We left the hotel this morning at 8. Today we are driving 5 hours to Chiangmai.
Luckily we have a couple of stops to break up the journey. First stop was at a boar feeding stop. People release boars into this area to get good karma so there were quite a few boars. The boars know people stop in this area to feed them so they wait in a fenced area for people to come. Lin bought some bananas and boar food for us to give them.
During the ride, Lin talked about various issues including prostitution and human trafficking. Girls from this area are particularly vulnerable because they are light skinned, something considered more desirable, and because they and their families are somewhat naïve. Drug traffickers are prevalent in the Chiangmai and Chiangrai area. Poppies are grown in Burma and then the heroine is moved through Thailand to the rest of the world. Lin grew up in the area and she estimates that 80% of her class ended up in prostitution, or drug trafficking. Sad statistic!
Once we arrived in Chiangmai we went to a gems gallery. They showed us a short video on the mining and cutting processes and escorted us into the showroom. They had many beautiful things, but I didn’t get anything.
Afterward we went to our hotel and got checked in. That evening we went to a home hosted dinner. Our host was a lovely woman who was married and had one son. Neither her son nor her husband were there. She had her niece and nephew help her cook and host the dinner. Her name was Runa which translates to rainbow. She was energetic, positive, and a joy to send time with.
Her English was quite good. She had worked in a factory for three years in Taiwan where she learned English. She and her husband own a small grocery store. She showed us around her house. It was very nicely furnished.
She said initially she was unsure about hosting people in her house but then she tried it and loved it. We started out making our own salad.
Then the niece and nephew served dinner and dessert.
It was a very pleasant evening.