To this day I still dream about Chiang Mai. The fruit smoothies (yes I know I am addicted to them and no they are never as good anywhere else), the thai massages, the jungle hikes, the night market, and the many beautiful temples and holy sites. Even though it rained every day I still couldn't have been happier.
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| *this is the only pic of the street food- I guess I was too busy eating to take any pictures- sorry* |
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| *so our first night was wild- big spiders, damp mattress and water dripping on our heads like a form of Chinese torture- oh good times* |
Jaim
6/28/11
You guys i just had the coolest day EVER!! get this - this is wht 25 dollars wil gt you (sorry, really really sticky key board 50 cents and hour though, not complaining)
1. trip to butterfly pavilion where they breed a unique species of butterfly that is invisible or senses tourists from miles away and flies away until the coast is clear. the hundreds of orchid plants howver were visible and stuck around for us to see and man were they beautiful! I never knew there were so many differet types!
2. a treck through the jungle on an elephant!!!
3. a great lunch of pad thai w/ loads of great fruit
4. a hike up to a waterfall that we coul dswim in and under and get pummeled by the water crashing down
5. a really really great water rafting trip down the river on a rubber raft and then halfway through where the waters are more calm we transferred to a bamboo raft that sunk quite a bit under the water so it looked like we were just standing on nothing with a guide that fancied tilting the raft from one side to the other making us scramble to balance while cracking up . I was laughing probably obnoxiously loud the whole time bc i was just having so much fun and got a kick out of just about everything. it was brilliant - in our group were these two guys from ireland - one wit hthese shortish neon shorts that were quite thin from the looks of em and becme more or less transparent when wet. luckily i was directly behind him which gave me a top notch view while he scratched his arse . ha! gross.
we were staying with this one guy that houses volunteers and also runs different tours here that we met through the couch surfing website . first night was really really miserable - neither of us could sleep at all and it was one of those nights where you ar ejust praying for it to be morning so that the dreadful night can me over that you can get up. it may have had something to di with the dirty dirty sheets, or the ridiculously uncomfortable matreses on hte floor , or perhaps it was the ginormous wolf spider we saw on the wall next to the bed before we turned off the lights and couldnt manage to catch bc it was lightning fast , OR it may have been the chinese water torture in the form of water leaking from the roof onto camis head...so we stayed two nights there and then we caved and found a different place for 3 dollars a night each, with a big bed, dry mind you , and our own bathroom AND shower. awesome. we took it and peaced outta there, after leaving a thank you note of course! free is great and expectations are low but man being able to actually sleep is great too , worth 3 bucks id say :)
love you guys so much and really love getting your emails that keep me connected to what's going on in your lives!
p.s. went to church here! so so neat! saw an BYU prof i had, and the sister of another prof I had! crazy! it's a small world after all! there was also this couple trveling there from utah that took us under their wings and took us ou t to this amazing place for dinner! cam and i got seafood in red curry and it was served in a coconut! only 3 dollars! we've already decided to come back here to asia every year with thailand as our hom base.
oh, also, thai people are absolutely lovely, really really
love and loads more love,
jaimie
