It’s Monday morning, the sun is beaming down, this is a sheer slice of heaven!

But first how we got here and a little update. I have used more methods of transportation in the last few weeks than in the rest of my life. Now yes, we could have flown easily from Chiang Mai to Krabi, but why would you when for 30 pounds you can have a full experience of a night train and bus, and gain a real concept of quite how far across the country we have travelled? And quite frankly, as I finally start to get used to this woman who keeps looking back at me in the mirror, I think it’s done her the world of good!

23.08.13

Before we even leave we run our last workshop, it is run but Sarah, myself and Deidre at a woman’s prison. This is a first for me and I did not know what to expect, but from the little I do know it is very different to the prisons in the UK. It took a lot to initially hold back the tears as first we walked past a large room where 2 babies, one perhaps only a month old, lay alone on a mat.

The next room we meet the women, 15 at least of whom have babes in arms. The children, born in the prison, are allowed to stay until they are one year old. They then they get taken to families, or to an orphanage. Heart renching, how must these mothers feel, I can only imagine.

We run a workshop making headbands, the women are skill full, and hungry for the art materials. To give them time to enjoy, the volunteers go on baby duty. They are some of the most beautiful babes I have ever seen in my life with doting, caring mums, many imprisoned because life circumstances have left them little choice but to become involved in drug trafficking.

I hold such a cool little dood. Seriously this is the only way to describe him, with his spiky hair and big brown eyes. He is mesmerized by a long piece of green ribbon as I let it blow in the wind, and then enjoys a good chew on the inner plastic reel.

It’s not until today that I have even been able to process this morning. Mixed emotions. The headbands were amazing. With many of the workshops we have run we can’t include photos of the people involved, hence it is just my words or some pictures that I feel fit.

5.30pm we get on our night train to Bangkok. I would like to say we snoozed, woke up, and had a peaceful, relaxing journey, but what fun would that be!!

The bed’s were surprisingly comfortable, I didn’t think I could sweat more than I have been in Chiang Mai, but with no air con and my fan not working you could have used me as a radiator. So off I doozed.

BANG, JUDDER, JUDDER, JUDDER, repeat, followed by various squeals from other female passengers. About to ask if they can turn it down a bit, don’ t they know a girl is sleeping, I have a look……I look right, hmm, our carriage is no longer attached to the other carriage….I look left, hmm neither is that end attached, and hmm If this doesn’t stop I may get whip lash! There was only one thing for it, a warm beer, fig rolls, a banana and a bit of Primal Scream ‘we’re moving on up now, yeh out of the darkness, my life shines, on my life shines one, my life shines on……..” and all I can do is laugh!

Good morning!! My sleep, which has been a little array to say the least over these last few years has been tested to the hilt within this trip…….and I am finding I sleep like a log 🙂

I see an old couple sitting in their battered arm chairs with their feet up, in their lounge, a metal shack, alongside the rail way track. It makes me smile, a heart felt smile, except for the setting it could have been my mum and dad. This country constantly puts your own life in perspective, which is why I think the things that might normally stress you out, just don’t.

We arrive in Bangkok about 12am on Saturday and book the next leg of our journey

24.08.13

We are a little disorientated and have few hours to kill, not really enough time to appreciate this city. We make out way by tuk tuk to the Siam Mall. It is all a little much for me, I don’t like malls at the best of times and this is taking designer to the extreme! The only label I swear by is Birkenstock, and that says it all really doesn’t it!

I do a dash in the other direction, take a deep breath and say, I know I will find you……and sure enough there is a little pink sign, up some stairs, and I find my peace, and of course a cappuccino in a very welcoming cafe! Hehe!

With the mindset of being on a beach, I mentally prepare myself for this city and go and enjoy the little time we have exploring the backstreet lanes and markets and a spicy green mango salad, yum. If I come back I need a plan, as I know there is so much to see here, and will use my ever increasing appreciation of face book, for a help? where do I go?? I say farewell to Mary who now carries on to Cambodia, I haven’t even taken this in yet.

We catch the 7.30 night bus to Krabi expecting one stop on the way.

We snack, we chat, a lot, and then spend the next hour or two trying to find that comfy spot, the one where your back sack suddenly does become a soft fluffy pillow, and where you don’t wake every ten minutes with cramp in a different location of your body, and there it is, ni-nite.

EVERYBODY OFF! EVERYBODY OFF!! Sorry, what who am I? Where am I? and my name is? Off we get. So in the middle of know where we sit for half an hour before changing buses. This happens twice more and each time the bus gets a little less luxurious and a lot more smelly. I find as long as you have snacks, everything is ok, and as Sarah is the queen of snacks we just munched and chuckled our way through.

At our third stop we wait for a couple of hours, in what seems to be a car park with a little shack, it’s pitch black but I knew something was very different. The air felt clear and fresh, I could make out palm trees, stars, It was truly quiet.

I say to Sarah how right at that moment I crave a cheese sandwich with lettuce, cucumber and tomato, and in true Thailand style out comes a lady who sets up a stall with exactly that, you could not make this stuff up, the magic begins again. I have no photographic evidence, I was to busy eating! It suddenly turns light, and I take a look around……not just a car park after all, stunning.

I have felt a sadness since leaving Chiang Mai. But with plenty of travel time to let my brain be still, I realise part of it is that I knew this was a transition from my career as an Art therapist into a new chapter, in which my hope is to open a cafe. A seed that was planted many, many moons ago, that has no reason to any longer be just a dream. I find out when I get home if I can proceed with bying a cafe I have found in Bath.

I have loved talking with Sarah about Art Therapy as she is just at the beggining of this journey, and the volunteer work also reminds me how much I could give in a project such as this, it reminds me of what my life was before it completely changed. I say to Sarah, Art therapy will find a way to tie itself into my life now wont it? ‘It already has’ she replies without an ounce of doubt in her voice. Thing is in my heart I know that too.

We arrive at Krabi at about 10am ish

Having not changed or washed for almost 3 days, I hum gently in the breeze!!! This is my first time in a hostel, but not the last, as it is a comfy bed, roof top bar and oooh such a good shower. 🙂

View from the ‘Pac Up’ hostel in Krabi

We think we will just go and lie on a local beach……..but why do that when we can hop on a boat and go to the highly recommended Rai lay Beach………

To be continued……