Plane to Bangkok, train to the north, Tuk Tuk to the Old town, we’re in the hustle and bustle of Chiang Mai. Suddenly we’re on tour! So we hired a bike and went to visit our first point of call. I had been doing a lot of research and thought I was ready, what I found out is that everything from the net was out of date, there are no real list of charities for Thailand and the ones you find tend to be just the offices of corporations not the orphanages themselves. Luckily for us P Luxami from the Foundation for Rural Children helped us with lots of advice and invaluable contacts of people and places for us to visit.

We kicked off the tour at Baan Kingkeow, home for the cities babies. Then to Haven Foundation who had kids visiting from the villages in the north and had come to the city for their doctors check up where we entertained them. Baan Agape was next and we had the pleasure of seeing a little girl being adopted by a couple who had been trying for 7 years to adopt through the UK system and found their luck change over here, they had a lovely leaving party for her which was so moving to watch, then they had circus fun until bedtime. We visited our first children’s ward at the Maharaj Hospital to cheer them up with some colourful balloons and lastly we visited the girls orphanage of Vieng Ping for some weekend fun. Not bad for our first week.

Next stop the beautiful, unspoilt hills of Chiang Dao. Not realising how far it was from Chiang Mai we did the 2 and half hour drive from the city only to find we had another hour up into the mountain range that leads to the Burmese border. Driving up the winding hills with 200 metre drops and trees the size of 6 storey buildings we eventually reached the little village of Maeh Maeh, home and school to children displaced by fighting at the border.Their amazing teacher Kru Yok was so excited and everyone got involved learning new skills. We also had so much fun we used all the balloons and had none left for the next show.

Baan Mitratorn specialises in looking after kids who are orphaned and living with HIV. This was where we got the idea to do a performance by the kids after each workshop as we had no balloons left. We donated a circus pack and in return they sang us a lovely song to say Thankyou, then we were shown around their land where they are almost self sufficient, growing all their own food and weaving bags etc to sell. Our last treat was to watch the marching band in full swing with full costume, marionettes and instruments.