Birthday in Thailand!

Ok first off let me apologize for not posting sooner.  We have been in China for the past five weeks and they block both Facebook and our blog site there so we had no acess.  We will try to catch up in the next two posts.  This one will finish up our time in Thailand.

Yay! Its my birthday!

Twenty Seven Years old. I can’t believe I am that old but I guess most would still say that is young. I couldn’t have picked a better birthday celebration. We, meaning Wil, Laura D, Lulu, and I, have been staying in Chiang Mia for about a week now and our really enjoying ourselves. Chiang Mia is a relatively large city in the northern part of Thailand and is surrounded by beautiful mountains and jungles. We rented scooters one day and went to explore the surrounding area. We had so much fun with the scooters in Phuket we decided to have another go at it. We drove up to some parks in the mountains and went on a short hike through the woods along a stream with waterfalls. It was nice to be outdoors hiking again, even if it was a short hike.

Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep

Thai girl lighting a prayer candle

We couldn’t end a sightseeing day in Thailand without seeing a temple…so we did. We went to Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep. It is the most famous temple in the area and is on the top of one of the many small mountains. It was one of the best temples I have been to. At this point they all seem to run together but this one stood out. Maybe it was the misty conditions that shrouded the temple and created a sense of drama and mystery. It also made for great pictures. We walked around and tried to decipher the many devotional actions of the Thai visitors.

More of the Wat

Well I digress. Let me get back to the point of this blog post, my birthday! We all got dressed up in our backpacker finest… shorts and a tank top that may have been clean. Clean by definition now means only worn two times before. It’s hard when you only have about three outfits. We did put makeup on though. Wow, I don’t think I have put makeup on for almost seven months. I almost forgot how. Well, we were looking good now! We went to dinner and I decided I wanted pizza as a birthday treat. We stopped first to buy some rum to have with the pizza. Then it was off to the bars to dance the night away. We had so much fun. The bars are all on the same little street so you can go from one to the other all night. We went from Reggae to Rock to Reggae and back to Rock. I may or may not have danced on stage.

Drunken silliness on the dance floor

The next morning we all were feeling less than wonderful. Somehow we had thought it would be a good idea to schedule a cooking class for that morning. We had to get up and be ready by 9am! Then we had to chop and mix and cook and eat for most of the day. It was a struggle but we managed to have a good time and learned a lot of great dishes. I was happy when I got home and got to go back to my bed.

Us and a big kitty

Another fun thing we got to do was play with tigers. Yes this is me digressing again. I am a bit scatterbrained today. Laura D was determined to see tigers on her visit. I was a bit hesitant because I thought the tigers would be caged and treated poorly and I didn’t want to see or support that. Surprisingly the place was great. It had huge enclosures and really caring handlers and happy tigers. We had a great time. I’ll let the pictures say the rest.

I couldn't get enough of their eyes!

Laura playing with two babies

spooning jungle style... I was assured this was safe

The day we were scheduled to leave Chiang Mia some of our friends invited us to go to a giant Reggae festival that night. We had already checked out of our hostel and were waiting to catch our bus to Bangkok, but who could pass on an invitation like that! We quickly arranged to change our bus tickets for the next day and checked back into our hostel for the night. It was well worth it! The concert was amazing and so much fun. We had great music, great friends, and drinks in a bucket! We danced the night away. I don’t think we made it back till 5am and when we left the party was still going. It was a great last night in Chiang Mai!

Main stage at the Reggae Festival

Buying our drink in a bucket!

Enjoying the Bucket

Laura and Pyper in the crowd

The Lauras haveing their feet cleaned by hundreds of little fish

Us enjoying a rare night at the movies

Another cool temple

Christina

Thailand: Land of Personal Enrichment

Thailand: Land of Personal Enrichment

For those of you who do not know me, my name is Laura Dalton.  Laura R. (or Lulu) and I have been friends ever since we were old enough to realize that we had the same name.  Some years ago, I decided that I wanted to travel in Southeast Asia and had been patiently waiting for my opportunity.  I am in graduate school, and had a whooping 6 weeks of freedom during Christmas Break, so why not spend it in Thailand with my lifelong partner in crime?  I had no idea what was in store, but I knew that good things were to happen during my 24 days in Thailand.

