Umphang

I have been so bad at updating sorry. I plan on doing a posting blitz this week. There is too much to write for each post, so I will break it up. Getting to Umphang: Plane, bus, private car? Every option was discussed, dissected and discussed again and after much debate about how to actually get to the orphanage, we took the bus on Thursday, October 14^th. The roads finally opened up! The bus ride would be an overnight ride lasting 10 hours. We took the VIP bus, which was very nice. The seats are wide, recline very far back and have leg rests that come up. They give you a blanket, food and drink. There is also access to coffee and tea at anytime during the ride. Also, they make a rest stop about 2-3 hours into the trip where you can get free food when you show your bus ticket. All of this for $20 USD! Our destination was Mae Sot... still NOT where the orphanage is! The ride was uneventful and we arrived without incident. Were were met at the bus station by Esther Yi and her husband Gum San. They run the orphanage. We still had 4 more hours to go before we would be at the orphanage. They were merciful to us and suggested we rest some before the next leg of the trip. I got to eat a good ol' american breakfast at a restaurant run and owned by a Canadian who has lived here for 14 years. Eggs and bacon on an english muffin of sorts. Then off to Umphang we went. We drove for four hours on a very windy road, but the landscape was absolutely beautiful! Finally we arrived! It was a bit overwhelming. After such a long trip here, I felt extremely isolated, almost trapped! There is one road in and one road out, if that were to get blocked, let's say by a landslide (which happens in rainy season), we would be stuck! Anyway, that feeling left me soon enough. We spent the first few weeks adjusting,

Thee Lor Su Waterfall

getting used to the area, the food, the people, and our living situation. In this post I will talk about Umphang itself. It is a very small town located north west of Bangkok. Their claim to fame is Thee Lor Su (pronounced Tee Lo Su) waterfall. Many Thais come here to vacation and to visit the waterfalls. I just went this past weekend, it truly is beautiful! The main "business" part of town consists of two roads that run parallel to each other and are traversed by about 10 short blocks. This is where we find most shops to supply our needs. There is no lack of restaurants here, but the main problem is most of the menus are written in Thai Sanskrit... we have no clue what to order. There really isn't much to it, so it only took a few days to figure out where things were. Things are a little pricey in this small town for two reasons; 1. there is only one way to get things here and that road is intense at times and 2. this is the only place to buy stuff, there is nowhere else to shop! Umphang is considered a boarder town, so the population consists of Thais, Burmese refugees and Karen people. Here at the orphanage, the directors are Burmese and the children are either Burmese or Karen. What does that mean for us? We need to learn both Burmese and Thai! I currently know a few phrases in both languages. One day Doris asked me how do you say water in Thai, but I only knew how to say it in Burmese! This happens a lot! We have met so many wonderful people in our first month here! We have met very nice locals, refugees and farangs (that's Thai for foreigners). There is a couple here from NYC! The wife works for an NGO located in town. If I stick to my plan, you will have something new to read everyday this week! That's all for now!! By the way, in case any of you have heard about the flooding in BKK, it did get pretty bad. We are not directly affected because we are 14 hours removed, however, BKK is where supplies come in and are shipped out from, so many places are short on supplies. The only time I notice is when I go to a big city and see empty shelves, otherwise, I really don't know what Umphang normally has.