MY GREAT ADVENTURE

Our last morning in Chiang Mai, we woke up, had breakfast, and headed to the airport to get there in time for our 11:40 flight. Unlike in Bangkok, checking our bags and going through security was a breeze - so much of a breeze that we forgot to get cash beforehand as planned. We decided to go back out in order to get to the ATMs, but when we got back to security the line had increased substantially. Luckily, even long lines at Thai airports take a fraction of the time any American security line would take! After that, Benji grabbed a beer and I got a coffee, and we were on the plane before we knew it! The short flight to Surat Thani was quite uneventful. AirAsia is funny because they give you meals on even the shortest flights. Because it was cheaper to pay for an all-inclusive ticket rather than paying for luggage individually at the airports, we got vegetarian meals for our two hour flight. It was only some vegetable fried rice, but later on I was very glad we had that snack...

I am incredibly behind on my journal entries, so I might try to start doing abbreviated versions. For those reading this, you might be saying “thank god...”, but a large part of my journal goal was to have it for myself to look back and remember *everything*. In truth, capturing almost every detail is quite time consuming, and so I haven’t been able to keep up with it. With this being the case, I’m going to try and only capture the highlights - wish me luck! We woke up early in order to eat breakfast and get on the road for our trip to Pai. Unfortunately, the hostel we were staying at - Counting Sheep’s - did not return our laundry the night before as promised, so we had to wait until it was ready, and sadly, that wasn’t until nearly 11 am! While we waited, we picked up our scooters for our ride and packed everything else up. Once the laundry was (finally) ready, we hit the road. We didn’t even make it out of the Old City limits until both Benji and I were pulled over by the ...

Our final full day in Chiang Mai, we got up to head to our full day cooking class at Asia Scenic Cooking School. We got a ride from the school via a red truck - a well known taxi-like service that cheaply offers rides around Old City Chiang Mai. When we arrived to the school (which only ended up being about five minutes from the hostel), we were told to go to one of four large tables around the room to sit down. Soon, our table was filled (there were 15 students at our table) and our teacher for the day, Da, came over to greet us. Da was a younger Thai woman, and had a sassy demeanor - I enjoyed having her as a teacher. She taught alongside a young Thai man who was practicing his English. After introductions, Da walked us through the options for our six course meal and allowed us to choose the dishes we wanted to try. We got to make choices within the categories - for example for stir fried dishes we could make pad Thai, pad see ew, cashews with chicken or hot basil stir fried. I...

Benji and I got up a little earlier than usual to make it in time for the 7 am breakfast at the Elephant Nature Park. Although the room was super nice, we found the bed was incredibly uncomfortable and neither of us slept very well. It didn’t matter though, because we were both energized with excitement for our second day with the elephants! Breakfast was a little less exciting than the previous meals. It was mostly western fare. I think Benji had some eggs and “sausage” (hot dog) and toast, I think I just had toast and maybe some cereal. We didn’t even have time to finish our coffee before we headed out on our next walk at 7:40! We were given canvas bags and followed our tour guide, Gun, to the elephant food storage room. There were shelves upon shelves of bananas and squash. We were told to fill up our bags with however much we could carry. We then followed Gun on a walk past our cabins where we slept. We then put our food bags up onto the second floor of one of the buildings. W...

Benji and I woke up early to pack our things and eat our final breakfast at Namamema before heading to the elephant sanctuary. I have my first bought of Bangkok Belly, so wasn’t feeling too keen on the traditional Thai breakfast they offered that day (chicken soup), and opted just for a piece of toast and some fruit. At 8:30, the van picked us up to head to the elephant sanctuary. In the van, there were six other people, but we didn’t all get acquainted until later in the day. On the 1.5 hour van ride to the sanctuary, we watched an introductory video on how to safely interact with the elephants - never directly front of or directly behind, and do not tease them with food. After the safety video, they played a documentary made about Thai elephants, and specifically about the woman who founded Elephant Nature Park. It was pretty interesting, but I also was interested in gazing out the window and watching the beautiful jungle scenery go by. Once we got to the sanctuary, we immed...

After my first rough night (jet lag caught up to me), I woke up very early, but managed to stay in bed until 7 or so. Once up, Benji and I got ready and then headed down for our complimentary breakfast at Namamema Boutique Hotel. This breakfast was much more elaborate than the ones at Niras Hostel. Not only did it have a continental breakfast with toast, croissants, fruit, cereal, and other baked goods, we were also served more traditional Thai breakfast a la carte. This fist morning, it was a pad Thai like dish.   After eating, Benji and I headed out in search of scooters. Our hotel host suggested a couple of places, so we ventured to the closest one we could find. Since Benji had never ridden a scooter, the woman running the rental shop suggested that he take a smaller scooter (150 CCs) and that I take the bigger one (200 CCs). She also made him do a few laps up and down the street before she would let us head out. Once we had paid and both felt comfortable, we hit the roa...