Songkran and My Birthday!

This past week has been a lot of fun! As a mentioned in my last post the weekend of April  14^th was the Thai New Year, which is when a water festival called Songkran takes place. This is a crazy weekend! People get Friday off of work and spend the entire weekend engaged in a city wide water fight. All day people are crowding the street, using hoses, buckets, squirt guns and whatever they can find to get each other wet. One of the biggest soakers is that people gather in pickup trucks and drive around the city with barrels of ice water that they dump on people! It’s hard to explain how out of control this gets, I was not able to step more than 10 steps away from my apartment with out getting drenched. The water fight lasts all weekend and everyone in the entire city comes out for it. Children and parents a like go out and celebrate Songkran!

Songkran!

I went and joined the water festival on Saturday and Sunday and I got drenched! We drove into the epicenter of the water fight, in the middle of the Old City. We took a red taxi to get there and there was tons of traffic. When we would stop, people would come running behind our taxi and dump cold water into where we were sitting! It’s nuts but so much fun (as long as you don’t take any valuables!).

With my water gun!

Having a blast! I'm on the very right!

On Tuesday it was my 21^st birthday! I had a great day that included an hour long massage (only $8!). I also went out for dinner and drinks J with my friends to burger place! I hadn’t had Western food since we got here and to have it again was amazing! I can’t describe to you how sick of rice I am! Later that night we set off a wish lantern from our roof for my birthday. They have a huge lantern festival where they set off tons of these in Chiang Mai, but it’s in November.

Happy Birthday to me!

Setting off the lantern!

On Saturday I went to a Chiang Mai Football (soccer) Club match. They have some really dedicated fans and it was a good time, we even won! However now things are starting to slow down and the only things on my calendar are exams!  I can’t say that I will have a particularly exciting last couple weeks in Thailand… I probably will be studying for most of it! So I will end my blog here! Thank you so much for reading and I hope to see you when I return home!

Southern Islands

On the 4^th I left for the southern part of Thailand where they have beautiful tropical islands! I stayed there for 10 days.  For the first leg of my trip I travelled by myself, which went well. I took a bus, taxi truck and then boat to a beach called Ton Sai. I stayed here for 2 days. The beach was only accessible by boat and was surrounded by mountains. There were about three places to stay and 4 places to eat in the whole area. There were around 50 other people staying here! It felt like a very secluded and private beach! It was incredibly pretty with stunning sunsets. I spent time on the beach, reading and relaxing. I stayed in a bungalow that was big enough for a mattress and a bag. The only electricity was a light bulb hanging from the ceiling, which only worked from 6pm – 3am. 

Ton Sai Beach

My private luxury bungalow on Ton Sai

After a relaxing couple days to myself, I took a ferry to meet two of my friends on a nearby island, Koh Phi Phi. This too was a beautiful island. I have never seen water so clear or so blue! We also stayed in a bungalow here, only it was bigger, had electricity and a bathroom!  Here we hung out at the beach a lot and explored the small town. Koh Phi Phi was larger than Ton Sai, but still a very small island.  This leg of our trip had its ups and downs though. It was a beautiful island and I had a great time. However after 2 days my one pair of shoes broke, so I went without shoes the rest of the trip! I also had to make a trip to the doctor for an infection on my hands. And the biggest hiccup was a tsunami warning.

Beach on Koh Phi Phi

The girls!

It was still sunny and beautiful outside when the sirens went off. We packed up our stuff and went down to the desk area of our bungalow site. The other travelers were there as well. We stayed there and then local Thai people from closer to the beach began to head up the mountain.  So we followed the locals up the mountain. We stayed at the very top for 4 hours. We didn’t have anything to eat so the locals fed us all dinner, which was very kind of them. We never really knew what was going on, or how much danger we were in. But sometimes someone would say it was safe to go back down, so we would begin to make our way down, and then Thai people would yell at us to turn around! Finally someone had said the tsunami watch was over and it was ok to go back. We passed a family with a TV and it said we were in the clear.

View from the top of the mountain where we stayed during the warning

 Thankfully we were safe! It was a crazy experience waiting on the top of a mountain all night, not knowing what was going on.  The next couple days we continued to enjoy the beach and eventually had to go back to Chiang Mai. But this weekend was the Songkran water festival in Chiang Mai, but I’m going to save that for my next post!

