June 17,

We awoke, readied and packed up. The view out of our little A-frame… still amazing. The sky was still very cloudy, causing a misty-look out over the valley! Jeff loaded up the car, then we went over to the cafe to pay. We ended up staying a bit and talking with a young guy from Quebec,Canada and his Thai wife/girlfriend, who gave us a bag of lychees. We found out he’s a transplanted artist living in Chiang Mai. He makes pottery pieces. He called himself an artistic nomad. The farm Homestay lady gave us a free drink as we were talking. We finished our drinks and our conversation – always fun to talk with fellow travelers. We paid-up our bill, leaving around 1030. We stopped at a 7-Eleven for bread and made ourselves a PB&J for brunch.

The plan was to just drive to Pai.The drive started out on beautiful winding roads. We got very close to the Thai-Burmese border, more than once. Jeff said nobody from Kansas has been here this year! 😂 We actually did go through quite a few checkpoints as we were driving along the border. We just had to roll down our window and they waved us on.

Then we came to the Srisangwon Waterfall in Pha Daeng National Park. We paid 230 THB, which is $7.05, to walk to the view of the waterfall and to park our car. It was an easy path along the rapid-flowing, brown stream. There were at least three stations to view the falls, which were gorgeous! It was not a huge drop of water, rather a fast-flowing fall, that has molded the riverbed into large rounded boulders. The boulders themselves seem to be flowing. The water has even shaped some of the boulders into “bowls” or “little pools”.

When we finished, we loaded up in our car to head out. The weather was turning iffy so we decided to find a place to stay the night. We found one online and booked it. As we left, it was a good thing we had booked the place because it started raining and turned into a heavy downpour! The rain added an extra 10 minutes to the hour and a half drive we were going.

We arrived at Le Cocotier Resort in Mae Taeng, around 1500. It was still raining but not as hard. We found the owner lady. I think we surprised her because she seemed a little startled to see us. But she pulled out her phone and found our booking (we didn’t think she had seen it yet). She went and got us umbrellas,which was very nice and greatly appreciated. Her husband directed us to our room. We are on the second floor – a huge room… this resort seems more like a venue. The place sits on a huge ground surrounded by rice paddies. There is a nice garden area set off with a little pond. The other main, big building is the restaurant and dining area. Jeff brought in the stuff from the car and booked us some supper for 1800. We unpacked some and relaxed. As the rain and clouds subsided, we finally could see mountains. We were surprised how close they were.

We had Tom Kha Gai soup, Holy Basil Stir-fry with chicken and rice. We were both surprised how long it has been since we’ve had Thai soup. Both dishes were so fresh and very good. I had a mango smoothie and Jeff had a Singha beer.The meal cost us 505 THB, which was $15.48.

After we finished supper, we went back to our room. I did a TENS unit session, as my back was a little sore from my fall. My hand is doing fairly well with very little pain. It was a fairly decent day. Thanks for all your prayers