Feb 30-Mar 1

Sun,
Had noon meeting with Coffee in love lady,to arrange flying in Pai. She owns many businesses and is a really good contact. Most of the meeting was in Thai with Terapat, but he seemed pleased with the outcome. Went out to dinner at one of the larger street stalls. This is a typical street vendor with many tables, and always busy. Most specialize in just a few foods. This place is known for it's rice soup, which is served with different meats to add to the soup.

Monday morning, Derek flew his balloon . The Chiang Mai company were flying their passengers from the same launch field. Everyone arrived at 5.45am and Tea, coffee and cake was served. Nice touch.

Wout, ( Pilot for company) flying over Chiang Mai. There are many rice fields and at this time of the year most are irrigated.

Flying over Chiang Mai at sunrise.

I got to fly with Derek . We were trying to follow Wout.

One of the many Temples here.

This is one of the large houses that are being built in this area. Most of the development is for Bangkok residents who want a vacation house. This place is huge, a lot of the newer houses have pools and beautiful gardens.

The darker fields are the freshly planted rice, so we have to be very careful.

Derek landed in a pasture field, close to cattle, but the farmer said it was ok to land, and even got his whole family involved by pulling us closer to the road.

We had 7 crew and 4 family members helping pack the balloon away. Wish we had this many people all the time!!! They really are a great bunch of lads. Definately made our job easier. After each flight everyone goes out for breakfast. We all had coffee and chicken curry noodles which cost $10- for everyone!!! I love this place!! Once we got back, we packed the balloon ready for shipment to Malaysia. Our time in Thailand has come to an end, as we fly out to Malaysia tomorrow morning at 9.30. It'll be interesting to see what comes of Pai. If we don'tcome back and fly, we will definately come back and visit, as Pai has been our favorite place in Thailand.