Koh Phi Phi sunset

Chiang Rai

This past weekend I went to another hill tribe with my class. This was in Chiang Rai, which is a 4 hour windy drive from Chiang Mai. Before we went to the hill tribe we stopped at the White Temple. This is a very famous temple in Thailand that was built by a famous modern artist. It’s easy to recognize because it is entirely white on the exterior, where as most temples here are gold. To my surprise there was a mural inside depicting the evil in our world (mainly the western countries), which included the twin towers, but also kung fu panda, Michael Jackson and angry birds. It was quite interesting to see how Buddhist feel about many of the aspects in our western culture.

Entrance to the White Temple

Hands from underworlds. If you put money in their hands, it is said to help bring your ancestors out of the underworld and into a higher human world in their next life.

We then went to the Akha village. We stayed with different host families, and ate with them as well. We slept in a straw hut outside their house for the night, which was very loud because of all the animals around us.  Before having dinner we played with the children of the village for a long time, which wore us out! But later we participated in a ceremony with the other women of the village. We dressed up in their traditional clothing and danced around the fire with them.

Playing with the kids.. this circle multiplied with kids every minute!

I'm on the right dressed in traditional Akha women clothing

Dancing around the fire

In the morning we ate with our host family and had another ceremony before we left. Here they tied strings on our wrist for good luck. They also gave us each a hard boiled egg to eat once we were outside the village, again for good luck.  Then we took a boat trip through the golden triangle, where Laos, Myanmar (Burma), and Thailand all meet. We cruised along the Mekong river and visited each side for just a short time. Before heading home we went to the Opium Museum. This was a really well done museum about the history of Opium. Opium is not illegal in Thailand but is still a problem in the golden triangle area where it is often illegally grown.  

Map of the Golden Triangle

Boating through the Mekong River.. you can really see me but I'm there!

Vietnam!

I just got back today from a trip to Vietnam! My friend Amanda and I went to Hanoi and Halong Bay, which are both in northern Vietnam. When we first arrived we didn’t do much because we were so tired from trying to sleep in the Bangkok airport. But we did go out and explore Hanoi a bit. I really like that Hanoi is walking friendly. The weather was much cooler than in Thailand. It is nearly 100 degrees everyday in Thailand now, and it was in the low 70’s in northern Vietnam. Another big difference about Vietnam is the currency. They use the dong, and it is about 20,000 dong for 1 dollar! I thought getting used to the baht/dollar ratio was hard, but this was ridiculous. You look at something in a shop and they ask 150,000 for it and my mind is blown away. Or spending 30,000 on lunch! Thankfully I brought a calculator and was using it quite a bit.

Hanoi

After just one day in Hanoi we went to Halong Bay. This was about a four-hour drive from Hanoi. We got there and got on a “junk” boat, and cruised around for a bit. The limestone mountains/rocks were breathtaking! We saw many floating villages, where there are dozens on houses stringed together on the water. We got a chance to kayak around and through some rock tunnels, which was a lot of fun.  We also went inside an amazing cave that was gigantic and full of different formations. Only it was very touristy and they had put colored lights throughout it, which made it seem part cave, part light show. 

Floating Village, Halong Bay

Halong Bay

Sunset from the boat

Kayaking around the Bay

The next day we cycled through Cat Ba Island national park, which is the biggest island in Halong Bay. This was a great change up to walking or boating everywhere. We also went to Monkey Island, which is just what it sounds like, an island full of monkeys! Only they were mean monkeys that jumped on you or grabbed your stuff!

Baby Monkeys on Monkey Island

Biking through Cat Ba Island National Park

We then went back to Hanoi and spent our last day there. We saw the Temple of Literature, which was built in honor of Confucius. We also went to the Army Museum, which of course had lots of information about the Vietnam War. It was really interesting to see how they presented the information; clearly it did not put the US in a good light. We also saw a prison the French had built, but was used to detain political activist during the 70’s. This was a really sad but informative exhibit about the harsh treatment of those who were kept there. But on a happier note we also saw a water puppet show. This was um, interesting, haha. It was something that was unique and that I had never seen before, but I don’t think puppets are my thing. Vietnam was a great trip and we got to meet a lot of great people. We stayed at a hostel that was incredibly accommodating and had lots of friendly people staying there. Now back to classes and hot weather!

