Visas and Death Drive Mountain!

One drawback of working abroad is that of visa's and work permits etc. We needed to renew our visas recently and our plan "A",  that we could take a couple of days leave, fly to Malaysia and come back on a new 90 day visa was not to be! Instead, we had to to either go earlier and leave Simon and Melanie with a very busy Juniper Tree for the best bit of a week, or else take a day off and visit Burma
This last idea sounded a lot more exciting, a drive up to the Thai/Burma border, stroll over the bridge and turn around with a 14 day tourist visa and straight back by Dinner time, simples!

Air Pollution + Steam = bad picture!

All this was without reckoning on the petrol head who was the driver employed to do the daily run up to the border from Chiang Mai. The day started well, Simon dropped us off at the iron bridge and we were picked up on time by a fairly tidy and modern 15 seater mini bus; we toured around Greater Chiang Mai until the bus was full (and what an eclectic mix of people joined us!) All fine except that every time we set off I could hear in my mind the voice of Lennie Henry shouting, "Take her away Ernie!" (if this means nothing to you, ask a Harry Potter fan) Our driver only seemed to have 2 speeds, stationary (accompanied by grumpy mutterings) or top speed; any position on the road will do!
We wove our way out of town up into the mountains to the North. We over/undertook anything and everything  hooting at everything from pedestrians nowhere near the road, cyclists and even Buddhist Shrines (perhaps the equivalent of kissing a St Christopher?) Onward and upward we forged our way until we swept suddenly off the road into what looked like a market; which has apparently sprung up to sell souvenirs to the steady stream of tourists on the "visa run".

Nelson & Colne folks: note bag!

 We had, in fact, stopped at the site of a hot springs and Joan, of course, was unable to resist the opportunity for a hot foot bath.
On the way up we chatted away to a Swedish lady who comes every year to Chiang Mai buying fabrics and stuff for her business. She had a very interesting take on the life here in Thailand and it all helped distract us from Ernie's driving.
The strangest event on the drive up, however, was when we slewed onto the verge in a small village off the main road, we had expected to follow all the way up to Mae Sai, and Ernie jumped out and ran across the road. Our puzzlement was dispelled moments later when he emerged clutching his packed lunch! He grunted "Bhan Mair", ( basically, my Mum's house!)

One in, one out!

The Border crossing at Mae Sai, consists of a bridge with road barriers at each end. Passport Control booths at each side allow people to leave Thailand, cross the bridge and then, after getting their passport stamped for 500 Thai Bhat, cross straight back and join the queue to re-enter Thailand. There seems to be a steady flow of people passing to and fro all day and every day.
The drive home was just a little less hair raising, with fewer squealing brakes and swerves and we, eventually, landed, in one piece, back on the Night Market Road about 11 hours after we left Chiang Mai.
We headed straight to our favourite haunt, the "Lemon Grass" which I'm sure I've mentioned goes under the banner of "No view but tasty" (an entry in the Lonely Planet Guide, or similar, for Chiang  Mai's best places to eat.) Tonight the owner was apologising for playing a Connie Francis CD at top whack and so we enjoyed our Stir fried chicken and rice to the strains of "Who's sorry now?" and "Lipstick on your collar" etc; she was lamenting her dodgy shoulder stopping her playing tennis last time we were there, so I think we are becoming part of the scenery now.

The Lemon Grass

(The walls are covered in graffiti, extolling the food, service and friendliness of the staff here; please don't tell anyone about it!) oops.....

Our problems with visa's have been nothing compared to the Carey's. Because they are applying for a 12 months Non-Immigrant Visa, they can go to the Immigration Office near the airport in Chiang Mai. However, due to people who try to stay on endlessly in Thailand on the wrong type of visas, it seems that the Authorities have clamped down. They were sent away to return with photographic evidence of their daily work, to prove that they really are voluntary workers here. We had fun following them around  taking pictures of them booking in guests, discussing menus with the cooks, directing the gardeners and so forth. All carefully dressed in their Staff Uniforms!
One of the kitchen ladies bringing today's lettuce fresh from the JT  gardens:

Only now, in the cool season, can we grow salad crops, chillies and tomatoes 

 As I write we are expecting them back with probably only a 1 month extension and the need to return for the full visa next month!
We remain quite full and will remain so until into March, we are even beginning to meet guests we have met before either when we came to visit or when I was here in April/May.
During the hurly burly of trying to get all the papers prepared for Simon and Melanie's visas we had another power cut. This time it was because the trees are being trimmed at the road sides and so the power is switched off to protect the workers. The power company said 1/2 an hour but in reality we were off for 2 or more hours. This, at least, gave us time to try out our new emergency power set-up! The new generator cracked into life and all the emergency lights came on in the rooms, the water pumps fired up and we were even able to plug in the Office computer and printer, so that we didn't have the same problem of being unable to checkout guests due to leave. We were pretty smug, truth be told! Our next challenge will be to test the system's water- proofing; we can wait for that as long as possible, in my book.

The Head gardener's domain.
 (Our new house will be where the sticks are just showing in the ground.)

It's been a happening day all round, really, as the first trenches were dug today for the new houses. The land was so hard that the men digging had to take off the turf then soak the ground with water, leave it to soften and then dig about a foot deep before leaving it to soak again. The neatness of the excavations is amazing. With no laser lines, mechanical diggers or spirit levels they take out a perfectly straight and square hole ready for the reinforcement bars and concrete work. The youngest workman looks about 14 yrs old but he was swinging a mattock all day with the best of them. Typically his protective clothing consisted of shorts, tee shirt and rubber crocs! We are expecting the project to be finished by May, hopefully before the rainy season gets going!

I need to leave this now, I've just been told that one of the guests has found a 12 ft long snake!.........

