Chiang Rai (Day 4 - Final Day - Trekking!)

Day 4, the last full day, was our adventure day.  We took an all day day-trip, which brought us to tribal villages in the mountains, boat rides, anaconda snakes, tea plantations, hot springs, and elephant rides.

The mountains were inspiring, the hot spring steamy, and the snakes heavy.  Other than that, I am going to let the pictures do all the talking.  As always, click the photo to enlarge it.

Boat ride to our first tribal village (you can see my bee sting in this picture)

Elephant ride through the Akha hill tribe village 

Big snakes, big lizards!

Me as a (dry) pink marshmallow - starting our mountain trek to  the other hill tribes 

Beautiful view from the mountain

Rest stop, and goofing off

Beautiful waterfall, with a couple of nerve-racking crossings

Tea plantation

After visiting the hill tribes and sharing a cup of tea with them, we saw a tea plantation and then went to the hot springs for some rest and relaxation.  We did not take any pictures in or of the hill tribes because some people living in the tribes believe that if you take a picture of them you take away a part of their soul.  You are supposed to ask before you take a picture of them, and/or offer to send the picture back to them (which they believes allows them to reclaim that piece of their soul).  

The next day we packed up and left for our flight.

We had a long and wonderful mini-vacation!

Next to come - the trip I took this last weekend to Cambodia!

Lots and lots of love,
Kelsey

Chiang Rai (Day 3 - Big Birds and Beautiful Buildings)

On day 3 of our fantastic voyage Shari and I ended up renting motor bikes in order to tour a bit of the country side and drive to the White Temple.

Well, anyone who knows me knows that I am bad with directions.  Inevitably, we ended up taking a wrong turn, and therefore being on the wrong track for quite some time.  But as Life will tell you, sometimes the wrong track turns out to be the very right one.

We pulled over at an ostrich farm.  My initial thought was "maybe we will be able to feed or even feed them."  Turns out, this farm offered quite a bit more than that.

Behold, as I mount and then proceed to ride an ostrich! (By-the-by - I had no part in and therefore take no responsibility for the orientation of the filming of the above video.)

White Temple

Shari and I did eventually get to the White Temple, and it was absolutely spectacular.  Pictures do not do it justice (but that won't keep me from sharing them):

Got stung!

 By the way, from this point forward you can probably see a nice red mark in the middle of my forehead in all of my pictures:

This is because while we were doing 50km/h on the highway some sort of bug - some sort of bug that stings - got caught between my sunglasses and helmet, and proceeded to give me a good sting.  It hurt quite a bit, was itchy for a few days, and up until today was still flaring up in redness and pain occasionally.

My fear of bees and wasps is justified!

Love you all!
Kelsey

Chiang Rai (Day 2 - Scorpion Temple and Golden Triangle)

The first full day in Chiang Rai, we did two more things on our half-day tour - we also saw the Scorpion Temple and the Golden Triangle

Scorpion Temple

Wax figures of famous monks in the Scorpion Temple

Golden Triangle 

Where Burma, Laos, and Thailand meet in a fork in the river.

Finally, to end the day, we decided to make a foaming hot tub out of our luxury-sized Jacuzzi bathtub.

Workman's Safety

This is how you cut branches down in Thailand:

One person pulls the branch down, and the other person saws.

Chiang Rai (Day 2 - Not Zip-lining, and Monkeys)

The morning of the second day of our trip was a sort of a "get our bearings" morning.  We went around town looking into different tours and day/half day trips.  Shari, who had been quite sick a few days earlier, was still not feeling well so she stayed back at the guesthouse.

Clothes lining and Buddhas in caves

One of the things we really wanted to do in Chiang Rai was zip lining, and we found out before we left that there was a place that offered such.  After spending a good hour finding out if "Boomerang Adventure Park" was open (the website was down and the phone number wasn't working), and finding a cab to take us there, and finding out the directions for the cab driver, the three of us were on our way.

The fact that nobody knew about this Boomerang Adventure Park should have been our first clue.  The difficulty we had in finding directions should have been our second.  We drove there in a cab and ended up passing it the first time because it looked so....lame.  It wasn't as much zip-lining as it was clothes-lining. We ended up passing up on it without even getting out of the cab.

The morning wasn't a total loss, however.  We ended up visiting a little Buddha site we saw on our drive to Boomerlame Misventure Park and stopped there for a spell.

After having lunch back at the hotel, we arranged for a half-day trip further north to see monkeys, a Jade Factory, and Scorpion Temple.  The Jade factory was unfortunately closed, but we did get to go to the golden triangle instead, which is where you can see Burma, Thailand, and Laos all at once.

Monkeys and Tam Pleaw (?)

 The first stop we made on our half day tour was of monkeys and what I think is called Tam Pleaw.  But I am not sure on the name.  Long story short, I got to feed wild monkeys (and play peanut catch with them), and go into a beautiful cave that reminded me of a video game.  Probably Uncharted.  :)

And now for a short video of baby monkeys play fighting!  Be forewarned - the video cutes er, cuts out rather abruptly.

Chiang Rai (Day 1 - Arrival)

This last weekend was a coveted four day long weekend, so Mary, Martine, Shari and I went to the top of Thailand, Chiang Rai.

We left on a plane Friday evening right after work.  It was nice to be able to arrive so quickly by air, rather than drive the 14 hours.

We arrive late Friday night.  Enough time to take a nice dip in our guesthouse (hostel's) bar-side pool.

Needless to say, and even though it was pretty chilly in the pool, we got a lot of use out of it during the weekend.

There we are, Martine with her Leo beer and me with my Irish Coffee.  Yum!

The funny thing about that pool is that there is no shallow end.  It's about 6 feet deep from one end to the other, so you have to swim if you want to get to or from the bar.  Take care how much you drink!

Lots of love,
(and lots more to come),
Kelsey

Ayutthaya.....and food poisoning....

Two weekends ago, July 14th, Shari, Martine, Mary, and I planned a nice mini-vacation a little north of Bangkok to Ayutthaya, an ancient Siamese (Thai) city.  I really hadn't been feeling well the last couple of days before we left, but decided last minute to go anyway.  It was only a little over an hour away so I knew I could easily make it back home if I needed to.


Turns out, I needed to.


We got there at around 10, and I ended up leaving Ayutthaya at 5 instead of staying overnight with the other girls. It was enough time to find a guest house, eat lunch, and take a 4 hour tour.  I think I was holding it together pretty well on our tour, which was tough since it was in the hot sun and we were walking around a lot, but I knew that I didn't want to stay overnight (and that I should probably get checked out by a doctor.)  I had a massive headache, one like I have never had before, and stabbing pains in my stomach, among, um,.....  other symptoms.


So when we got back to the new city I found the first bus to Bangkok, made it home alright, and went to the doctor's that night.  It turns out I had salmonella poisoning.  Yikes.  It was good timing though, as the next week at school was exam week, so aside from the exam my students were writing for my class later in the week I really didn't have to be at school, and was able to mark and prep at home.


In any case, here are some pictures I managed to take of beautiful ancient Ayutthaya. 

Me trying to hold it together

Last leg of the trip, and.....I'm completely finished.

Home time.

After a couple of days of rest at home (and lots of medicine) I felt pretty much back to normal.  

Lesson learned: Next time I am feeling like that before a trip, I'm probably staying home. :)

Love you all!

Kelsey