Happy Easter everyone! It's so bizzare to be in Thailand during Easter; everyone is Buddhist and there are no bunnies or egg hunts anywhere! Booo. I can't remember the last time I wasn't with my family for Easter and it's making me a bit homesick, buch such is the life of a traveller...
I've been in Thailand for a little over a week now, but it feels like it's been forever! In the past 9 days we've celebrated Songkran (Thai new year), taken 2 overnight trains and 1 overnight bus, had an all-nighter beach party at Full Moon in Ko Phangan, and basically just haven't gotten a lot of sleep.
The Full Moon Party was so much fun, we stayed in a pretty cramped dorm but got to know all of our roommates and had a blast hanging with them and meeting people from all over the world. People go a bit crazy with neon day-glo paint which does NOT come out of clothing I have discovered (oh well, lasting memories). The beach the party was on was actually gorgeous; I expected something dirty after being on the trash-laden Kuta Beach in Bali. But it was very pretty and the water was warm and clear and shallow and perfect to lay around in during the day time. We were there for 2 days, then on to another island nearby, Ko Samui, where we stayed at a nicer hotel and had a couple days of relaxing by the pool. I wish we had explored the island a bit more, but we were more than happy to lay around, and everything on the island was insanely expensive (by Thailand's standards, that is) so we figured we would save up for more adventures in the North.
After Ko Samui, we basically spent 2 days and 2 nights travelling up to Chiang Mai, with a day in between in Bangkok. Bangkok is a cool city, as I've said before, but being there for about 10 hours in between train rides isn't ideal, so we just explored a bit and then saw Scream 4. Yes, we saw Scream 4... I know it may seem a shame to some people to use that time seeing a movie, but what is better than a cold movie theatre on a hot day? Especially when you don't have a room to go back and relax in?
It's taken me a while to really get the full message of how much Thai people love their King. He is the longest reigning current king or queen in the world, and his face is everywhere: on every piece of currency (don't you dare step on a coin, or you are insulting the King), in shopping malls, billboards, on random buildings... Anyway, in the middle of the movie previews everyone around us stood up as a montage of the king with the national anthem of Thailand came on for about 3 minutes. I guess they do this before every movie in theatres. Then we were in the train station waiting for the train and at 5 o'clock a bell rang, everyone got silent and stood up, and the national anthem played again. Pretty sure it happens in the morning as well. In the states we can't even say the Pledge of Allegiance at public schools or someone will sue the school system for making their child say the "G" word. Things like this would not fly in the states, that's for sure.
We got to Chiang Mai yesterday morning after a 14 hour train ride, where we made friends with some Irish lads who we continue to run into about 12 times a day... anyway, Chiang Mai is amazinnng! It's the second biggest city in Thailand with a whopping population of 150,000 people (following Bangkok with over 9 million), has gorgeous temples everywhere including right across from our hotel, and has so much to do. The last 2 days we have wandered around a bit, and last night we met up with Katrina, our housemate from junior year who is living around here teaching English for a year. What a small world! It was great to see her and have her show us some cool places, and hear adorable and hilarious stories about the Thai kids she teaches.
Tomorrow we are taking a Thai cooking class all day, which is out of the city and we get to go to the market in the morning and pick out all the ingredients, and then make some 7 or so dishes. I can't wait! The day after that I think we are going to an elephant sanctuary, where you bathe and play with the elephants for the entire day, and they limit the number of people who go so everyone gets their own elephant to pal around with for the day. We are also going to do a trek, which is huge in Chiang Mai, and is basically like a hike in the mountains and then staying overnight (or 2 or 3 nights if you want) with a Thai hill tribe. I've heard from several people that it was their favorite thing they've done in Thailand, and a good workout to boot. Sounds good to me!
It's starting to hit me how soon I will be home... less than 3 weeks. I really don't feel like I've been gone for going on 8 months, and I know it will be a very bizzare and probably somewhat depressing transition back into the states. It's not like going abroad for a semester, where you jump right back into university for another year and a half. People keep asking what I'm going to do when I get home, and I just shrug... I know what I WANT to do, but looking for a job, a real-life CAREER job, and living at home for who knows how long(no offense mom and dad) is going to be veryyy different and probably not the most fun thing ever. I am ready to be home in many ways, but I've got the travel bug, and I've got it bad. The idea of settling into a 9-5 job that I could possibly have for years to come literally makes me sick to my stomach. But we've all got to grow up sometime, eh?
Okay, enough with the self-pity. I'm going to head to the night markets now, because I'm in Thailand and when the heck am I ever going to be in Thailand again?!?!
Cheers,
Maggie
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