24 in Thailand

It's my 24th b-day in Thailand... Don't have much planned, and I feel old. I keep thinking...24, seriously?!?!?! I'm 24? I think when I was sixteen I was planning on being a housewife by now! ;) but I am treating myself to some wireless internet today. I've been without internet for a few days. Traumatic to the max... :) I moved into an apartment and out of the guest house I was staying in for the first week that I was here. I really like the new place, it's almost exactly like the guest house, but about 1/4 the price...(though the guest house wasn't too steep either...about $15/night...) Anywho, I haven't been able to get my internet connection to work over there, and have been a bit shakey and sweaty for the last few days, thinking obsessively about the emails I've been missing...I wish I was kidding. So here I sit, at an internet cafe, enjoying a mocha and typing on my blog...amazing how much Chiang Mai can feel like LA.

In more interesting news, I got language classes set up for next week, and am so excited to start learning the language. Right now my communication skills are limited to the following:

Hello = sawatdee ka
thank you = khop khun ka
very delicious! = arroy mak mak!
nevermind (a state of mind for Thais...they say this when things happen that would make someone flip you off and try to kill you in LA) = mai pen rai!
I don't understand = mai cow jai
God Bless you = praa jow ooie pon

Welcome to the creepy non-language that you have to write in to tell people how to speak Thai. Since it's a completely different alphabet, with different sounds, and the attempted English spelling of Thai words gets crazy and is completely inconsistent. But I think it's awesome nonetheless.

Yesterday was IN-CREDDDDD-I-BLLLE. We went on a one day trek about an hour south of Chiang Mai in the mountains. Started out with a gnarly hike up to a Hmong village, bout 45 mins up super steep jungle in a million degree heat. I was literally a puddle, I don't think I've sweat like that since my dancing days. We got to the top and visited the people, it's amazing but sad what the tourism industry has done to the culture. When you get up to the villages of the hill tribe people, they're all set up with their crafts, ready to sell to you. Most can't speak more english than "50 baht" (baht is the Thai currency) and pointing at the jewelry they want you to buy. Their h0mes are mostly bamboo and leaves, and there are chickens everywhere. :)

After we hiked back down we went ELEPHANT RIDING, which I think will be one of my favorite things I'll do in Thailand. They're such huge, melancholy looking animals. So beautiful. We rode two by two on a seat on top of the elephant through incredibly beautiful jungle....and then a thunderstorm rolled in. So there we were, voyaging through the jungle in the rain, on an elephant. It was truly amazing. I thought I was going to fall off a few times, cause the terrain was so steep. Watching the elephant's feet was so great, huge stumpy things creating craters in the watery mud. Our guide grabbed a huge leaf and stuck it on his head as an umbrella. At the end we stood up on top of the platform and fed the elephants little mini bananas. mmmmm...I want to go back for more.

After that we ate a yummy lunch...yellow curry, my favorite. Then we went to a Karen village and saw a billion acres of rice patties. They terrace the land in a really incredible way that looks almost artistic. Picture an amphitheater, but with really big, flat stairs...that's about the best way I can think to describe how the fields looked. We sat and watched a Karen woman make scarves on a loom, so I ended up buying like 5 of them. They cost 100 baht a piece, or about $3. crazy. There are a lot of Karen people in the hills of Thailand, as they have been viciously persecuted in Burma by the military junta government. One of the sects of the Karen people are the 'long neck' Karen...those women who wear the gold rings around their neck which push down their collarbone and make them look like giraffes. Most of the long neck population is north of Chiang Mai, so we didn't see any of them on this trip. Then we went to an awesome waterfall. yum.

And lastly, we rode a bamboo raft down a river of what looked like chocolate milk. The rivers here are so muddy, it's crazy. The raft was a bundle of about 30' bamboo poles that were about 4-5 inches in diameter, laid horizontally and tied together with rubber. Since you're basically sitting on a few logs, when you sat on it, you got all wet. A little Thai dude captained this rickety little ship with only a 12' pole. We went through mini rapids...it was amazingly fun! The guide told us that the rafting was better than usual because of all the rain...the river was much deeper than normal. Good for us!

I have my first work meeting tomorrow, and am really looking forward to it. Being a cheesy tourist has been fun so far, but I'm definitely feeling like I'm ready to get to work. Being here so far has been an amazing blessing; great people, beautiful land, unforgettable experiences.

grace and peace,
Christina