Lazy Days in Pai

We have been here almost a week now, and we are really ready to move on. Soon we will be in Europe, which will be the last part of our trip before returning to San Francisco on June 9. The weather here is like the dog days of summer in a New England heat wave. In the morning after our walk/jog and breakfast, we take a motorbike excursion into the surrounding countryside which is quite beautiful. It is interesting to pass by some villages and observe the life there. We have also seen about a dozen small snakes along the road, most of them dead run over by vehicles.

We do spend a lot of time on the internet and reading. I have read following fine books during this journey (besides several guide books):

1) The Tattooed Soldier - a novel about a Guatemalan refugee and the officer who killed his wife and child whom he runs into in Los Angeles.
2) Three Cups of Tea - the true story of a mountaineer's initiation of a successful project to build schools for girls in Northern Pakistan and Afghanistan
3)The God of Small Things - a wonderful novel by Indian writer and activist Arundati Roy that takes place in Kerala, India
4)A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini, author of Kite Runner (about Afghanistan)
5)Fire in the Hole ( a U.S. Marine's account of experiences during the Vietnam War and after coming home)
6)The Quiet American by Graham Green (Vietnam in the 50s)
7)When Heaven and Earth Changed Places (a Vietnamese Woman's Journey from War to Peace)
8)The Good Women of China (Hidden Voices)by Xinran, a former talk show host in China
9) Forbidden Love by Norma Khouri (about "honor" killings in Jordan).
10)Miss. Chopsticks by Xinran - about three sisters who move from the Chinese countryside to the big city of Nanjing.

I highly recommend them all.