There are very few words that express the vastness of Thailand. Though it is not great in size it is great in it's diversity. The north where the drug trade was a great trouble is now the centre for agricultural commerce and growth of the nations corn and rice. The central area of Thailand are where the big cities are. It is the centre of the people. And a little south of that are the fishing villages of the Chon Buri province where there is great diversity in itself from slums to westernized gated neighborhoods. These are the places we as a team have been able to visit and stay at. From a village in the north where a rooster wakes you up every hour to the AngSila church where the brothel across the street opens its windows to hear the Saturday night church service. None of us can wait to visit the southern tip near Phuket to see the tsunami recovery. I am personally excited for a good nights sleep to get over this virus and sore throat. Even so there is God waking me up for the past two mornings to spend time with the kids some of them orphans or to take some orphan boys to the zoo. No matter how terrible I've felt the night before I can still get up to go another day. We just arrived in Phuket and only now do I realize how much we as North Americans take for granted. I mean it was only yesterday that I was sleeping on the floor of a village church with no running water or even a blanket to cover myself with. Now arriving in Phuket to our next place where I have a bed with blankets, an actual shower (with hot water), and a toilet that I don't have to dump water down to flush. For all these things I am so much more thankful for as we have seen and experienced what the people here in Thailand live with. That being said, how do I have the good fortune to be born into a Christian family in a country like Canada instead of into a Buddhist village in Thailand? Even so the Christians here carry such a great joy through such a heavy burden and persecution and in poverty. Don't get me wrong these Christians are being rewarded now and most definitely later, whether that means having the ability to buy mountain tops, or rent/own all the buildings surrounding a brothel.

Until next time (which may in fact be a video post)

Chris AKA Mei (which is my Thai name it means "wood")

I love real beds

Here are a couple pics from our adventure so far. Hopefully some more to come as well as a possible vlog of us all reporting on all we have done so far.

Cheers
Chris

Cheing Rai and away

So I have finally been able to get Internet in Thailand. We have arrived in Cheing Rei in the north after spending a short time at the palace in Bangkok. Other then sweating profusely everyone seems to be doing well and getting accustomed to the climate and lifestyle of the area. Yes we had quite the adventure coming back from the palace. We decided to take a river boat and then train back to where we were staying and let me tell you it was quite a riot. I think that river boat was one of the most sketchy watercrafts I have ever been on, it was powered by a car engine and had a very shaky structure that seemed on the verge of falling apart everytime we hit a little wave. Once we got to land I happily exited the boat and make the transition to what was a Thai sky train. Righ when we got back to our temporary residence we jammed all six of us into a taxi to the airport to catch a plane to the north where we are right now. That river boat was not the only thing I found sketchy today, the plane we flew on was an airbus 300 and everytime we hit some turbulence the lights would flicker and then when we landed it wasn't as smooth as we would have liked because we bounce 5 feet off the runway before we actually landed. Anyways we are here safe and sound and healthy.

Chris

YVR

Just under an hour until take off and everybody is getting stoked for a 13 hour flight followed by another 6 hour flight. Our whole day of travel is set to be around 24 hours arriving in the late hours of the night in Bangkok.  We made it through security pretty seamlessly other than the pocket that was in my suitcase. Honestly I had no idea it was there or how it got there because I haven't used the thing since I went to Ireland last summer. Anyways we are all settled in at Vancouver waiting for our flight to Beijing. 

Until next time,
Chris

The Countdown

Hi Everybody

Well this is it two days until our trip to Thailand and I think it is pretty certain that we are all pretty excited to get going! I'm setting this up for any body who wants to follow along with our trip and keep up to what we are doing. I'm not sure how often we will be able to post given the circumstances but we will do our best.

Thanks for tuning in see you in a few.

Chris