Temple of Literature

Army Museum

India

I can’t believe I can finally say that I went to India! I flew out last Wednesday evening and just got back this morning! I had an incredible time there, although there were some and ups and downs. I was lucky enough to have time to tour three cities, Delhi, Jaipur and Agra.  I went with two other girls in my program here Amanda and Krystal, and we all had a great time!

We flew into Delhi and toured around the city for one day. We had a great driver who took us all around the city to great sites. We saw the Jama Temple first, which was a giant structure on a hill. We had to take off our shoes (which we are used to by now) but also because it was a mosque we had to wear robes when we went inside. I looked funny but it was fun and different. We then explored Red Fort, a huge fort with many buildings, gardens and paths to walk through. It was here that we started to get asked by an outrageous number of locals to take pictures with them. It was literally every other person, and those who didn’t ask just took pictures of us. This was so strange at first, but we just had to laugh it off.

Jama Temple

We then walked through a crowded market street but didn’t stay long because we realized we were the only women anywhere to be found. Instead we found a place serving naan and ate that for lunch! Then we went to a memorial of Gandhi, Rajghat, that was beautiful. And my favorite thing that we saw this day was the Lotus Temple, a temple over water in the shape of a lotus flower. We were able to go inside and sit for a short service where they read scripture from all the major religions of the world. It was a very neat experience.

Red Fort

Lotus Temple

Next we did some shopping and were able to try on saris, which are the dresses Indian women wear. I didn’t buy one but it was fun to play dress up. Finally we ended the day with a Hindi temple. Our driver gave us a tour and put red dots on our foreheads for good luck! 

Trying on a sari

End of a great day!

The next day we left for Jaipur. I have never experienced a car ride like this in my life and I hope to never again. The driving in India is insane, crazy. People drive like Mario Kart! They don’t pay attention to lanes, so 5 cars are trying to squeeze into two and no one uses turn signals, instead they honk all the time! And on top of everything you throw in tuk tuks, cars, people walking, mopeds, animal driven carts, tractors, buses, trucks, and herds of livestock together, you get a messy road. Somehow we made it to Jaipur where we saw Amber Fort. This fort was surrounded be a huge wall that they called “the great wall of India”. Here we toured other local sites and discovered their culture apart of Delhi.

Amber Fort Wall

Inside Amber Fort

Monkeys!!

Camels on the road!

We made it to Agra the following evening and we saw the sunset on the back of the Taj Mahal. But we got up very early the next morning to see the Taj Mahal at 6 am. This was nice because it wasn’t as crowded and it was cooler. I had been wearing long pants and long sleeves for a couple days now in the hot weather (it’s culturally inappropriate to show too much skin) and was dying from the heat. The Taj Mahal was breathtaking. We had a guide tell us the love story behind it being built and interesting details about it. We stayed and admirer it for sometime until we had to leave to go back to Delhi.  The rest of that day we took it easy because we were all sick. On the second day we had all gotten food poising, 3 girls and 1 bathroom is not a pretty site. We had been pushing ourselves through the sickness to see Jaipur and Agra but now we needed rest.

Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal!!

Our last day was in Delhi before we flew home. We did a lot of shopping on this day and wrapped up what we had missed the first day. Even though I did get food poisoning, and still have it, I had an amazing time in India. I saw amazing sites, ate great food, and really got a new feel for the world.  I saw some really rough parts of India and it gave me a great appreciate for the little things I take for granted. This trip meant a lot to me and if you are still reading all the way down here I appreciate it!

Bangkok!

This week I had my midterms, which were very stressful! After a week of studying and not having fun we went to Bangkok! I went with three of my good friends and met up with another girl for one day. We left Friday night on a train out of Chiang Mai that left around 9pm and we arrived in Bangkok about 9am. The train had seats that reclined, but still were not very comfy. Once in Bangkok we took a city bus to a different bus station. On the bus we were able to experience Bangkok traffic! It took us forever to get to where we needed to go. Once we arrived at the bus station, wouldn’t you know, we got on another bus. We took an hour and a half bus ride to the Maeklong railway market. 

This market here has been around for a long time, but the city built a railroad through the middle. Instead of moving the market somewhere else, they kept it in the same place. Now when the train comes through every day, they pack their things up and pull back for the train to come through. Some of the fruit or fish that is on the ground doesn’t get pulled back and the train goes on top of it, dusting it with exhaust. This was very exciting to see and thankfully this is still a hidden gem of Bangkok because there were hardly any foreigners there.  When the train came through we backed up against a wall and it passed by right in front of us. And then the second it was gone the market was back to normal! It was quite a sight and I suggest you look it up on youtube! I definitely want to give a shout out to my Grandpa for showing this market to me after he saw it on TV!

