Chiang Mai
Doesn't get much better.
Motor-Bikin'!
The 12 hour rafting journey! Kel, Brenny, Lauren, Muah, Brigette
At the bar, Say Hi!
Trying to look like high hippies in our hippie gear.
One 2 Bed room for 5 girls.
At the bar, Say Hi!
Trying to look like high hippies in our hippie gear. 
One 2 Bed room for 5 girls.Nothing like saving $$.
The 5 day vacation was quite a treat and I'd like to thank the Buddhists for letting us have it. Our vacation started last Thursday when Brenda (Brenny) came into town and we decided to get some grub and drinks at Riverside.
Woke up Friday, wandered on down to our favorite spot, "I Love Coffee." Grabbed a drink and hopped on the bus to Chiang Mai. We waited for almost 2 hours to get our Visa's renewed and darted off for some yummy Mexican food. I hadn't tasted the spicy taste of a jalepeno in almost 3 months and was due for a veggie burrito!
We made it to Pai after a 3 and a half hour drive, consisting of 762 turns, literally. Georgie and I opted for some car sickness pills and wound up sleeping the whole day. My body felt like it had been sown into the seat of the car and I felt like I was drooling. We're thinking they gave us muscle relaxers. After the psychedlic pills wore off we were walking towards the mountain in a hippie town surrounded by nothing but tall, green trees and people scooting by on motorbikes.
The excitement started Sunday morning when we woke up early for a river rafting trip. 2 hours of windy roads and we arrive at the river. Our guide tells us that his name is God. Already, a great start. He tells us that there are spider webs that go from one side of the river to the other and when he says, "Down!" that means, put your head down. I am re-thinking this whole adventure already. There's 5 of us girls on the raft and we see this HUGE spider with web and all of a sudden we stop paddling and lunge towards the middle screaming! Long behold the small pancake size, white, jumping spiders that make their way into our raft!!!!! Then comes the horse flies that God politely slaps off my leg with his paddle. So after all the initial shock from the Thai bugs, we sail through the Level 3 rapids only to see a python snake wrapped up in a tree. Now, as frightened as I was the thing had the most beautiful, bright colors. All this was happening while God keeps repeating, "Forward Babe-eez." He usually said this when we forgot to paddle.
After an hour of paddling, we stop to go for a swim under these pretty cool waterfalls. Now, the river has a bit of a current and as I'm trying to swim to the waterfall, I see Kel heading down the current trying to keep hold of her sandals that have fallen off. Thankfully, God grabs her hand and pulls her to the waterfall. Kel and I had a moment where we just looked at eachother not knowing what to do but keep staring.
The waterfall break was awesome, we got lunch and then we logged another half hour of paddling until we got to the "amazing" hot springs. So, we pull our raft over and strap on our hiking sandals ready for the hot springs when God looks at us like we're nuts. He says that they are right in front of us. We laugh. Hard. Then ask how far the hike is to the springs. He is confused. He tells us they are right in front of us. We look down and sure enough there is a small little stream of hot water. We laugh uncontrollably. Yes, the little stream was the amazing hot spring and here is where God tells us is the mud bath. He starts putting the mud on our arms and tells us to put this mud on our face. Being the smart, college-educated woman that we are, we do as we are told and proceed with his directions. After our bodies are covered in mud we look at eachother and say, "what the hell are we doing?" I honestly think I laughed for 20 minutes straight looking at Brenny, Kel, Bridgette and Lauren covered in mud and knowing I looked the same as them.
We rinse off and onto the next hoorah! The rock jump! We jump off a rock a couple miles high and float down stream. The rapids were awesome at the end and we think God ran us into a few rocks on purpose to frighten us but we cheered and gave paddle high 5's 'til the very end of our 12 hour rafting trip!!!! We sang songs, ate snacks while raging through the rapids. I think it was 45 meters to be exact. My arms still hurt. The next day we took it easy, rented motor bikes, explored Pai and took a swim in hot spring pools at this hidden, luxury spot.
Kel and I moved into this cute 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment next to 4 of our other friends and have been loving drinking tea and watching movies. Only a couple bad things have happened so far, so we're happy. Bad things come in 3's right? First, a black and red spider/cockroach, then our water faucet upstairs wouldn't turn off and our kitchen flooded. Can't wait to see what 2 more months will bring!
