Chiang Rai, Margaret, and the Baroness

Since We've deprived you all of photos on the last posting, I'm backtracking a bit here. The top two shots are from the POW cemetery in Kanchanaburi (workers who died building the Bridge on the River Kwai). I was most intrigued by Phoebe's marker. She seemed to be the only female in the cemetery, and I wanted to pay special homage to her. We learned that the workers were originally buried right where they died, but with identifying items. So that when the bodies were removed to this proper cemetery, the remains could be identified.

The following photos were taken after we met Margaret, a fellow American and expat from LA. Margaret has been a doll and has scads of stories to tell. We fell in love with her immediately when we learned that she is a founding mother of the Millennium Restaurant in San Francisco.

She took us across to Burma. No worries. We stayed for only about 2 hours - long enough to get our passports stamped and get the heck out. It was all rather reminiscent of Nogales, Mexico.

Margaret then drove us up into the mountains. We saw some of the most incredible things. There's Francis and I posing in front of the world's largest gong. We expect it would take 5-6 strong people just to lift the gong and ring the bell.

The children are Akhi children. Not so keen on being on film, but they agreed nonetheless. I was not so keen to see them not in school.

I'll get to the baroness in a minute.