Well, it's been over a week since my last posting but there wasn't much to report. I spent several days in the city talking to doctors and wondering if I would have to have surgery or not. The guy who was the hand surgeon could seem to decide whether it was necessary or not. Finally, I found a doctor who told me that I should be ok, but I have to go back on Sunday and get checked out again. If I get the green light then I should be ok... We'll see.

So after I got the go-ahead from the doctor, we caught a bus to Mae Hong Son in the Northwest near Burmese border.

When we get off the bus, there's an American there waiting. "Do you know where the fuck you are?" he says. "You're in the middle of fucking nowhere. This is the motherfucking jewel of southeast Asia."

Turns out he is a very weird guy. He's lived here for twenty years and I get the sense he was in Vietnam and just never made it home. He's been telling all the outlandish tales about being in the CIA and gem-smuggling and I have to say, I kind of believe him. It's all too weird not to be true.

Mae Hong Son is probably the nicest, most beautiful little city I've been to in Thailand. We've stumbled upon the annual celebration of the end of the rainy season. Every night they close off the streets and there are sport competitions in the streets with basketball, volleyball, thai foot volleyball, as well as several new sports I have never seen before... And of course there is Thai kickboxing matches which are so captivating at the same time as it in incredibly violent and bloody.



Apparently a substantial portion of the town's prosperity comes from supplying the drug lords just across the border in Burma. Not more than 100 miles away is one of the main opium growing regions in the world. There are tens of thousands of refugees living in camps nearby who have been displaced either by the Burmese government or fighting between guerillas, government, and drug lords. For as peaceful as this seems this is a huge conduit through which heroin and illegal gems are smuggled.

We have met some people who run an orphanage for Burmese children and this evening we are putting on a special meal for them. I bought a small guitar to donate along with other things and we will hang out and play music and entertain them...

That's it for now... Take care... Word, E.