Visa Run #3: Check Plus!

Hey Everyone! 

I am  back from my visa run. My passport is stamped and I'm good to go until I return home. That means I'm going to be home for a visit in less than 90 days! :) It was a relaxing trip. It was just Erika and me on the trip. We took  bus from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai. It was a short ride... only 3 1/2 hours and the bus was really comfortable. We arrived at the bus station an hour too early for our bus, but it's better to be early than late, right? The hour went by pretty quickly and then we were on our way. I did take photos this time. 

Waiting... Waiting... in the bus station.

Our hotel room. It was quite nice. The beds were ok. But the showers were HOT! You had to turn the dial toward the cold side in order to take a shower. It was amazing! I haven't had a really hot shower in quite a while.

While we were there, I wanted to get paper. I haven't journaled in a few days and so I needed to find some paper to write on. We went to a bookstore, but they didn't have anything. We ran into an interesting guy (as in the weird sort of interesting). He thought I was from Germany. It made me laugh. Not so much! He told us plenty of stories about his life while we were there. When you travel, you meet some interesting folks. They automatically feel like talking to you when they see that you're on crutches. I guess it's kind of like a woman being pregnant, people simply come and touch her belly for whatever reason. Just makes me laugh. Anyway, I asked where I could buy paper, and where else, but 7/11. Of course, 7/11s are all over Asia. I mean all over and if you need something, they probably have it. So this is a photo of me with my new found notebook. Not ideal, but it'll have to do.

Me in Myanmar (Burma). This is probably one of the easiest borders to cross in Thailand. It was fairly simple. Hand them your passport go to another building pay $10, they take your photo and give you another card, which you turn in to get your passport back when you come back. You can come right back across and you're good to go. We went to look around the market. I didn't take any photos of the market. If you've seen one in Asia, you have seen them all. The only difference here is that they try and sell you cigarets as soon as you get down there. Apparently they are a ton cheaper in Burma than Thailand. I'm glad I wasn't looking for any.  

Looking towards Myanmar.

Welcome to Thailand sign! :) YAY! 

 

Here are my stamps, quite blurry, I know. Sorry! But you get the idea. I am hoping to go to Burma next year and go to Rangoon. 

After returning, Erika and I were starving so we found a place that had hamburgers. They were actually pretty good surprisingly enough. Much improvement from our attempt at Farang food at the hotel. I ordered what I thought would be a grilled cheese, oh man! It was was 3 pieces of white bread slightly toasted, with some sort of sauce, tomato, cucumber and onion, and 2 pieces of processed cheese and a fried egg on top. Not really what I was going for. lol! 

Erika at the restaurant where we had hamburgers. 

The flower there. A pretty red carnation... it's the flower for the month of January just FYI.

Here is our hotel... Laluna. It was quite nice!! 

This is what you saw as you walked in. The lobby was open air. It was nice.

This was the walk way to our room with lovely plants and flowers. 

Our shoes outside our room, of course.

The view from the door of our room. 

Basking in the BEAUTIFUL SUN!! Soaking up my vitamin D for the next couple of months. They had a hot tub, but it was broken! SAD DAY! The water in the pool was pretty chilly so I opted to just stick my legs in and not swim. It was nice and relaxing! 

My new turtle friend, Henry. 

The hotel has beautiful landscaping and lots of pretty flowers. So I pulled a Nathan and went and took pictures of all of the flowers. So here they are... 

This is one of my favorite photos.

Of course I had to take time to smell the flowers, as well as take photos of them! :) 

Before we headed back to Chiang Mai, we stopped to get lunch. They had a gerber daisy on the table, which is my all-time favorite flower and it's red so I had to take a picture! 

Pretty! 

Black and white to see the texture. 

We saw some sunflowers too. But I didn't get a chance to take a picture of them. They were really pretty though.

Waiting for the Sawng Tao.

On our way to the bus station to go home after some really nice R&R!

This visa run was much needed. My view on everything wasn't the way I wanted it to be. But after having a couple of days away, I feel as though I am ready to conquer the world. Well, at least the last 6 weeks of school! Same, Same! :) 

Now that I've updated my blog, I have to get ready for school to start. I have to get my lesson plans ready for this week. I start my new teaching class on Monday as well. I hope it all goes well. I am really excited about that class. I just hope that I can do a good job teaching it. 

All of the teachers are really looking forward to going home for our summer break and seeing friends and family. Please keep all of us in your prayers as we finish out the school year that we can do the best that we can with our abilities and talents. It will be quite different next year not have all of our 3rd year students here, which has been the majority of my classes this year. Please keep the students in your prayers as well as they figure out what they are going to do after Legacy. 

Times are tough financially. Please pray that Legacy will continue to receive the funding that they need in order to continue the ministry that is being done here in Thailand.  

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their new year! I'll see all of you soon!

Lots of Love and Hugs,

Lainy