Intense host family day

I love host family days where you have no idea what's in store for you... and that's what Sunday was. We left the house at 9am, and didn't get home until 9:30pm. The only stop in our itinerary that we knew about was the first one. We never knew how long we'd stay, what we'd need with us, what we'd be doing, and our family's English didn't allow for those questions to be answered accurately anyway, so we were just along for the ride!

Our first stop was Doi Tung, which is the queen mother's summer house. She passed away in 1994, so the house is more of a museum now, and has beautiful gardens and an orchid breeding/ research lab. The flowers and plants and fountains were all spectacular. Because Thai culture is very reserved about clothing, when you entered the queen mother's home, you had to be wearing long pants and shirts with sleeves to the elbow. If you didn't arrive in that, you were given a shirt and pants to wear over your clothing! I'll have Scottie post some pics of my sweet outfit.

After Doi Tung, we spent the afternoon at a teacher friend of hostmom's, in a traditional Thai style house (which is mostly open, all hardwood, where sit on mats, eat on the floor around a short table)... delicious food, lots of fruit and fun things to try. We played puzzle games and relaxed on the patio/ deck outdoor area for a few hours. They took us to the campus of Mae Fa Luang University, which is very lovely, and all the instruction is in English. We visited the statue of the Queen Mother there, and also the Chinese Institute.

Sunday evening we met the rest of the host fam at the Night Bazaar downtown Chiang Rai for dinner, more Thai dancing, and a little shopping.

This blog must be cut short, because it is definitely gonna rain in the next few minutes and I have to try to beat it home!