So I had 5 days to kill in Thailand right before flying to Burma. I had to book my flights before even having my visas secured, just to secure decent prices...
Anyhow, so I figured I would change scenery and not stay in bkk, but rather head north to Chiang May.
My bus arrived in Chiang may, from bkk, at 1:30am. The bus terminal is about 6km away from the city. I had no map, and had not even looked up a single info about the city before coming. So pretty much, I landed 'blind'. Uffff!!!!! After 11 hours of bus, I needed a stretch anyway, so I walked all the way to the city...well...the city very much asleep. Wow! How the hell was I going to find a place to sleep!?
After walking an hour to the city and then another half hour randomly trying to find light and people to ask direction, i bump into this foreigner who is on a scooter. Her must surely know his way around, being out so late and on a scooter, so I ask him...he gives me direction...and I go on...walking....
10 minutes later, he shows up from nowhere. Tells me to jump on, he will help me out and take me to a few places. Grrrreat!
We drove around for one hour before finding a place. Uffff! Thank you so much! His name is Scott, he actually is a cop from California, on vacation. His 4 th time in Thailand this year!!! Lol I guess the cops in the US might just have as good a social benefit package as the cops in france...
The next day...
Janice had told me in Jakarta about a great NGO (Warm Heart Children Homes) founded by two of her former MBA teachers, so I wanted to check them out and learn more about their story.
After a few emails I was finally able to connect with them and arrange for a meet up. Plan was, two days and one night to hang out with Evelind, who is the co-founder and Treasurer of Warm Heart (Michael, her husband is currently fundraising in the US), to chat extensively about their project.
Ha! When I got there, at night, didn't get to see much other than the few little kids who were still up. So I went to sleep.
The next day, at breakfast, I started chatting with the volunteers onsite who were helping out with different initiatives. I clicked right away with Ben, who is a well traveled and volunteered British guy my age, and who is helping the put some order and manage the center for a few months; and Joseph and Rebecca, who founded Goodwill Globe trotting, and are volunteering to build up an outdoor playground/gym/fitness/muay Thai area for the older kids.
Well, between goodwill globetrotting and warm heart, I managed to meet on the same day, two initiatives which pretty much make up the core of what my long term dreams have been for a long time.
Warm heart basically houses 40 kids from hill tribes families who cannot really provide a positive and educated environment for their kids, and try their best at mentoring the kids throughout their middle and highschool, to help them get access to better opportunities than working the farms like their parents. They also include a micro enterprise component by helping artisans perfect their art and then promote and export it to potential mass buyers. And they are currently also trying to develop a geriatric support and therapy initiative. In other words, they are all over the place.
Goodwill globetrotting, well, they are two young Texans my age, who are passionate about a traveling the world and helping people. They have traveled a lot but got bored to travel without a real purpose. So they do all they can to go back home for 6 to 9 months to make some money, fill up their savings via small jobs, as well as fund raising initiatives, and then travel for a while and consult on various development projects around the world. On top of that, they have created a support network for NGOs to help them with on demand needs of resources and volunteers.
I don't think I am actually doing either project justice with my simple descriptions, but please visit their websites and get inspired like I did:
http://warmheartworldwide.org
http://www.goodwillglobetrotting.org
So I actually ended up not doing much chatting with Evelind, but rather mostly physical work with the volunteers to help move as forward as possible with the build up of the playground.
Wow! I never thought that all these years of living on a construction site in Morocco would ever pay off. Lol. But it did.
I absolutely loved working with them on this common objective and learnt so much in the process about the two NGOs. Fascinating!
I ended up spending two nights there. I didn't want to leave any more. If it wasn't for Burma and the plane tickets I bought, I would still be there and help finishing up the playground.
Anyhow...I am now back to the bus terminal...my bus back to bkk is at 11pm...and another 10 hour bus ride.
Funny little story before posting and running to catch my bus:
I have a few more Thai bahts left in my pocket, so i decide to go for a foot massage. Yay!!!!!
I walk into this super sketchy hotel lobby (remember, I am outside the city, at a late night bus terminal). I ask for a massage. The front desk kid gives me a room key and tells me to just walk up....hmmmmm...OK. I do.
There, a very plumpy lady welcomes me. Aiiii...scary. A mattress on the floor...she says 'Thai massage?'. I say 'no'. I don't want someone to twist me like a rubber band. I want a deep tissue massage. So I tell her I want a foot massage. Okidoki...we walk down to the mezzanine right above the front desk. I seat down a plastic chair. And she starts. Eh, boring....barely pressing on the muscles. Hmmm...I tell her to go deeper once....and again, to light...hmmm...I tell her again.-.then walk down two other women, including a much older one. So she asks for help.
I knew that such context would have to lead to some unique and entertaining situation. Hahaha!
All of an sudden, all three women are leaning on my feet and massaging them. Hilarious. Almost as if the older woman was giving a class to then other younger ones. And it goes on for an hour. A six hand foot massage. Hahahaha!
So funny!
OK...gotta run!!!!!
Bonne nuit!
See you in Burma...or not. ;0)
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