Chiang Mai adventure, pt. 1

View from Doi Suthep

So FINALLY, after the extremely grueling Unit 3, we got a 4 day break! So 6 of my friends and I went to Chiang Mai, a province in the Northern part of Thailand. It used to be the old capital of the Lanna kingdom but has since degraded into an incredibly cheesy, tourist-y place. But don't get me wrong; the place still has history. Wikipedia it sometime.

After a 12 hour bus ride from Khon Kaen, Jake woke me up as I was about to drool all over his extremely comfortable neck pillow (sorry!). Once we got to our hostel, we decided to walk around and look at a bunch of wats, or temples. Our hostel was a cute little hole-in-the-wall place with a bunch of other foreigners, and we had a 10-bed room to ourselves with a shared bathroom - so 5 bunkbeds. Thus, it was exactly like sleepaway camp. I got the top bunk, as always. SUP CAMP BROADSTONE.

Anyway, right, the wats. They were super pretty! Oh! Maddie and I talked to three teenage-ish monks. They were actually pretty chill, although they thought I was Korean (just like every other Thai person here...). Here are but a few of my many wat pictures.

Wat Pra Singh

Wat Chiang Mun

So after that, we took a sawngtao to Doi Suthep, a mountain wat, and walked around. At the bottom of the mountain, there were tons of little shops and tourist traps. But up on the mountain, it was SO FREAKIN' BEAUTIFUL. You could see all of Chiang Mai as well as a bunch of pretty structures. Without further ado, pictures.

There was a hella ridiculous amount of stairs along the way. It was absurd.

After walking around for a while there, we came back down from the mountain, and we ladies got a massage. But oh-ho-ho, not just any massage - a massage from women prisoners. Yes, for real. There was a famous massage parlour across the street from the women's prison which was advertised in someone's Lonely Planet guidebook.

And the massage? Absolutely delightful. Wanna know what wasn't delightful? The lice that we all got afterwards. When we returned to Khon Kaen 3 days later, Sam and Babz knocked on my door saying it was a semi-emergency. I opened the door and before I knew it, Sam was checking my hair for lice, and I was throwing my sheets and every piece of clothing I own in the washing machine. Thankfully, I only had lice eggs in my hair. So that was an adventure. And hopefully they're all out now, but that was certainly annoying.

Anyway, after that, we got Indian food. Freaking. Indian. Food. We've been living on Thai food for the past two months, so this was a welcome change. And my bowels thanked me afterwards, but you didn't need to know that. Afterwards, we went to the night market and spent way, way too much money. We also got into an argument with a South African man and an Irish man about how America isn't as racist as South Africa or something. I don't really remember because it was an absurd argument.

On the second day, it was kind of a rest day. We started off the day with an Americanish breakfast, where I had poached eggs, toast, and stir fried veggies. I forgot how much I missed toast until I had it that day... And I still crave it. Anyway, after that, we ended up going to the Mae Sa waterfall in Chiang Dao national park. It actually consisted of 10 smaller waterfalls that make up the entire attraction. It was a pretty nice hike (though a little unnatural due to the semi-paved stairs and trails up and down the waterfalls. It was beautiful! After hiking the whole trail, we all split up. I had some great alone time where I looked through all the pictures in my camera and journaled a bit. I came back to the meeting place a bit early and saw 2 of the cutest black kittens I've ever seen. Unfortunately, not all of us were so lucky; Jake lost his camera in the waterfall. :( But that's why I took some pictures! So here! Take a lookee~

Maddie and Babz. Crazy farangs.

Okay, pt. 2 coming up.