This is the actual snake in question, he looks smaller in the pic, because no one wanted to get near enough to put something next to him for comparison, can't think why!

This friendly Burmese Python was on some land newly cleared
for building next door to the  Juniper Tree.

Further Pics of the first stage of the building works:

Turf off, hose pipe soaking exposed soil, let the digging commence!

Deeper and deeper (4 ft or more) note Health & Safety?

One of 3 men who wire together the iron reinforcement rods.
The yellow blossoms are on a 15 ft tree!

10 or 12 perfect square, deep holes by knocking off time, please!

New Year, New Job, New Life!

L/R Andrew, Josh & Ben. Fireworker's extrordinaire!

New Year's Day is a holiday for our Thai staff. This effectively left Joan and I alone with about 70 guests. You've got to find it in your hearts to feel sorry for them!
The early start to get breakfast, would have been fine, if it wasn't for the habit that New Year's Day has developed of following straight on after New Year's Eve......
We had a great day on New Year's Eve. We started with an early trip to Makro before breakfast; making the school boy error of forgetting our shopping list! As it happened we only forgot seven items but this didn't stop us needing to go back later in the day. We got the wrong bacon, the wrong ham, the wrong rice, etcetera,  etc, etc. (to quote a former, if fictional, King of Siam!) It's a well known joke, that when a Thai person says "same, same" to you, it means something very different!
We had two superb ideas from among our guests. One started as an innocent enquiry as to whether it would be OK for them to have a few fireworks. 

This developed into a posse of the men hiring a songthaew to get a shed load of massive fireworks and organising a brilliant display for the majority of our inmates!
The other idea was that instead of cancelling the evening meal on New Year's Day, we could all make pizza's. This suggestion came from a former baker and so seemed like a fairly easy option for those who didn't want to go off site. More about that later!

N.Y's Eve went very well, I roped off half the field (Once a teacher always a teacher), and Andrew and Josh set off the fireworks with barely a pause between, ending with the most massive mortar bomb imaginable! The kids ended up with loads of sparklers and it made a great end to a good day. What I didn't anticipate was the previously mentioned love of fireworks of the residents of Chiang Mai. The noise on the stroke of Midnight, as the fireworks in town started rivalled anything we've heard in Hyde  Park, London or on the Thames at New Year at home. The display went on until well after 2.00 am and any possibility of sleep was out of the question. It was this that meant a 6.00 am start in the kitchen was achieved with a little less ease than usual!

All systems go!

The last time I fried so many eggs would have been back in the 1970's at Boy's Brigade Camp, when I was a cook for a few years.
We provide cereals, fruit (bananas, pineapple and pomelos), toast, yoghurt, porridge and we set 8 big tables with jams, marmalade etc, so it's a lengthy task. We were ready in good time and thankfully we had some willing volunteers to help wash and dry! We were ready to start on the soup and rolls by about 11 o'clock!
Another batch of volunteers washed and dried after lunch so at 2.30 pm we were ready for the great pizza festival!

The "A" Team, Who's that in the washing up?

 We had scoured Chiang Mai for strong flour, yeast and mozzarela cheese. We found a tomato sauce to use for passata and we had lots of other bits to use for toppings.
We should have suspected a problem when no one seemed to be signing out for dinner. We ended up making 14,  24" x 12" pizza's and having barely any left overs! 
Our team of willing helpers ranged from 11 yrs old to 17. They followed M, our master pizza chef's instructions to the letter and mixed and kneaded dough, sliced and chopped meat and vegetables (even the onions), grated cheese and cooked curried chicken. The final assembly line would have put pizza express to shame!

The Pizza Meister and a growing band of helpers!

By the time we had all eaten and cleared up the kitchen and dining room it was getting on for 8.30 pm.
Joan and I headed straight for the pool as after a full day in a hot kitchen, handling food made us feel in need of a cool, lazy swim to unwind.
We had a great deal of fun working with a group of kids again, and it was interesting to hear a little bit about their lives. Their conversations between themselves were really no different to any of the children their age that I've taught in the last 30 odd years.

Joan say's she's emailing using the
Nelson & Colne ipad (leaving gift) 

Joan and I continue to learn our way around the very different life here. One salutary fact is that nearly everyone seems to travel by motorbikes, from school children to Grannies, rarely wearing shoes or jackets, often without crash helmets. At least two of our staff have been crippled in some way from accidents riding their bikes. One of our staff left on Christmas Eve expecting to enjoy a family holiday only to find that her bother had been in a crash and had broken his jaw and sustained serious facial injuries. Now the family need to raise 60,000 Bt to cover 3 nights in hospital and also enough to cover an operation for him. He has medical insurance which covers some but by no means all of the costs. They will all join together to pay his bills, that's how they cope here.
One really good aspect of this job is that some of our guests come to Chiang Mai to have babies. We had two families over Christmas who could have provided the live new born for a Nativity  Caleb was only a few days late for this engagement being born on 3rd of Jan, his Mum, is doing well. The proud Dad is the guy who helped by playing guitar for our carol concert. Two more of our Guests are expecting any day now too. It is a privilege to help out, as surrogate family, for those who need it. We think back to the days when our neighbours did this for us!

The braver part of the crowd. Most were a good 20 feet
further back, I hid a fire extinguisher behind a tree!

A  humorous incident to close, one guest who works in a hospital in Bangladesh decided to bake some cookies for her boss to give as a Christmas gift. She decorated then by piping the Ladies name on each cookie in red icing. She left them wrapped up on her bosses desk and went home for the holidays. Returning to work after Christmas, she was surprised when the boss said nothing about the gift. The lady asked around, only to be told that to write someone's name in red, in Bangladesh, is to wish then dead!