The most beautiful resort

I thought I would quickly write about my weekend trip to the resort. The trip was a blast. The resort was incredibly beautiful and it was very relaxing. The resort consisted of amazing wood houses and incredible landscaping and wonderful meals. We spent the weekend as guests of the owner and were treated incredibly well. We ate, relaxed, went to the national park for a dip in the hot springs, rode bikes, played in the river, watched movies, ate some more and really enjoyed ourselves. Throughout the weekend, I was able to chat with the owner and his son and was able to get a grasp of their vision for the resort. The son, Jo, has studied tourism and natural resource management and is very interested in creating a eco-tourist destination here (which I loved to hear). His father studied landscaping at a university neat Chiang Mai and is incredibly knowledgeable about the plants and flowers throughout the north and made a great hiking companion. The rumor that there was going to be "lao khao" at the resort was in fact true and we all took part in this Thai tradition ("lao khao" is rice whiskey). Anyway, see below for pictures. The first is a picture of the people who came up to the resort. On the left is Da (my friend who just got the job), Adam (an English teacher from Ireland), Leah (an English teacher from Canada), Khun Jo (the son of the owner) and Chris (an English teacher from Canada). The second picture is a picture of the guest house. The third picture is of the Lahu (a ethnic minority in northern Thailand) dance that the resort arranged. The fourth is a picture of the resort and the last picture is of Da and Adam (note the plate of bamboo worms...they are AMAZING). Speaking of food, that weekend we also ate steamed bee hive (bees included) and fried crickets (both of which were delicious).

RM