Like a Song in Sangklaburi

We spent the final days of our trip together painting an absurd amount of murals at the Baan Unrak Children's Home in Sangklaburi, Thailand. This organization provides food, housing, love, and spiritual support to 150 children--mostly Burmese refugees--and vocational skills/employment to many single mothers. The kids are all vegetarians, and meditate/chant twice a day, in order to find inner peace, via the Neo-Humanist path (love and respect for all beings in the universe). We came in to spread some major art love, like paint coats walls.
Below is our Under the Sea mural. The children loved this one. They tried to touch each animal on the wall, even if it meant running and jumping AT the wall.

The Mystical Gate: a commissioned image, that was a big hit with the founder of the home, and will reportedly be used as a new logo for the organization.

The "Hand"scape mural: we painted a giant landscape on the wall,

and then talked with the kid's about different ways of caring for the environment. The children then lined up,

to make environmental pledges which they sealed by placing their painted hand on the wall,

creating an evolving hand-scape of earth-loving promises!

And...a bonus mural! Some kids collaborated to design and paint their own ideas on the wall, with slight guidance from Bri and Lisa.

Sweet Pai

Pai proved to be a funky lovable little town, crawling with silly hippies and drunken vikings. We nibbled healthy food,

and bonded with the best elephant owner, an attractive woman named Thom--as well as her massive friends.

We rode bareback on the relaxed animals, for a extreme swimming experience, aka. the elephant rodeo, a.k.a. a giant elephant throws you off its back into a river, while you try to hold on to its ears. Luckily, we impressed Thom and she invited us to a special government official's party that evening. We drank whiskey, made friends with a strange man named Tiger, encouraged people to eat and enjoy themselves, and sang several karaoke hits for the crowd. "Imagine" went over pretty well, but "Country Roads" and "Leaving On a Jet Plane" were slightly less successful.... above:our crew...bottom left:tiger...bottom right:karaoke wonders

Chiang Mai

Mollie traveled first to Chiang Mai to help celebrate the 100 year anniversary of The Mckean Rehabilitation Center (http://www.blogger.com/www.mckeanhosp.org/), started by her great grandfather Dr. James Mckean. Standing tall above the other guests she gave an impromptu speech and cut the ribbon to the new Mckean history museum.

In Chiang Mai we kicked it with Mollie Noi's Thai family. We slept
in a beautiful wooden house filled with antique treasures, mosquitos, and
loving energy.

The family, led by Great Aunt Renu (80 years old, full of life and dirty jokes) and cousin Kimmie (living life with love) took us on adventures in and around Chiang Mai.

We saw.....22 month old baby elephant, ate so much food it hurt, a daily dose of chile to keep us younger, and many beautiful old temples

Loy Kratong= festival to celebrate the river, letting go of the past and welcoming a bright future with kratongs (floating flower boats) and rice paper lanterns which burned new constellations in the sky. This also meant lots and lots of fireworks!

Mekong River

Long trip to Thailand became a time for reflection, card games, and rain. Two days of drifting, against the grain of the Mekong, slowly navigating whirlpools and inner landscapes.

Greeness and love of Laos. Good to have to slow down and just be in transition firmly and quietly. An exciting race to the border and we arrived in Chiang Mai, invited to take shots with some wily Israelis!

Happy Americans in Luang Prabang

Oh Joy! The discovery of many Americans became a cause for celebration the first morning of our time in Luang Prabang, a beautiful river city sans tubing.

We welcomed OBAMA as our new president (hip hip hurray) , causing tears of joy with Mark, an expat Georgian friend who owned a bar with a big projector screen of CNN. He opened up bottles of champagne to all the anxious and excited Americans who spent the morning yelling, cheering, and getting excited by the TV reports on his bar. Folks around, Laotians and travelers alike, congratulated us!

We spent the rest of our time seeing beautiful waterfalls, being amazed by the treasures at the night market, eating bananas and tasting sweet sunsets.

Drinking for kids in Vang Vieng

Four Turbo anxious Obama Fairies stayed 4 days in a both stunningly beautiful and sickly Western imported Cancun style Vang Vieng, Laos. At the Organic Farm we feasted on Mulberries in Mojitos, Harvest Curries, and Shakes. we did jumping pictures with our favorite dudes.

It was a beautiful land of drunken generally whitefolks and tubes - we are unsure of this tradition's history, but it is definitiely in the present. Our job at the farm was as barpromotors for the farm's Mojito Bar - it gave all proceeds to the local school, a project of the farm.

We worked with Robert, a frenchman who taught us about the evils of bread and milk, and were able to interview all the folks we'd meet later on, ziplining, mudfighting, sliding, down the river.

We gave the mojito bar a make-over by candle-light.

It looks a little like it was painted by children...how appropriate.

Halloween Abroad/COPEing

Have you heard of the bigbad Secret War the US waged on Laos for 9 years? It turned Laos into the most bombed country on earth (to this day). We dropped more bombs on Laos than we dropped during all of WWII. 30% of the bombs didn't explode, which meant that they still go off today - especially as the poverty-stricken Laotians resort to the calculated risk of scrapmetal collecting.

We learned a lot at COPE, a rehab center doing hella to help those hurt by the bombies and the residual effects - the US has given very little aid. http://www.copelaos.org/. also, sign here to help petition banning cluster bombs - they become civilian land mines after they are dropped because of their high failure rate. http://www.handicap-international.org.uk/page_249.php

Celebrations erupted in Vientiane too, as we had to scare away some evil spirits. Pictured: The Pirate, The Universe, The Toothfairy. We rocked a Laos wedding party (the folks wanted to set us up with a goldminer?), a bar full of bugs and beer, and an odd dance party. Vientiane proved to be a calm capital, flat, on our way north!