Day7

We got woken up by the chickens and roosters in the village pretty early in the morning! They let us use the "shower" which was a hose with ice cold water basically. Then we had breakfast. Scrambled eggs with tons of carrots? We went exploring in the village again and saw the kids school which is one room but they have everything they need! We packed up all of our stuff and headed out. I knew that I was going to miss the kids, they were my all time favorite! We hiked to a bat cave and went through it in the dark basically we only had light from phones and flashes from cameras. It was so scary but luckily it wasnt too long of a cave. Monks lived just out of the cave and the view from there was amazing. We hiked for nearly 2 hours to another village and had lunch which was fried rice. Then we were driven to a river and we went white water rafting! When the water calmed down we switched over to a bamboo raft and floated for a while! We got out and finished the drive to an elephant camp and rode elephants through a very scenic route. Such an amazing experience. We went back to the hotel after that and got our luggage and got a taxi to our new hotel which is the Veranda Resort. Absolutely amazing. http://www.verandaresortandspa.com/chiangmai/html/main.html check it out! We got an awesome dinner and then crashed. The past 2 days were absolutely amazing I could go on and on with so many details but you'll just have to talk to me personally!

Day 6

Today we got up and had our normal morning routine, breakfast, then got ready for the day. We had to pack all of our stuff up because we were going on a trek!! We got pick up in a pick-up truck thing with a cover on it that had 2 benches on the flat bed. There was already a couple from Switzerland on it, they spoke french ironically. Then we picked up 2 girls who were from Paris, then 2 girls from England, 3 boys from England as well. We really lucked out on having a really awesome group(everyone spoak english by the way). Our tour guide and driver took us to a local market so they could get some groceries for our meals. We looked around and saw cockroaches, crickets, beetles, chicken feet, and the worst was a cow fetus ): so gross. Then they took us to a little town and they made us pad thai which was pretty good. They drove us a little further and we began our hike. We hiked for 3 hours. It was seriously hard and through the dense jungle. We stopped off by a waterfall to cool off it was very beautiful. After a long hard hike we got to the Hill Tribe Village we were taken to our bamboo "hut". We all shared a hut together and they set up a little bed for each of us. They had a wrap around balcony type thing that overlooked the mountains which was very beautiful so we all sat out there and kinda got changed (we were all soaked from sweat and a little bit of rain) and we enjoyed the view. We went and explored the village and it was really quite amazing. There were about 30 kids in the village and they were sooo adorable I just wanted to take them home with me. One of the english girls and I decided to paint some of the little girls nails and they loved it so much! One stole mine haha but that was okay. The kids followed my dad and me around the village and we played with them and gave them gummy bears and such. It was dark by the time we had dinner in our hut so we had a candlelight dinner. Then the kids put on there cool little costumes and sang and danced for us it was so cute! Then we went on the balcony and star gazed for a pretty long time and saw so many shooting stars! We headed to bed and had a good nights sleep!

Day 5

Today was quite the day. We went to get breakfast at our hotel (Mercure) and ate some adventurous fruit. Then it was off to Tiger Kingdom. We got there by a "Tuk-Tuk" I really like those things, kinda fun! We got there and bought tickets to see the smallest tigers and the big tigers! We went to the baby cage first! It is a really big cage with about 5 or 6 little tigers in it they each have there own trainer. They were all very sleepy though which was kind of a bummer. Tigers are always active at night because thats when its best to hunt, even though they dont go out and hunt here they still have the same habits. We were able to sit with them and pet them. All the tigers in Tiger Kingdom are born and raised in the "Kingdom". Then they are mostly released into zoo's. Anyways they would wake up every once in a while and play and we took tons of pictures with them. They were all so adorable!!!!  Then we headed up to see the big ones. They were wide awake! My dad stayed out of the cage and took a video of the whole thing. I went in with another guy. We each basically took turns with the two tigers, petting them and laying with them. It was super scary but so amazing. I felt surprisingly very safe! After that we went and got some lunch at the place which overlooked one of the tigers cages and those ones were way active and fun to watch. We did a doctor fish spa treatment where you basically stick your feet in a tank full of these fish that come nibble on your feet, it felt like when your feet "fall asleep" then wake up and you get that really tingly feeling. Then we headed out for dinner and called it a night.

