THAILAND!!!!

I've made it to Thailand!!!

I spent one night in Bangkok and then hit the road to get to Lampang where Kel and J are teaching. Bangkok was NUTS from as much as I saw. My plane landed at 1am, I headed out of the airport a bit concerned about how to get to my hostel with it so late at night. But, being the naive person that I am, I didn't realize that Bangkok never sleeps... honestly. On the 30 minute drive from the airport to Kho San Road (famous travelers destination), there was traffic, there were people all over the streets, I saw a full fledged farmers market going on -- it put Pike Place to shame (not really, but kind of)-- I got to Kho San to find the street packed with travelers and street vendors selling tons of food... And this continues all night and all the next day!!! I got up the next morning, strolled around town, got a Thai Massage....very interesting... ate some bomb food for like 2 bucks and then decided I'd catch the overnight train up north to Lampang that evening so I could meet up with Kel and J!! (The photo above is on the train, and my friend Karina, the other girl in the Kayak story, met up with me in Bangkok and then took the train with me up north).

I got to go to the girls school where they are teaching English. Here are some photos of them in action:

Kel says 'Yes, you Joe'

Jbo played Hangman with the kids and wrote my name in as the word... so obviously I made the kids start chanting Molly, Molly, Molly....which sounded more like Morry, Morry, Morry.

It was very entertaining to go to the school for the day, though extremely exhausting and I didn't even have to teach!! The classes usually have 50 students in them, and very, very few speak any English. It's actually really funny too because the kids will come up to you and chat away in Thai and tell you some random story and you just have to stare at them blankly, shrug your shoulders and then...they keep going!!! (I had an old Thai woman do this to me too in a taxi and when I said I didn't speak Thai, she just kept chatting away. She was pointing at my knees and then hers and making an 'ouch' face, so I think she was saying that her knees hurt and my knees were young and strong... maybe?? Only so much you can pick up on from gestures!)

AND THEN......

I got to go to an Elephant Conservatory!!!

Here I am riding an Elephant through some water.... trying to take a candid photo of myself....

The elephants have learned how to paint.

His final product, which went for 500 baht. (Less than $15... I thought about buying it, but didn't want to lug it around for the next three months.)

It seemed that the Elephants were treated pretty well here and I was OK about visiting. I've heard horror stories of how they train these elephants to do certain things, and since I'm an animal lover, I try not to encourage those situations. Part of this conservatory was an Elephant Hospital that I went down to see. They bring in any Elephant that is injuried and do their best to help it recover. It was pretty legit overall, so that made me feel good about visiting!

I left Lampang today and just got up to Chiang Mai. The girls will meet me in a couple of days for the weekend. In the mean time, I've signed up for a trek to the highest mountain in Thailand, Doi Inthanon. Sounds like we'll hike for the morning, get toward the top, stop at a waterfall for lunch and a swim, hang out a bit, then take a bamboo raft back down to the bottom!! Should be cool and I'll update as soon as possible!!

Hope everyone is doing well at home!!