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Published: February 15th 2013
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unfortunately that is a real ivory tusk. sad face. great picture February 15
th,
What an amazing life this is! Starting with breakfast again! Beckah picked us up and took us to the market where we sat down and had the most refreshing fruit salad I have ever encountered. Mango, papaya, dragon fruit, banana raisins and nuts, and we washed it down with a coconut juice. I got to machete it open myself. We walked around the market multiple times that day. Its Jacobs favorite place to be, he’s like a kid in a candy shop.
We rented motor bikes, one for each of us. Beckah took us to a temple in Chiang mai, Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep. Once again the Gold blew me away!
I don’t have the words to describe it but ill try, heavy, peaceful, beautiful… I will include picture but I can’t explain the energy you feel.
After that we went and…. Wait for it…. Ate some more! A hidden jem, a farm to table Thai restaurant down town. I had a drink that Jacob said was the best thing he’s ever consumed, liquid wise. It was lemongrass, mint and “something weird” tea, with milk and honey. Boomcakes! Amazing.
Then Jake got to do what he does best, cook for people. Beckahs friend let us use her kitchen, so we went back to the market for some supplies. Jake was going to make “laup” (spelling probably wrong) but it has some interesting ingredients. Basically you need to chop up pork with the blood super fine. But asking for blood at the market was interesting cause we didn’t know the Thai word for blood so we basically tried to act out a gory battle scene. We got laughed at. The meat at the market is hardly sanitary. Pig heads and fish with flies. Thankfully some of the booths had developed this system of a fan with streamers on it that they placed above the meat to shew the flies away. And it worked, even better that that we kept walking to find one lovely Thai lady who happened to have set out a bag a blood. Jacob did a joyful dance in celebration. Once she realized he was making laup she offered him bone for the broth and sliced him up some pig fat for flavor….bare with me here, but it was delicious of course! Beckah said it was the best Thai food she’s had in Thailand. But to be politically correct it is a Laoation dish. We ate and drank Thai whiskey and talked for hours with our new friends. It was delightful.
Today is Friday and what a day it was! I fell in love…. With Pai, but we will get back to that. Our plan was to ride our motor bikes the 3 hours to Pai. I booked us the most amazing bamboo bungalow right on the river in the heart of downtown. What a gem it turned out to be!
Rewind to the morning… sickness. Puking, among other things… though I don’t believe it to be related to the dinner or the whiskey, this was… not fun. Starting at 7 am Jacob was nice enough to walk around Chiang mai in search of medicine and toilet paper.
Side note, our bathroom didn’t have toilet paper because like most toilets in Thailand they just have a hose attached, a “bidet” if you will. Same in most of Asia, though our previous hostel came with paper. If you have paper its genius! In fact, I think the USA is a little behind (pun intended) on the matter. How do we not have these things? Cleanliness is necessary. On the other hand if you don’t have the toilet paper then they are stupid. And I did not have toilet paper, which became a problem once I got sick. Enough about that
So our check out time was at 11 and there was no way I wasn’t going to go to Pai. Jacob told me I was crazy, and that might be true, but if I was going to be sick all day I wanted to be at that bungalow. Little did I know I was in for a long adventure. After every time I pulled over to puke I felt better and it was the most amazing drive of my life. It was so incredibly beautiful, country land, it smelt like a tropical pine, what ever that means to you. I had the most magical playlist in my headphones and it was like floating on a cloud. We stopped to eat at what can only be described as the Shangri-La of restaurants. I ordered some soup but couldn’t eat it, instead I hung out in the bathroom while Jacob finished my meal. The 3 hour drive ended up taking us close to 6 hours after all of our stops and not being able to find where we were staying. Feeling very weak and sun burnt I surprisingly didn’t lose my cool or cry which would have been easy to do considering the state I was in. we made it! And it was worth it! After driving in circles we finally got directions, parked our bikes in an alley and walked across the most riggidy bamboo bridge that had a sign at the beginning saying “walk across at your own risk.” But hey we like danger. Our room we had booked was no longer available so we got upgraded to a bigger one. $15 (500 baht) a night, not to shabby. I feel at home! I don’t ever want to leave. Its like a combination of Kauai and Ashland. We walked around a little and tried to eat. It is 8:15 pm, and I'm feeling better. Only able to get down a few bites of food but I'm very much looking forward to tomorrow! Jacob is taking a cooking class and I'm going to try to relax. I have a hammock on my front porch that is calling my name.
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Susan
non-member comment
Enjoying
......reading of your adventures. But take care of the tummy. Jacob taking cooking classes......then looking forward to another visit...still think of the delightful meal he cooked from nothing.