Not happy about the risk of more injury from broken glass, we decided to try the Huay Kaow Waterfall a little further downstream.

This waterfall is more developed for visitors with a car park and many shops and cafes.

The entrance is just a few yards from Chiang mai Zoo at the bottom of Doi Suthep.

 The hope was that it would benefit from better upkeep and be safer.

Eating at home again we left at 11.30, getting to the waterfall at 12.30.

 It is certainly more beautiful and better maintained, although this means its loses some of the natural wild charm of the one further up the mountain.

We picked a shady spot as our base and the kids had lots of fun playing in the waters.

Again, despite having eaten already, I couldn’t resist getting hold of some sticky rice and nam pik see daeng, my favourite picnic snack, and lemonade and kanom for the kids.

Luckily no injuries this week.

I say luckily because, although there was certainly less, there was still a fair bit of broken glass around.

 Little Som did a valient, unprompted, job picking up several pieces out of the rock pools and disposing of them in a safe place.

We left the waterfall at around 3pm , with a short visit to the impressive ‘aboretum’ park the other side of the Zoo entrance, at the top of Huay Kaow Rd., before heading home for 5pm.

For more photos please visit our photobucket album here.

 A second look at the possible costs of concreting, and the fact that we are still in rented accomadation, led us to believe that we should look at cheaper, less permanent, options, and we settled on gravel and stonedust.

Having used this before with a similar project back in the UK, I know that if done properly it should set hard enough to give a reasonable riding surface.

The first load was delivered early Saturday morning and the children were keen to get to work, despite the heat.

 We made it a short hour long session to start, with another hour and a half later in the afternoon, when the heat of the day had subsided.

All the children worked very hard. And on Sunday, on returning from the weekly day out, they all pleaded with me to allow them to carry on and do some more.

 Personally I was too tired to do much myself, but was cetainly not going to deter such enthusiasm and was happy to supervise.

Well done kids, very proud of you!

For more photos please visit our photobucket album here.

 but also visits to both Kamtieng  Garden  Market and the Flower Market close to Chiang Mais China Town at the banks of the River Ping.

We ate at home this week and then enjoyed a couple of hours of the peaceful ambience of Huay Tung Taow and some time in the water, before heading into Kamtieng Garden Market, behind Tesco Lotus on the super highway.

The children had made a special request to be able to go and buy flowers for Valentines day.

At Kamtieng we let the children choose some flowers for the garden. From there we went to the riverside Flower Market where they all bought roses.

The spirit of Valentines truely came to Stratton House a couple of days early. Friday evening saw the culmination of a very stressful week for myself.

As hard as I tried I know that the children had sensed my stress.

On returning home, mid-evening from a meeting I was met by all the children as I walked into the house. They took me by the hands and ushered me, excitedly, round to the art area. There they proceeded to hand me a whole load of Valentines cards and paper hearts that they had made for me.

To say I was touched is an understatement. The stresses of the week, and this spontaneous show of affection, hit me like a tornado and I have to confess to being unable to stop the tears.

 I quickly assured the children that it was because they had made me so happy.

 This now has become a running quote in the house, “Daddy long hai, bpen kwam suk mak”.

The cards and hearts now adorn my door and bring a glow to my heart each time I see them.

For more photos from the day please visit our photobucket album here.

May got a little extra pocket money for the day at school and we gave her her card on her return from school.

 It had ended up that I was on my own to do the present buying at the market in Banthi in the morning. May had requested clothes and I was not at all sure what to buy an 11 year old Thai girl. After a light dinner I presented her with the two shirts I had bought and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw how happy she was with them.

She rushed off to put her favourite on, before we had the small party at around 7pm. Birthday cake, mango and sticky rice and lots more kanom and pop.

Lots of smiles and happiness that make this work worth it.

It is rideable now but with a very rough shingle surface.

We would like very much to complete the road with either concrete or possibly sand and stonedust mix.

We estimate the full cost of this to be somewhere around 10,000 baht.

 Our good friend and webmaster, Ally, has kindly offered 5, 000 baht if we can raise the other 5.

Any help towards this goal would be very much appreciated.

We got to this the waterfall at around 11.30 and had about 3 hours there. The children enjoyed the usual Sunday picnic, ( fried pork and veg made a welcome change to Kaow Pat),coke  and kanom.

Starting at the bottom we found the water to muddy and too much broken glass left by untidy beer drinkers. So after the picnic lunch we made the precarious way up to a group of shallow pools suitable for the children to play in.

The older ones also ventured into the deeper pool with gushing waterfall.

Unfortunately there was glass here too, and both little May and myself fell victim to this unwelcome hazard left by very selfish people. So whilst it is a beautiful place and the kids did have fun, we will probably not return in the future.

For more photos please visit our photobucket album here.

Travelling into Chiang Mai Old City we braved the traffic queues, which turned out to be not half as bad as I’d expected,and  I parked up about ten minutes walk away from the main Flower Festival site at Buak Hard Park.

As I went to let the kids out of the back they all pointed to young Som who looked very unwell with a widespread rash and swollen eyes and forehead. Immediately concerned about the possibility of Anaphylactic Shock, and with no anti-histamines to hand, our Festival visit was cancelled and we drove to the nearby Suthep Rd Hospital. Thankfully the reaction, although clearly very irritating for Som, had already started receding when we got to the hospital. The nurses were very good and we came away with calamine lotion and liquid antihistamine and I’m glad to report that Som is looking much happier and well again now.

The nurse told us to expect the rash to recede immediately and then return in 2 or three days, so to continue the medical treatment throughout. All the other children have been told about the symptoms of anaphylactic shock and that they are to alert us immediately if  Soms symptoms return.

Once they got started and the track started to take shape , the children didn’t want to stop.

All the younger children worked hard gathering up loose stones and leveling the track.

Tai was entrusted with the job of shaping points on short bamboo stakes to hold the track marking poles in place.

All the children wanted to have a go at banging the stakes in and managed very well in places where the ground was softest; using wooden sticks as hammers when I refused to allow them to weild the heavy metal lump hammer that myself and Tai used later to bang the stakes in until they were firm.

Even working lat in the afternoon the heat was quite intense and I tried calling a halt to the work after a little over an hour.

 But the children would have none of it, not wanting to stop until the whole track had at least been laid out.

Well done kids, to say I am proud of you is an understatement!
For more photos of this project please visit our photobucket album here.

But any prospective sponsor needs to register as a customer first before the software will allow you to “purchase”.

Once again, a big thankyou to our 2 first child sponsors, Heather and Azadeh.

Your childs profiles will be completed very soon.

Another reason to register with the shop is that we then have your postal details in order to send you a printed version of the profile along with photos and a letter of thanks from your child.

Thankyou for your patience.