10 February 2007

The calm before the storm


A couple of days in Brisbane has allowed us to wind down from all of the preparations for this journey. We're resting quite a lot, knowing that things will get very busy once we reach Thailand.

Mr Krisakorn Sukavejvorakit, on behalf of Tuenjai Deetes, has put together a comprehensive 3 week itinerary for us. We arrive in Bangkok on the evening of 11 February. The next day (Karen's birthday!) we will spend in Bangkok before travelling to the Chumphon Cabana eco resort. Some very positive initiatives have been implemented at Chumphon Cabana, including on site water treatment, organic recycling and perhaps most importantly a community development focus. We only have two nights there before heading back to Bangkok and then up to Chiang Rai in the far north of Thailand. We have six days in Chiang Rai and will be visiting the Hill Area Development Foundation (HADF, founded by Tuenjai Deetes) and other initiatives. After Chiang Rai we have two days in Chiang Mai before heading back to Bangkok. Our last week will be spent in the central area of Thailand including our last 3 days at the old city of Ayutaya.

Communication is going to be more of a challenge from now on, with reliance on a dial up global roaming connection through our laptop. However, we will be doing our best to send something for the blog each day.

A little note on how you might help us. We have been very fortunate to have support and assistance in Thailand. This is not guaranteed in all places that we are visiting. If you think you can help in any way please send us a message.

Times on the blog are in NZ time which at present is Current Time Zone offset: GMT/UTC + 13:00 due to our +1:00 hour day light saving. (Michael)

No comments: