1st 2 Days

Finally got some Internet access at the Fongs’ place, so I’m gonna do some updates.

I arrived safely in Chiangrai at 9.20pm and was picked up by Sam & Kul at the airport. We headed to Neel’s place to stay for the night before heading up to Maesai the next morning.

Kul’s really nice and friendly. Look at what she drew for me in her room! =) Hope that I’ll be able to get to know her better this trip.

The journey to Maesai from the city took about 1hour, and here’s the place that I’m staying in! It’s a simple place with minimal furniture.

The living room where I have my Thai lessons. I started my first lesson on Thursday.
My teacher’s a Shan youth called Chompu.

I’m known as “pi daphy (dae-fee)” to them, coz Daphne’s too difficult for them to pronounce.
The first few lessons are focused on pronunciation, intonation and making sure I get all the sounds and accents right. It’s kinda tricky since Thai is a 5-tone language. Thankfully having learnt Mandarin helped in differentiating the sounds more easily.

My room after the mattress and pillows and my stuff were unpacked.
My ‘wardrobe’ and ‘dressing table’.
The rather empty kitchen where I managed to ‘stock up’ some biscuits and milo for breakfast.
It’s a little scary living in the house alone. Its pitch dark at night! Thankfully I have company on weekends, and in the subsequent weeks, there’ll be different groups of people coming up to Maesai and living with me.

I’m still very unfamiliar with my surroundings, but I’ll soon have to venture out and walk about to familiarize myself with the area.

I have gotten myself a Thai number. All incoming calls are FREE (local or international!!!) so please feel free to drop me a ring-a-ding-ding when you miss me! It’s a super easy to remember number by the way…
My number: +66801243556

(Just enter which ever IDD code you use before the number to call. E.g. 00166801243556)
If in doubt, you can ask Matthew! =)

Some prayer items:
1) Thank God for a safe journey to Maesai.
2) Thank God for familiar help just next door.
3) Pray that I’ll be able to spend my time well as I have quite a lot of free time at hand right now.
4) Pray for language learning – ability to pick up the different tones & ability to remember the different vowels (similar to our Chinese Hanyu Pinyin)
5) Pray for courage. It can be quite intimidating to be in a totally foreign environment, more so in a “chicken-duck” one.