Thailand: Day 6!

Sawaddee ka!

It is Tuesday evening here in Thailand and I've just finished my homework and am looking forward to an earlyish bedtime for once. I have been very busy since my last post, having a lot of great adventures. On Sunday, we went and played with baby tigers, like I mentioned, and it was amazing! They were about 7 months old, and about the size of a large dog. It cost about $10 to play with them for as long as we wanted. There are A LOT of pictures. They take them for you and give you a cd. I wanted to post some but this computer is very old and slow and not really handling it. After the tigers, we went to the elephant camp. Clark and I took about an hour long elephant ride out to this village that we walked around. The ride was a lot of fun. About halfway through, there was a big crack of thunder and lightning and it immediately started pouring. Despite our guide's best efforts at getting us under an umbrella quickly, we were mostly soaked by the time we got to the village. At least its warm :) I got a nice video of riding the elephant in the rain. Later, we saw an elephant show, fed elephants, and played with a baby elephant. We headed home after that and rested, ate lunch, and then Dr. Sakda took us to the Sunday Walking Street. It is another huge market. I liked it better than the Night Bizarre, because it was a lot calmer. There were a lot more local Thai people there and the vendors weren't as pushy. Although, I did get tricked into paying this lady to release birds, but I'm supposed to get good luck in return, so it works out.

Yesterday, we had class for the first day, and met our Thai classmates. They are really shy about speaking English for the most part, so we have to work on that. One girl is very talkative and fun, and took us out to lunch today. She promised to take us to see some other places soon. We had class for a few hours in the morning yesterday, had a break for lunch, and then met again to head up Doi Suthep, the mountain outside of town. We hiked up this trail that is an old pilgrimage trail, about halfway up the mountain to a Wat that I cannot remember the name of right now. It was a beautiful forest monastery. We did an exercise on biodiversity and then got to explore. Luckily, we had just had a lesson that morning on proper behavior in a Wat, including how to pay respect to Buddha's and monks, so we were prepared. You could see out over Chiang Mai from the wat and it was a very peaceful and wonderful experience. I want to climb to the top of Doi Suthep soon as there is another beautiful Wat at the top, that is one of the holiest in Thailand. A little beyond it is the royal family's winter palace, that you can explore the grounds of, so Iwill go see that soon as well. After the hike, Kiley, Clark, and I went to the big commercial shopping center so Clark could get a cell phone. After spending a couple hours there and tiring ourselves out, we caught a tuk-tuk to the Night Bizarre and got a Thai massage. It was just what we needed and left us relaxed and rejuvenated. It only cost a little over $2 for 30 minutes, which means I need to really take advantage of more of that before coming home since I can never afford a massage in the states! After that we ran into some guys selling tickets for a Muay Thai Boxing match, and since we wanted to see that before we left, Clark and I decided to go for it. We jumped in a seaungthau (its like a truck with an open back with benches that you can get around the city in for about 20 baht) and headed to the match. I've never watched boxing before really, but this was quite entertaining, and no one seemed to get too hurt or anything. It was surprising though, when the first two fighters came out and they were about 10 years old! Apparently thats typical of Muay Thai though. We got home late and got some sleep before class again this morning.

Today, after class, the girl from class, I think her name is Poi, took us to lunch and it was a awesome. She ordered us all kinds of delicious foods to try and we wrote down all the names so we can order them again sometime. After lunch, we came back to the hostel and I finally cleaned up and organized my room. I got some colored lights at the market and candles and incense, hung some postcards and photographs on the walls and its really feeling cozy now. Then I went and sat at a little restaurant and worked on homework for a few hours before coming back here to the hostel. Its been a nice day for relaxation and reenergizing.

I better get off the computer, the mosquitos are starting to get me and I don't need that. I hope you are all well. I'll try to get more pictures up for you sometime soon!

Love Katie