A New Year Festival in the mountains

We stopped in briefly at a New Years celebration up in the mountains of Thailand. I think we were in "Bawkaew", at least that's what it sounds like. This is about 2 hours northwest of Chiang Mai. Right when we pulled up I heard a Christian english christmas songs being played over the loud speakers. Funny only because I don't think anyone there actually understands English but it was nice to hear something familiar. :-) We saw men and women lined up throwing a ball back and forth to each other. Turns out that this is sort of a courting ritual. If a single guy is interested in a girl, they throw a ball together while getting to know each other. My cousins were quickly found a partner to throw with and got to experience this tradition first hand. I wish I'd gotten a better picture of the traditional outfits they were wearing.
This was way past Bee' naptime though and D and I were trying to prevent meltdowns. We did bribe her with a balloon which ended up being a real pain trying to keep up with. She ended up accidentally letting go of "sharkie" the following day and there was quite the moaning and tears as we watched him fly off. We were sad for her to lose her prized balloon though neither of us were sad to see him go.
Our hosts found us lodging at the local clinic. It's typically housing for nursing students and though very basic, was a welcome bed to lay our tired bodies on. Up in the hills, trees surrounding us and little patches of strawberries everywhere I looked. It was a beautiful setting and we were a little sad to be there such a short time.

Our lodging for the night right up the path.

The view from our cabin.

Our cabin. The white bags are strawberry plants.

The door to our cabin and a large porch out front.

Brielle helping to wrangle Bee with her "sharkie".

Yes, those are boys about 10 years old in the ring and younger. On our way out we saw one boy with brass knuckles...Yikes!

Gone a 'courtin!

Looking down from our cabin to the others on the path.

Kids dancing on the stage and all dressed their traditional outfits.

Strawberries

On the way up into the mountains we were able to stop at an organic strawberry farm. What beauty surrounded us! Really, all the pictures do not do justice to the real beauty of Thailand.
Bee's hat in the pics was borrowed from a friend who came along. It came in handy for keeping the very bright sun out of her eyes!

Sticky Falls

Wow! I knew we were in for a treat but had no idea till we got there. It is a beautiful falls where the mineral water has covered everything it touches in a rough calcification. Which makes it very "grippy" and easy to climb up and down. Bee and I climbed all over and in areas that were steep enough I'd never attempt if they were normal falls. We spent a good 3+ hours there and had a blast. We were so glad to have been able to experience this!

Christmas!

We had a very nice quiet Christmas day here in Thailand. Slow, taking our time, just the way it's supposed to be! Enjoy!

Christmas Eve

We had our Christmas Eve tonight on Sunday. It was filled with cookie decorating, movie watching, book reading, and a tiny bit of package opening.
Enjoy!