In Old Siam

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So the Great Siam Adventure began bright and early on Saturday on very little sleep. I'll sleep when I'm dead, right? My nervous mother dropped me off at the SLC airport and I met my friend Stacy to check in. My same, trusty yellow pack-pack felt familiarly heavy and I again cursed myself for over-packing. Someday I will learn. Long story short we travelled for like 30hrs straight and slept here and there on our flights. The longest one, LAX to Taipei, was 13hrs long. Bless my beloved Ambien, I was able to get some shut eye. I would also like to give a shout out to the complimentary slippers we got on the flight—score!! At the Tom Bradley Int'l terminal in Taipei I left my freaking bag at the food court after we devoured a hearty meal of cake and ice cream. Thank goodness no one stole my Keens or piles of granola travel clothes! Waiting to board the flight, I almost puked up my chocolate cake watching this guy and girl meet/fall in love. I'm telling you—they probably named their children in that conversation...their FIRST conversation. Gag me.



Anyways, we made it to BKK and then took a taxi to DMK, the domestic airport, and made a couple new friends. Rebecca works for an NPO that assists trafficked women in learning profitable skills. She has lived in Czech Republic and Thailand for like 15yrs. Mad props! We also saw the most beautiful group of women from the Karen (pronounced Kah-Rhen) Hill-tribe in Chiang Mai. Their clothes were so colorful and lovely! I asked them if I could take a picture of them, and they all smiled for the camera. I guess it's rare to see them outside of their tribe lands, so we were very fortunate. Anita, a solitary traveler from London sat with us while we ate our Starbucks hot chocolate and muffins, and it brought back so many memories from my UK trip! It helped me be able to climb outside of myself, though, as a traveler, and meet new people. One of my favorite things about these adventures!



So we then flew to Chiang Mai and got in around 8am, so we got another Taxi and started our day. The driver, whom we'll call "S", offered to be our personal chauffeur for the day for only 1000 baht. Like $35. First stop: Elephant Farm. BEST EXPERIENCE EVER! We walked in to the complex and there was this line of elephants- their riders squatting atop their heads-waiting to be fed fingerling bananas and sugar cane stalks in return for tricks. They “hugged” us and kissed us and put hats on our heads. They also drooled all over me haha! The baby ones are especially adorable and they are not scared to grab for your entire bunch of bananas. Then they trek over to the river and you can watch them get their bath before the big show. They played soccer, played harmonicas, spun hula hoops around their trunks, and painted pictures. They are actually really good! I bought one for my someday adventure wall for my someday house. After they perform, these poor animals have to haul around tourists all day on hour long “off roading” tour through the jungle. The trip actually feels really long and the slow, unsteady swaying of the elephants gait is really different. I couldn't decide if I wanted to fall asleep or hold on for dear life. Or both? Our elephant was kind of naughty and was eating every tree she could get her hands on. Her name was Mae Ham and she was 22 yrs old! The park also includes a walk through of a bunch of the hill tribes I mentioned earlier, including the Karen and the “Long Neck” tribe. Holy smokes those women are incredible. They are stunning and wear these heavy rings around their neck. I can't remember what the rings symbolize, but some of the older women had necks probably literally twice the length of mine. We got to try on half of a set of rings and it was so heavy! About 1kilogram, one of them said. Some of them start so young, too. Six or seven year olds had a good stack of them started, it was crazy. They have their village set up as a row of shops, but you can wander around their huts and see the way that they really live. Let me just say how grateful I am for my house made out of more than just sheet metal and leaves. We made friends with a little gaggle of girls who gave us high fives and knuckles and I wanted to take them home with me! By this time it was so hot and humid outside that we couldn't wait to get back to "S" and our taxi.

Ok many of you know that I am not really an animal person, but our day was full of really cool animals today and I didn't even mind. After the elephants we went to the tiger encounter and ate a buffet lunch with a bunch of Richard Parker's! They were playing right outside the cafe! Mom, I know I said we were only going to play with baby tigers, but we ended up playing with the teeny baby tigers AND the big daddy tigers. The little ones were so cute and playful and cuddly. The guides think that it is endlessly hilarious to scare everyone who walks in by nipping at the back of their legs and yes--it works every time. Especially as you walk into the adult tiger enclosure. Every little gust of wind and twitch of a tigers tail makes your heart beat a little faster. There were probably like 6-7 tigers in the cage so it's hard to keep an eye on all of them at once. We snuggled with them and pretended to eat their tails and took fake naps on their big furry backs. We had a photographer follow is around and get some good shots. Then it started pouring rain and we had our taxi driver stop at a few temples on our way back to the hotel. The oldest Wat in Chiang Mai is the wat chiang man temple in the city center. We took our shoes off and rented some sarongs to walk through.

Stopped at the hotel to freshen up and wash the tiger/elephant goo off of us and dressed up to go to The Cultural Center for way too much food and an authentic Thai dance show where we were soothed nearly to sleep by snake charmer music.

It's been like 3 days all smooshed into one with barely any sleep so I'm going to bed, finally! G'night!



**Only had time for some photos-- will upload more later!

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