Railroad Market.. you can hardly tell the tracks are even there!

Getting ready for the train

Here it comes!

Next we took another bus to the Amphawa floating market. There are several floating markets all over Bangkok, but we choose this one because it was close to where we were. We walked along the dock where there were shops on one side and then in the water there were vendors in their boats. They were selling everything from food to flowers to clothing off of their boats! I’ve been to a lot of markets, but this was by far the most unique way of selling I have seen. 

Floating Market

Later we went shopping for a while in Bangkok before checking into our hostel. Our hostel was very nice and we shared a room with two girls we didn’t know.  We then went out to experience Bangkok nightlife! We had a so much fun that night enjoying our one night in Bangkok. But this didn’t come without some hiccups.  We were all riding in a tuk tuk and I was on the outside of us all. While in traffic, a motorcyclist came and grabbed my purse out of my lap! BUT! I was wearing a bag my Aunt Lynn had given me that had straps to go around my chest so he did not get away with it. It was a good lesson and wake up call for us all to be very careful with our belongings because thieves are very sneaky!

driving a tuk tuk!

 On Sunday we took a bus to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, one of the most famous temples in all of Thailand. We got there during “lunch hour” so we had some time to kill. We met a Thai man who told us what else to do in our free time and even set us up with a tuk tuk driver to drive us around for extremely cheap. After last night we were skeptical that this was a scam, but he was genuinely helping us! We went to another temple near by where we met another Thai man who helped us go through the motions of how to make a wish, he was there making a wish for his son who was getting married the next week. He too was very nice and pointed us in the direction of more shopping. After buying more than we should have, we went back to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. It was a huge campus with pagoda’s and buildings everywhere. Inside the biggest building was a statue of a HUGE gold reclining Buddha.

The four of us at the temple

Giant reclining Buddha

We finished the day with eating on the river and trying to cool off from the heat. We left Bangkok on train around 6pm.  The train we took home was a sleeper train, which meant that we would all get our own bed. I had a top bunk, which was comfy but seemed to wobble a lot.  I had a great time in Bangkok and will update my blog again after I get back from India next Tuesday! 

My top bunk!

Lisu Village, Food & Midterms

This week has been a normal week in Chiang Mai. It's nice to feel like you really live here and are not just a tourist. This past weekend we took a trip to the Lisu village about an hour away. There we got a tour of the village and met the leader and religious leader of the village. While we were there they poured shots of rice and corn whiskey for us.  Yes our teacher was with us and he enjoyed some as well. The boys on the trip took full advantage of the free shots and had a long ride home.

Man who played music for us. Then we danced with the women of the village!

Handmade bags for sale, made by the Lisu women

This week I spent a lot of time going to the markets and working on homework and such. Since I don't have anything crazy exciting to talk about.. how about food! My diet here is a 180 from what I ate at home. I don't eat any of the food from home, and I had never tried the food I eat here everyday until I got here! Its pumpkin season in Thailand and the pumpkin is delicious, but it's very different than pumpkin at home!  I also love to eat nam prik num, which is a green chili dish that you eat with rice. The locals say it is spicy.. but it's not so bad! And I also love to eat sam tom, or papaya salad. This is shredded green papaya, carrots, green beans, tomatoes and peanuts!

I also eat tons of soup, not because I love it but because that is what is most available. Eating hot soup when it is nearly 100 degrees isn't always appealing but when your hungry, your hungry! When I eat soup it is really messy because the noodles are as long as spaghetti noodles and I'm trying to eat with chopsticks! Also when you buy anything here you get it in a plastic bag unless you sit down. Soup in a bag, pumpkin in a bag, chili in a bag, and even smoothies in a bag! I really am taking a liking to the food here but I most definitely miss the food back home!

Thai pumpkin! You eat the skin and all!

 

 

Som Tam!

Nam phrik num!

Noodle soup with mysterious meat balls!

This coming week we have midterms in all of our classes! I am studying a lot because I know they are going to be very hard! We also have some projects to complete as well. But after we finish midterms I am going to Bangkok for the weekend, which will be so much fun!!