Sometimes I look at my life and wonder how I got here. ;)
The 5 day vacation was quite a treat and I'd like to thank the Buddhists for letting us have it. Our vacation started last Thursday when Brenda (Brenny) came into town and we decided to get some grub and drinks at Riverside.
Woke up Friday, wandered on down to our favorite spot, "I Love Coffee." Grabbed a drink and hopped on the bus to Chiang Mai. We waited for almost 2 hours to get our Visa's renewed and darted off for some yummy Mexican food. I hadn't tasted the spicy taste of a jalepeno in almost 3 months and was due for a veggie burrito!
We made it to Pai after a 3 and a half hour drive, consisting of 762 turns, literally. Georgie and I opted for some car sickness pills and wound up sleeping the whole day. My body felt like it had been sown into the seat of the car and I felt like I was drooling. We're thinking they gave us muscle relaxers. After the psychedlic pills wore off we were walking towards the mountain in a hippie town surrounded by nothing but tall, green trees and people scooting by on motorbikes.
The excitement started Sunday morning when we woke up early for a river rafting trip. 2 hours of windy roads and we arrive at the river. Our guide tells us that his name is God. Already, a great start. He tells us that there are spider webs that go from one side of the river to the other and when he says, "Down!" that means, put your head down. I am re-thinking this whole adventure already. There's 5 of us girls on the raft and we see this HUGE spider with web and all of a sudden we stop paddling and lunge towards the middle screaming! Long behold the small pancake size, white, jumping spiders that make their way into our raft!!!!! Then comes the horse flies that God politely slaps off my leg with his paddle. So after all the initial shock from the Thai bugs, we sail through the Level 3 rapids only to see a python snake wrapped up in a tree. Now, as frightened as I was the thing had the most beautiful, bright colors. All this was happening while God keeps repeating, "Forward Babe-eez." He usually said this when we forgot to paddle.
After an hour of paddling, we stop to go for a swim under these pretty cool waterfalls. Now, the river has a bit of a current and as I'm trying to swim to the waterfall, I see Kel heading down the current trying to keep hold of her sandals that have fallen off. Thankfully, God grabs her hand and pulls her to the waterfall. Kel and I had a moment where we just looked at eachother not knowing what to do but keep staring.
The waterfall break was awesome, we got lunch and then we logged another half hour of paddling until we got to the "amazing" hot springs. So, we pull our raft over and strap on our hiking sandals ready for the hot springs when God looks at us like we're nuts. He says that they are right in front of us. We laugh. Hard. Then ask how far the hike is to the springs. He is confused. He tells us they are right in front of us. We look down and sure enough there is a small little stream of hot water. We laugh uncontrollably. Yes, the little stream was the amazing hot spring and here is where God tells us is the mud bath. He starts putting the mud on our arms and tells us to put this mud on our face. Being the smart, college-educated woman that we are, we do as we are told and proceed with his directions. After our bodies are covered in mud we look at eachother and say, "what the hell are we doing?" I honestly think I laughed for 20 minutes straight looking at Brenny, Kel, Bridgette and Lauren covered in mud and knowing I looked the same as them.
We rinse off and onto the next hoorah! The rock jump! We jump off a rock a couple miles high and float down stream. The rapids were awesome at the end and we think God ran us into a few rocks on purpose to frighten us but we cheered and gave paddle high 5's 'til the very end of our 12 hour rafting trip!!!! We sang songs, ate snacks while raging through the rapids. I think it was 45 meters to be exact. My arms still hurt. The next day we took it easy, rented motor bikes, explored Pai and took a swim in hot spring pools at this hidden, luxury spot.
Kel and I moved into this cute 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment next to 4 of our other friends and have been loving drinking tea and watching movies. Only a couple bad things have happened so far, so we're happy. Bad things come in 3's right? First, a black and red spider/cockroach, then our water faucet upstairs wouldn't turn off and our kitchen flooded. Can't wait to see what 2 more months will bring!
Sometimes I look at my life and wonder how I got here. ;)
J,
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like fun! I kept laughing as I pictured your adventure. Jumping spiders, snakes, mud puddles, and a dude named God. Sounds like a blast.
Love,
Trev
God was probably the best Thai person I have met thus far. How ironic?
ReplyDelete