I'm back in Thailand, Northern Thailand, to be exact, and as you can see, even among the wildness and adventure of the area, McDonald's is still here - with a slight twist. I have fallen in love with Chiang Mai, it is a gorgeous area, as you can see with all kinds of adventures. I took an all day cooking class, where I made Spring Rolls, Pad Thai, Green Curry, Chicken in Coconut Milk, Papaya Salad, Sweet and Sour Chicken, and Mango with Sticky Rice. Yum! They even let me play with fire!
I spent another two days trekking in the mountains, visiting a hill tribe and the long neck tribe. There were 11 of us trekking and two guides. We had a really fun group. The first day we rode elephants and then we started trekking, uphill, for 2.5 hours. I was picturing a leisurely trek through the forest. No. I thought I was going to die. Really. But, it was all worth it when we got there and looked out over the valley. It was gorgeous. We stayed in one of the village buildings, and had a great night. Our guide brought out his guitar and sung his Thai version of I want to hold your hand and Stand By Me - to our delight. He also provided a delicious supper of yellow curry and rice with a very interesting pumpkin dish. The next day we were up early and off on another trek to a waterfall, then white water rafting, and bamboo rafting, although our raft kept sinking. We headed home after that and everyone met up for dinner and drinks afterwards. I got along so well with a couple of my fellow trekkers that we left this morning for a tiny, but absolutely gorgeous little town called Pai. I am staying in a gorgeous bungalow by the river, for about $6 a night, and enjoying the atmosphere of this peaceful little village. Tomorrow we will rent motorbikes and be off to explore the waterfalls, hot springs, and caves of the area. My trip just keeps getting better and better.
Officially it's the Thai New Year. Unofficially it's an excuse to have the world's most giagantic water fight. Everyone, from the tiny child grinning from behind a water gun to, I kid you not, the local policeman, in full uniform, throwing a bucket of water on the bus, gets involved.
Kao San road becomes a massive insane jumble of wall to wall people armed with water guns of all sizes, buckets, water bottles, cups - basically anything that will throw water. Street sellers line the streets seilling water bottles (2 for 5 baht), water guns, and clay, along with Pad Thai, banana pancakes, and other food. You are pushed along by the massive crowds - shot at from every side, sometimes hot, sometimes icy cold water - as well as hands reaching out to smear clay all over you, you can't go a foot without eager hands touching you with clay. Not sure why, it must have something to do with the New Year celebration.
I grabbed a couple water bottles and joined in the fun, attacking a few small children, pushing back a bowl of water into a suprised grinning face of a would be attacker. Splashing water on a bully with a giant water gun attacking passerbys. All good clean fun!
Our trip to Singapore was quite the adventure. We decided to take a night train (see me in my cozy sleeper bunk) that would leave at 8pm, and arrive at 11am, giving us time to have a good nights sleep and see some of the scenery as well. Around 3am we noticed that the train had stopped moving. It did not start again until 10:30am and then only to go a few feet into another town. Everyone else on the train seemed to take it in stride. We later learned a train had de-railed in front of us. So, we finally started moving again around 12pm and arrived in Singapore around 10pm. About 12 hours behind. Fortunately, I had e-mailed our hostel from the town we were stopped in and we arrived at the Inn Crowd, late, but with beds. Yeah!
Singapore is very modern. It was like being back in the states. Shopping malls everywhere, and every fast food chain that you could imagine. We walked around our first day, checked out the river front and shopping. We did the Night Safari, which was awesome (yo
u can see a picture of the fire show), there were tons of animals out, we saw a whole pack of wolves running around, as well as, tigers, giraffe, and other assorted creatures. The areas were barely lit, with a safari feel, lots of greenery, but you could see the animals, it was very cool. We also enjoyed the botanical gardens, the amazing food in little India, and a dim sum feast in Chinatown. Robin and I were also able to meet up with our Pastor and his wife Gayle who were
visiting Singapore, which was really nice.
I have spent the last 10 days in paradise. Beautiful turquoise waters, golden sand, perfect waves, warm air with a hint of a breeze, palm trees...yup it was all there, along with awesome scuba diving, fresh fish, lobster, and prawn BBQ's, fruit shakes...and more delicious food. I spent my days sleeping in, relaxing on the beach, scuba diving, reading at one of the beach cafe's with a strawberry milkshake, and napping. In the evenings, a group of us would go out to dinner and then just hang out talking or playing cards on the beach.
It was wonderful. I decided to get my advanced scuba diving certificate, and so spent two days taking the class, which consisted of five dives: a wreck dive, to an old sunken sugar ship, which was really interesting, a night dive, which was just so cool, the whole ocean changes shape and becomes a new world at night, a deep dive down to 26 meters, and a navigation dive, where I got myself and my buddy completely lost (LOL), and a buoyancy dive to work on our buoyancy while underwater. It was really interesting and now I am an advanced diver. I also did some fun dives to different locations, where I saw turtles, sharks, huge prehistoric parrotfish, and tons of other interesting and varied fish.
Now, I am off to Singapore for more adventures. Stay tuned!
I'm back in Thailand, Northern Thailand, to be exact, and as you can see, even among the wildness and adventure of the area, McDonald's is still here - with a slight twist. I have fallen in love with Chiang Mai, it is a gorgeous area, as you can see with all kinds of adventures. I took an all day cooking class, where I made Spring Rolls, Pad Thai, Green Curry, Chicken in Coconut Milk, Papaya Salad, Sweet and Sour Chicken, and Mango with Sticky Rice. Yum! They even let me play with fire! 
