letters from little blooming guests nu pete and nu pin :)

12th Trip Lum Pang: Food, Fun, and Fulfilled

Finally,my time had come. The time to join the Blooming Heart gang to do something good for others and the time to spend with best friends whom I met about once a year. This time we went to Lum Pang. After waiting for almost an hour in the no A/C air plane, it took off and we finally landed at Chaing Maiairport. As soon as we landed, I saw all of my friends consisted of Joy, Nan, P'Gai, Duan, Bee, Pun, Pam and Pong started to gather around, made serious faces and end up making a phone call. I came to find out first thing they did after they landed was to finalize the menu and called ahead to order food from the famous restaurant there. I just learned that eating was a serious business coming with the gang. First meal at "Poung Thong". Did you see how the dishes line up? There were a few more dishes toward the end of the table that not shown in the picture. Within 15 minutes... All gone!! I meant All gone. I was so stuffed. After dinner we all went to have some desert and coffee. I thought we were going to call it a night. Nope.. we stopped at the hotel just to kill sometimebefore going out to "Midnight Chicken". I had to say no to the "Midnight Chicken" but I heard the food was good and again they cleared the dishes for the 2nd times tonight.

The first stop the next morning was "Pratart Lumpang Luang". The site was so magnificent. I was so impressed with the architecture.

next stop,it was lunch time. According to the head of the tour guide Blooming Nan, we stopped to eat at "Kow Soi O-Marn" which according to her research it was supposed to be the best and famous food in Lum Pang. After everybody was so full, it could not be an all girls trip without a little shopping. We stopped for a little but shop a lot for Blooming Nan, Duen, and Pun at ceramic market. It was supposed to be the famous shopping spot if you visited Lum Pang. Really? I never knew.

Ok it was time to check in to the hotel. What a cute hotel we stayed. There was also a night market in front of the hotel "Tanont Kon Dern -- walkers' street". It was fun to see local merchants and tasted local food. I really enjoyed it.

We finally met up with Mona and P'Joop at the hotel. We visited a couple of local temples and then time for dinner. We stopped at local resturant called "Kai Mook -- Pearl" after almost an hour wait we finally got our table. I guessed everybody was so hungry because after we finished the meal. I started to count all the dishes on the table.. no lie there were over 20 dishes stack up!

2nd day started at 8am, it was the day we visited "Bann Na Tom" school. We met up with another group of young girls (younger than us) to help with the activities at school. They were Blooming Pam and her young hyper friends. After the school master introduced us to the children, all the fun ready to begin.

There were serveral games leading by us. Since this was the 12th trip, everyone knew their roles. The children really enjoyed the game. They were so eager to participate. I heard them laugh and cheer the whole time.

Not only we wanted them to have some fun but we also wanted to send an important message to the children. "Pay it forward" was the message the group would like the children to take home with. We were here to make you smile and happy. You then can also do the same to your loved ones, neighbours, parents, teachers or even strangers. I was a special guest to tell the story to the children and the message I sent out was education was the key to success.

After we finished from school, Blooming Pun wanted to stop at the temple where so many stray dogs were raised. We donated some money to the temple to buy food and clothes to the dogs.

OK.. dinner time again. Tonight we stopped at "Kao Tom Baht Deaw -- 1 Baht rice soup". I never realized that 1 baht could buy anything anymore in Thailand. But at least here, you could get a bowl of rice soup. Again, we ended up with big piles of empty dishes. After that, we shopped at the night market near the restaurant.

While we were all shopping at our leisure, I saw a small puppy in a box for sale. Then all my friends started to gather around the puppy, next thing I knew Blooming Bee was holding up a box that had the small puppy in it. She bought it! Really??? What a lucky dog.. one day he was living in a box in rural area, now he is living in a mansion on sukhumvit road. Hahaha... That's what Blooming Gai said. Bee named him Ten Ten.

The trip came to an end the next day. What a fun trip to spend with good friends. Not only I was full physically (from the food I stuffed in every meal) but also spiritually. It was a good feeling to share and to give like the slogan "Blooming Heart-- the Joy of Sharing". I wish I could join you guys again next time.

Reported by Darin Mercer (North Carolina, USA).