I promised myself that I wouldn't be that person that writes on their blog every single day, but its necessary. Enough has happened today to fill a month.
Woke up at 6 freakin A.M. this morning...way to early for me too function. Good thing they believe in coffee and a hearty breakfast here. When I say hearty I mean chicken, rice, fruit, vegetables..basically what we would consider dinner at home. The fruit is the most amazing thing I have ever tasted- I could probably live purely off of the fruit. And there are so many new kinds! Rose apples, green mango, papaya, the BEST pineapple ever.. and sometimes you can dip it in spicy sugar..which is interesting. The coffee may be instant with non-dairy creamer, but its tastes like necter from the gods.
After we had eaten a substantial amount of food, we all climbed into the arod-tangs. These are our taxis..but really they are glorified pick up trucks with a roof. We pile into the bed of the truck and sit on benches, then our driver speeds off. The air flys around us and we weave in and out of traffic with no seat belts...it's very liberating :). Traffic here is crazy! Motorcycles follow no rules and go where they want. All though they drive on the opposite side of the road as us, people really drive wherever they feel like. Traffic rules are more like guidelines. Crossing the road as a pedestrian is crazy...we have been told to look both ways at least 8 times. Then we have to walk slowly...because if we run the motocycles will hit us. They speed up when we walk so they can pass ahead of us. Frightening.
After a crazy 45 minute drive, we reached the elephant camp. This camp is smack dab in the middle of the jungle. We crossed a rickety bridge that swang more than the Swinging Bridge at Messiah. On the other side is where we met our friends the elephants! Me and Jess hopped on Ernie, our new elephant friend, and rode around for an hour and a half. It was amazing...very shaky and a little terrifying, but SO cool. We sat in these little chairs perched upon the elephant while a driver in front of us sat on the elephants head, and steared the elephants with different grunts and tugging of the ears. After that we watched the elephants bathe themselves..which is a lot more entertaining than it sounds.. and then they performed a show. One elephant painted an amazing picture, which was better than anything I could ever do. Embarrassing.
Woke up at 6 freakin A.M. this morning...way to early for me too function. Good thing they believe in coffee and a hearty breakfast here. When I say hearty I mean chicken, rice, fruit, vegetables..basically what we would consider dinner at home. The fruit is the most amazing thing I have ever tasted- I could probably live purely off of the fruit. And there are so many new kinds! Rose apples, green mango, papaya, the BEST pineapple ever.. and sometimes you can dip it in spicy sugar..which is interesting. The coffee may be instant with non-dairy creamer, but its tastes like necter from the gods.
After we had eaten a substantial amount of food, we all climbed into the arod-tangs. These are our taxis..but really they are glorified pick up trucks with a roof. We pile into the bed of the truck and sit on benches, then our driver speeds off. The air flys around us and we weave in and out of traffic with no seat belts...it's very liberating :). Traffic here is crazy! Motorcycles follow no rules and go where they want. All though they drive on the opposite side of the road as us, people really drive wherever they feel like. Traffic rules are more like guidelines. Crossing the road as a pedestrian is crazy...we have been told to look both ways at least 8 times. Then we have to walk slowly...because if we run the motocycles will hit us. They speed up when we walk so they can pass ahead of us. Frightening.
After a crazy 45 minute drive, we reached the elephant camp. This camp is smack dab in the middle of the jungle. We crossed a rickety bridge that swang more than the Swinging Bridge at Messiah. On the other side is where we met our friends the elephants! Me and Jess hopped on Ernie, our new elephant friend, and rode around for an hour and a half. It was amazing...very shaky and a little terrifying, but SO cool. We sat in these little chairs perched upon the elephant while a driver in front of us sat on the elephants head, and steared the elephants with different grunts and tugging of the ears. After that we watched the elephants bathe themselves..which is a lot more entertaining than it sounds.. and then they performed a show. One elephant painted an amazing picture, which was better than anything I could ever do. Embarrassing.
After the show, we split into groups of fours and hopped onto bamboo rafts. Each raft had a guide with a long pole..kind of like a gondoleer, who guided us down the river. It was very relaxing and refreshing. We also got to wear silly hats made of bamboo. Our raft led us to our arod-tang, and our next stop was an orchid farm! This is probably the most beautiful place I have ever been to. Orchids were EVERYWHERE, in all different colors and sizes. It was also a restraunt and a butterfly sanctuary. Orchids are probably the most beautiful flower. They are so graceful and delicate, and they come in so may colors and patterns.
When we got to the hotel, a group of us girls decided to venture out on our own. We haled our own arod-tang (!) and headed to the mall.. which is the most lively place I have ever been. Half of it was an outdoor market, where we bought mango and sticky rice, and some chai tea. We then headed to the HUGE playgound they built for today, because today is Children's Day! Its a national holiday in Thailand where all of the children of the country are honored and they get everything for free. The mall built a huge playground out of paper mache (which probably took FOREVER) that showed all the areas of the world..my favorite was the paper mache Pyramid with the life size camel. We then decided that instead of taking a arod-tang, we were going to make the hour long treck back on foot. It was so much fun walking with the people of Thailand and parusing the shops along the way. Chiang Mai is such a beautiful, friendly, safe city. I could explore it for hours on end and never be bored.
More adventures to come tomorrow, and I'll post pictures!
Kitty
Kitty!
ReplyDeleteThis is amazing! I jut read the whole thing and I am amazed and sooo jealous at all you have experienced in just 3 days! incredible! have fun and keep posting-i love reading it...i'm praying for you:)