Chiang Mai till we die

January, 2015

We arrived in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand on Thursday night and met up with the Australian gals at our hostel (which yet again wasn't a shostel, hayyyy). I hadn't seen my friend Gabi for four years so of course there was some high pitched shrieking, jumping and a few fireworks set off for the occasion, naturally.

Chaing Mai is incredible. It is in the mountains, so there are tons of gorgeous viewpoints overlooking the city, many waterfalls, jungles, and tons of natural beauty. We did some really cool activities in the area that our homeboy "Toy" (yes, Toy) told us about. We went up into the mountains, went bamboo rafting, to waterfalls and played with some wild thangs aka elephants. We hit it off immediately, I high fived his trunk, he snorted and flirted a bit, sparks flew and you should basically be expecting our wedding invitation in the mail any day now ❤️

After I parted from my bestie, we went on a zip lining trip that was one for the books. I learned a lot of things from this trip, the most important one being that Eve is a tree hugger. Background info: Eve and Gabi are both scared $h**tless of zip lining. They aren't the biggest fans of free falling attached to a thin cable, but still, when in Thailand they decided to face their fears. With gear and go pro in hand we trekked to the first zip-line mount. Now Mer, Lori and I are adrenaline junkies so we were hopping from tree to tree, hands in the air like we just don't care. But when I got to the next station and found a tear stricken, scratch that, hyperventilating, catatonic Eve in fetal position, I knew we were in trouble. The poor gal needed to be carried back to stable ground, cradled in the arms of our tiny but surprisingly muscular Thai tour guide named "banana". Really sad at the time but hilarious when we recount the fact that Eve held onto that tree tighter then she would her boyfriend for 4 years, Daniel.

A few days later, Mer lost her debit card on our way back from dinner so we immediately ran into the first place that we saw so she could cancel her card. Low and behold we stumbled into the fanciest hotel in all of Chiang Mai called the Shangrila- basically heaven for us college peasants. As Mer was sorting out her card, we saw that a beautiful Indian wedding was taking place in the hotel. We had some down time so Lori and I said what the hell, lets pull a little "wedding crashers" and crept through the door into the most stunning Indian wedding. The women were gorgeous, in multi-colored saris, tons of gold jewelry and head pieces and the Sikh men in turbans, even the little kids had tiny adorable turbans. For about half an hour we timidly hid in a corner in awe expecting someone to kick us out at any moment but the music was too good and the next thing we knew a bearded Indian lady (not kidding, sikh people cannot cut their hair) befriended us and told us to stay and enjoy the food and partay. My mothers side of the family is from India so I was in the zone, we kicked off our shoes and joined the crowed of colorful Indians shaking their tail feathers and by the end of the night we had made a few besties and were in a dozen of the wedding photos.

What I've loved most about Chiang Mai is the deep culture within the area. Chiang Mai is home to many monks and is filled with huge ornate and elaborate temples. I am very familiar with churches and obviously synagogues but have never been into a Buddhist temple before, they are gorgeous. One day we took a tub tuk up this windy mountain to a place called Doi Sutep, a buddhist hot spot. The area was filled with temples and you had to take off your shoes, covered your tramp stamps and enter with a shawl. People were lighting candles, offering flowers and praying on their hands and knees, I felt like an outsider looking into something very private. At the end of the day we all left the mountain with so many questions about Buddhism, Thai culture and the different practices that we had seen. Luckily, there were three Thai women in our tub tuk who were happy to explain the things that we had seen and the basic beliefs of Buddhism. They explained that the goal is to find a happy medium in life, a healthy balance between our wants and needs, to be a moral and "whole" person and most importantly, to be happy in life. These are notions that hold true to many religions around the world, but what really stuck with me was how peaceful and kind the people seem, something we can all try to work on.

Peace, love and other Thai drugs!

Gabs