Photo essay

Ban Thai Guesthouse is gorgeous, with traditional style architecture that suits my aesthetics perfectly. Elegant rooms with shutter windows and silky mosquito nets created a luxurious sanctuary—and my home for the duration of my volunteer service at Mae Tao clinic.

Bird of paradise arrangements mirror the natural beauty that surround the guesthouse.

Elegant common area and foyer at the entrance.

Some volunteers of Mae Tao clinic got together to join a Burmese cooking course. Our guide Bobo describes the menu for the day while an assistant pours oil in the wok to fry noodles.

Our cooking course goes to the market to survey ingredients and buy items necessary for our class. We meet these two men with a chicken.

The backbone of signature flavor: limes, chilis and garlic.

We made tomato salad! Sliced tomatoes, red onions, shredded cabbage, fistful of cilantro, topped with ground peanut.

An impressive array of Burmese dishes to pair with an impressive group of international volunteers—medical interns from Malaysia and the UK; an epidemiologist from the US, and Aleta who is traveling around the world.

After lunch, Bobo introduces us to a typical Burmese tea shop. Lighters hanging from the ceiling are strewn around the cafe so that patrons can spark up their cigarettes.

Breakfast of champions: on Sundays—my day off from the clinic—I trek to this cafe with marvelous coffee and luscious chocolate truffles.