Christmas in a Buddhist country is very much like any other day, so when my friend David, got caught up in Laos on business, he asked me to spend my xmas pillioning a journalist around some of the old opium areas of North Thailand, i was happy to oblige. xmas is the winter time in the northern hemisphere and for Chiang Mai its perfect riding weather.
Tae the jounalist is what the Thai's call luke kruang, meaning in direct translation "son or daughter half". It had seemed Tae father had served in a medical unit in the Vietnam war where on R&R he had met a very beautiful and respectable Thai women who he eventually married and they located to New Zealand. From this matrimony came Tae, who by looks could have passed as easily as a Latino descendant as much as Asian, it was quiet easy to understand why she had a former career modeling
So if you asked what i did for xmas 2007, I may say i carted a beautiful women, in the cold winter weather through some of the most amazing areas on God's earth. so here is my Photo journal of xmas 2007.

My motorcycle i thought would be a little crowded for 2 people but with some foam on the luggage rack and a lot of photo stops it really was o.k.

Tae admiring the view as we make our way into the mountains



These horses are used to cart water up the mountain to the village

these kids warming them selves in the sun are from K.M.T army descedants

Breakfast of champions in the cold mountain air

The Winter air brings out the cherry blossoms in the mountains

A Palong Hill Tribe hauling fire wood

quiet a clash of cultures

Thai army make there rounds

The village of Nor Lae

A Burmese soldier walking a thin line on the Thai/Burma border

Two Palong Hill Tribe ladies again collecting fire wood to cook and warm themselves with

Student Buddhist Monks being taught in the Temples of Thaton

Rainy season has finished and now the rice is harvested and thrashed

A Akha Hill tribe women selling trinkets

The mountain chinese village of Mae Saloeng





Markets in Mae Saloeng





David Unkovich met us in Mea Saloeng and took Tae off my hands and traveled on to the G.T.



A unknown Hill Tribe clan collecting ferns to make brooms
So that completed my trip with Tae, David made his way back from Laos and brought with him Tim a Journalist from Singapore riding a stunning M.V. Augusta. We swapped journo's and i headed back to Chiang Dao with Tim and David went on to the G.T. with Tae