Blogs from Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai, North-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia

We ended up staying up until 2am last night at the hostel talking to a group of fellow travellers from Canada who have given us a bunch of useful advice. They told us from first hand experience, the ones who con us are mostly European living out here scamming young travellers for a living. The bastards. Today we explored the old town in 36 degree heat. Ice smoothies are a god send out here. They literally chuck a bit of fruit into a blender with ice and charge 30 baht which is around 70p... it’s bloody heavenly. I’ve even managed to get Dean to invest in some colourful Thai pants to cover his knees when visiting the temples. There are just over 300 Buddhist temples in Chiang Mai. We’ve come across one every 50ft that date ... read more

Well, I don’t think I have too much to say about today. It was extremely chill. We started off the morning going to breakfast at BCNC and then headed over to the coffee shop nearby the school called Maliwan. We had past it many days and always got back to the school after its open hours. It was everything I loved: Ferns. Thai tea. Good conversations. Calm early mornings. Friendly greetings. Strawberry shirts. Sunshine. Cat figurines. Wooden tables with fine, clean lines. I could go on and on about how happy I was at this coffee shop. It seems so simple, but sometimes the smallest and simplest things bring us the most joy. After this I was able to go back to BCNC and have independent devotional time, which was most needed. During my devotional time ... read more

It’s Monday, and we were back to business. We were able to “sleep-in” and have breakfast at 8:30. I guess I’ll take what I can get. I had to spend the rest of my morning working on the presentation. I have a lot of work to do given that I agreed to make the powerpoint in addition to the researching. I using enjoy making powerpoints, but I’m feeling a little salty about it since other people are out having fun right now. I get a little “FOMO” when I’m doing schoolwork simply because I enjoy adventure and exploring. I felt rushed all morning but thank goodness I spent 30 minutes to work out, though it was just a short time compared to my usual workouts. Everyone seems stressed out of their mind, and I have no ... read more

Today we visited two locations: Donkeaw Health Center and the Bagkok-Chiang Mai Hospital. The morning went so well, and I could have cried by the beauty of all I was seeing and experiencing. The community center was ranked number one for community hospitals in Thailand for good reason. They showed us a movie clip about their hospital and offered facts about all they do. It was unbelievable how they got to where they are now. First they took the risk of shifting from ministry of public health to ministry of internal services in hopes of getting more money in the long run even though they could not be promised dependable and stable financial income. They also went from house to house in the district to survey what each household’s conditions were such as disabled and bedridden ... read more

Sawasdee kah, Last night I woke up at 4:30am and could not fall back asleep. Greg said that’s just jet lag and it should get better. I hope he’s right because I need to sleep so I can have energy. Today was a very busy and tiring day. I visited the Doi Sutep temple, Royal gardens, and the Red Cross Winter Festival. I tried a lot of new foods, and I enjoyed most of them! For breakfast I had fried garlic chicken and dumplings which were delicious. For lunch we ate out at a food court. Brielle and I split a noodle chicken stir fry and two fruit smoothies. Then all of our Thai buddies started bringing us different foods to try. I tried a fried banana, mango sticky rice, and shaved ice with gelatin pieces ... read more