Hello & Goodbye to Chiang Mai

So, the Internet in Thailand is not so awesome, so I apologize for the wait. But here's my first blog post!!

Day 1: a good 48 hours of flights. I met all my campers! Jacob S (who was also on Classic Italy with me last year!), Alena G, Collier R, Hannah S, Cristina I, Helena T, Jessica RW, Niha K, Gonzalo E, Francesca R, and Julianne K. Luckily, I got a really great group. Also all of our flights went perfectly well, which is awesome. When the group arrived in Bangkok we met the lead counselors Jordan and Lydia. They're pretty cool too. As a group we flew to Chiang Mai and then drove to our accommodations. 

Day 2: our activities for the day were jungle cooking and visiting some pretty amazing temples. 

In jungle cooking, we literally made our meal. Pork salad, grilled chicken, Nam-Prik (which is like Thai salsa), steamed/cooked mushrooms in banana leaves, and other things and sticky rice (which is present at almost every meal). It was quite delicious and I took some really artsy photos. At one point, Julianne and I snuck away to explore a bit, and we ended up milking an angry goat. It's a lot harder than it looks my friends. 

After lunch we traveled into Chiang Mai and I got to visit my first Buddhist temples! The first one was Wat Doi Suthep. The legend of this temple in particular is that a expensive white Elephant belonging to a king was set free with a piece of Buddha. This elephant traveled through the jungle and let a roar out at the top and died. This prompted the king to build a beautiful temple in that spot. Everything is lined with gold, I'll post photos as soon as I can. 

Wat Chedi Luang was the name of the second temple we visited that day. It's super bedazzled, I kind of want to copy it for my new wall paper in my room. Very very beautiful.

Then we spoke with a monk, he began every response to a question with "Well, you know..." And that slightly bothered me, but otherwise was very interesting. They don't eat after noon, which I could never do. So I guess becoming a monk isn't in my future, plus I'm a girl and I don't really want to shave my head and eyebrows, but whatever. 

We finished the day the Sunday walking street market. I bought a tie-dye shirt. "#awesome" (-Lydia said that..her and Alena are helping me type this blog post aloud."

I also bought a silver ring for my collection and stretchy pants. The total for the end of the day was about 500 baht. Which equates to $16.66. Everything is really cheap here and it's awesome. Then we went to bed.

Day 3: Rock climbing and repelling. I was excited because I already knew how to tie all the important knots on my harness. One concern I had though was that they didn't use stopper knots there, for the extra security, so, hmmmm. I still had one anyway. 

It was a real mountain, not a fake rock wall. Which is surprisingly challenging. But, I handled like a pro of course. What else would you expect from me? 

The next thing I did not handle as well was repelling. I've repelled before, but it was maybe like 10 feet, at least. That day, I repelled about 120 feet, so it was a little different. Also in the times I have repelled before, I had the wall right there. It was just me, in the air, like 100 feet up. Pretty scary. 

That evening we had a barbecue, sort of American themed. Which was quite pleasant. We also played Mafia, but I don't want to talk about it.

Day 4: our busiest day yet! We began the morning a little grocery market for 15 minutes, it was cool, but everyone was itching to get to our next activity.

Elephants. Yes my friends, elephants. We did not ride them though. We actually learned about how abused these poor creatures are when they're forced to perform in shows and give rides. The place we spent the morning at was a refuge for 35 previously mistreated elephants. There was all really cute baby to, but we weren't allowed to touch it. Unless we wanted to get trampled by its mom and her friends.

Right after that we went zip lining through the jungle. I took my camera up into the trees with me (although my father would not approve--sorry daddy!) and snapped some pretty sweet photos. Hooray!

We then went to the night Bazaar. Which was awesome and had knock off everything. Ray bans, beats headphones, Gucci, you name it. HMU (hit me up)  if you want me to hook you up. 

Days 5,6,7 and half of 8 were community service days! We completed part of an addition to a kindergarten in an obscure village 4 hours outside of Chiang Mai. Lydia says it was near the highest mountain in Thailand. We stayed in the homes of local villagers without a real bathroom or shower. And yet, we all survived. I stayed in a home with Helena, Jessica, and Cristina. It just happened to be the nicest one in the village. We could close our windows and had a nice big room to ourselves. 

I actually had a lot of fun on this volunteering trip. I got to paint a lot of murals and interact with local children. We didn't finish the addition, but we really did do a lot. I'm proud of us no matter what. 

Day 8: yesterday. A travel day my friends. We left Chiang Mai for Phuket. Took two cars, two planes, and a boat to get to our hotel on Koh Phi Phi.  I got a little sunburned, but I still look good.

And then today, day 9, we're snorkeling! The rest of the group is actually scuba diving, but Lydia, Alena, and I are not. And that's what gave me the perfect window of time to write this post, we're in an area where there are just too many boats for us. But it seems like in a few minutes, it will be our turn! So that's all for now folks!

As always, 

Julia Rose