            I touched down in Bangkok around midnight of December 29^th.  It seemed like everyone in the world had decided to come to Thailand for New Years.  When we went to Ko Tao, it was evident that most people wanted to retreat to a resort in an island paradise to ring in 2011. After we got through the couple of days before and after New Year’s, life seemed to slow down a bit.  We were no longer hurried to get to get to a party by the stroke of midnight, nor in a race to beat the crowd for accommodation on a small island.  We found ourselves in Phuket, enjoying the laid back atmosphere of Kata Beach.  Yes, the guide book did read, “The Bangkok of the South” but the title did not do it justice.  Every traveler should know the phrase, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do,” therefore, while in Thailand- eat, shop, massage, and ride motorbikes.  It only took a day in Phuket to realize that we needed to rent a couple of motorbikes and explore the province.  We rode out of town and followed the coastline for miles.  The winding road lead us to some spectacular views of the coast.  Christina, however, saw something that caught her eye, kites.  But these just weren’t any kites, they were KITEBOARDERS.  We found the kiteboarding-school on the beach.  After watching people glide through the blue water on a board being propelled by wind that was captured by a kite, we decided to sign up for a 3-day course.  Laura and I were paired up with an instructor from the Ukraine, and yes, lots of phrases were lost in translation, and we mastered a Ukrainian accent by the end of the course. Kiteboarding involved lots of multitasking and virtually no upper body strength.  The sensation of being dragged through the water  by a huge kite was definitely thrilling.  However, the task of keeping the kite up in the air takes wind, skill, and time to master, and on the last day, I was short on all 3.  A flight from Phuket to Chiang Mai awaited.

            We hopped on board a 1- hour flight to Chiang Mai, which is in the northeastern part of the country.  There we found a cheap yet comfortable hostel, which definitely possessed the quintessential backpacker vibe.  Every night people were in the common areas drinking beer and exchanging stories about past and future travels.  By this time we had developed a taste for our personal favorite Thai dishes and decided to enroll in a cooking class.  Anyone who knows me, can tell you that I am not a chef by any means and that I am domestically challenged.  However, I had grown to love the taste of green curry and simply could not risk the chance of not being able to have it at home.  Instructors from our cooking school took us to a local market were we collected all the necessary ingredients of our choice dishes.  I had selected to cook chicken fried rice, green curry, cashew chicken, and fried bananas.  We were shown how to properly chop and mash all the ingredients.  The school made it simple and fun.  However, the best part was that we got to EAT.  Since I have returned home, I haven’t made any of my dishes yet, but I do feel a curry craving very soon.

Me with my chicken fried rice

Lulu and Wil

Wil frying up some bananas

Oh how I love green curry

The best part about our cooking class

            Ok I admit it, I love to be pampered, and since I had been in Thailand, I had averaged about a massage per day.  I know it was excessive, but I could not get enough of the massages that tempted me on every street corner.  After Wil left, Laura, Christina, and I enrolled in a 5-day massage course taught by a Thai lady named Mesa.  Mesa owned a massage studio called Green Bamboo Massage.  The studio was very quaint and serene with dark hard wood floors and the scent of aroma candles filled the air.  Class started at 9:00 am every day.  We learned how Thai massage was spiritual and part of the Buddist religion and how Thai’s believe that massages are a part of maintaining good health.  Each day we worked on a different part of the body and how important it is to know the client’s health in order for them to fully benefit from receiving a massage.  On the last day, we had to administrate a full 1 hr body massage, lucky for Lulu, she would be the victim of my first massage.  What was supposed to take an hour, took about an hour and forty-five minutes.  I was exhausted and sweat was running down my back.  I have a new respect for the ladies who give dozens of massages a day.  I enjoyed the class and loved our instructor.  We were even treated to an afternoon long spa day at the studio.  I liked learning how to give a Thai massage, but I will always love to receive them.

Lulu, Kiki, and I with Mesa, our massage instructor at the end of our course.

I had never been to a country long enough to enroll personal enrichment classes nor would I have had an opportunity like this at home.  I felt like I had developed a daily routine, especially in Chiang Mai.  While I am back at school now, I still learned something new every day in Thailand.  I don’t think it would have been the same without the Wandering Sisters and Wil.  My time in Thailand was not so much about how we spent our time, but who I spent my time with.  It was a blast, and I can’t wait for my next adventure, hopefully soon with the Wandering Sisters.

Wil, Me, Lulu, and Kiki

Laura