home, Chom-nom's Mother, there was no one around. We were told she was in the jungle getting bamboo for her leaking roof. We sent out some scouts on motorbikes to find her. We hung out in the little shop area across the road from her home and had water and cookies.

About 15 minutes later, a motorbike delivered her to us. She was very dirty and said she was going to go get cleaned up at her house. We walked across the road to her house and hung out as she changed into her normal "Akha" attire.

A farang, non-Thai or Westerner, is not a common sight in this area so the kids come to see what the farang is all about. Most of them are scared but wander about this fat, white, funny looking guy is all about. They also like the cookies we usually bring. One of the girls remembered me from the video we did a few years ago. To see that video just CLICK HERE: http://www.funnyplumber.com/akha.wmv Chom-nom is the main singer.

Here is a picture of some of the kids.

We also had a nice surprise, the man that we had lunch with at the edge of the jungle in 2007 came by as he heard "The Old Fat Farang" was there and wanted to see him again. We laughed together and he said his wife left him so he cut his hair. You can read that story by clicking on this link: http://www.funnyplumber.com/Stories/10-21-07_Terry

If you have trouble with this link you can read the story at www.FunnyPlumber.com on the "Stories" Page listed as "Terry's Trip into the Jungle". He is on page 10 and 11.

We all talked for some time. We drank coffee, ate cookies, pineapple and laughed at the pictures we had brought for them. It was almost 2:00 PM so we gave Meechue a little money to help finish the repairs to her roof and said "Goodbye for Now."

We told her we were going to make the trip to see Chom-nom this week and would come back to tell her of our meeting with him.