Day 3

Today was pretty mellow. We had breakfast and then packed out bags for our trip and got ready and such. Then we headed to the airport and checked in but didn’t get on our first flight to Chaingmai. So we waited around for an hour and got on the next one! We flew on Thai Air which was pretty interesting. It was a pretty old plane but the seats were all different bright colors and the walls were covered in flowers! Luckily it was only an hour flight. We had a little hotel mix up when we got to the airport but we figured it out and we checked in at the Mercure hotel. It’s not that fancy but its clean and nice. We are just here for one night. From just walking out of the airport I already love this place so much more than Bangkok. It is more green and beautiful and just smells better. We heard that breathing one days’ worth of air in Bangkok is like smoking 20 cigarettes. Yum. We took a shuttle to a night market nearby to do some shopping. I absolutely loved it! It was not very crowded and the people were not harassing you to buy stuff, so you could actually browse the shops.  I got a pair of really cool shoes, 2 bags, a dress, and a shirt! All for a really good price. If you want anything from here I will get it for you, and have you pay me when I give it to you, they have the coolest stuff! While looking for a place to eat we accidently ran into the red light district which was pretty gross! We got out of there real quick! We found this little outdoor Thai restaurant and I got my first real Pad Thai. Then we headed back and tried to use the internet and such which is very spotty, then just headed to bed. I am loving Chaingmai and we have a lot in store for the next few days (:

Day 2

Since yesterday was such a crazy day we thought we'd slow things down today but it didn't end up staying slow. We both woke up early due to time change. So we had to wait around for breakfast to start which is at 6am. So we ate then came back up and I finished up my blogging! We went to a hindu temple/church type thing which was really cool, it looks kind of like a cartoon building with tons of bright colors. They were in the middle of dong a ritual type thing. Burning insense/candles, offering fruit, flowers, water bottles, and even juice boxes? But it was cool to see how they do things. I decided that I really love to be inside the temples and such to really get out of the craziness in the streets, it gets kind of overwhelming for me. We went and got some delicious, then we had quite an adventure trying to get to a building called Wat Po which is another temple. This place was recently built and it was so beautiful! Look at my facebook for pictures of it! Then we went into China Town and shopped around. It was absolutely packed and so crazy! And it was rainy! We didnt end up getting which was super disappointing! They have the coolest shoes here and I am determined to bring a pair home! We went back to the hotel to get ready for  a Thai Cultural Dinner Show. The place is just like the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii except its Thai of course! They had 2 elephants right when you walk in and they were so beautiful and the friendliest things ever. They would just walk right up to you and stare you down till you would pet there trunk! We went around the village display area and learned a lot about how most Thai people live in all different areas of the country. Dinner was pretty good! I had real Thai food, white rice, a form of teriyaki chicken and spicy pad thai. The show started and my dad and I were sooo tired that we just kept falling asleep throughout the first act even though it was really amazing. it had so much going on and beautiful costumes. But finally I woke up and enjoyed the show! Then we went home and passed out! Reading this it sounds like a pretty chill day but it was actually very crazy! It has been kind of rainy the past few days but luckily it hasnt been that bad. We are supposed to go to Changmei(spelling?) tomorrow (northern Thailand). My dad said I will like that a lot better. It wont be so crowded and there wont be so many pushy people. So I am excited for that! Loving it, keep checking in!

Day 1.

After sleeping for a few hours we decided to wake up around 6am (5pm Utah). Our hotel has free breakfast so we headed down there to eat and it was sooo delicious. It had normal American food along with some foreign stuff. Then we went and got ready for the day. Our toothless taxi driver decided to not take us to the place we requested, he was a tout (gets a kickback for bringing tourists to a certain place). We were planning to go on a boat ride down the Chao Phraya River, he took us to a different spot on the river but it was very cool we got our own long boat. They took us down different canals to see how the locals really live, which was absolutely amazing. I took probably a million pictures but here are a few. We were going to see the Grand Palace but when we got off the boat we had to walk through this market and some guy tried to give us directions or something and pointed us to a guy in a police “uniform” that said “official Thai police”. He was saying that the temple was closed until a certain time and that we should take his friends “tuk-tuk” to see a tourist attraction. Luckily my dad said no then he kept asking if I was my dad’s girlfriend and didn’t believe I was his daughter (this happened with the toothless taxi driver along with other people throughout the day. Gross). Anyways after wasting time talking to this so called “police officer” (which he definitely wasn’t) we went to the temple which was in fact open! I just wore jean shorts for the day which was not worthy for a temple. They have many rules for the temple you cannot wear shoes into the temple, show knees, or shoulders, have too tight of jeans, ripped jeans, etc. So you have to go into a little store place and they give you sarongs and pants to wear while you visit. Then we went and toured the temple grounds and such. It was absolutely breath taking! They had boys training to be in the military and were practicing all their stuff. Inside the actual temple it was very beautiful and they had lots of people worshipping the big jade Buddha, and they were giving offerings (i.e. bananas, water, flowers). Pictures! We were on our way to a museum and ran into a different museum that was all about the King of Thailand. The people here basically worship the King; they have pictures of him EVERYWHERE! It was actually pretty interesting they had a part where it talked about the postal service and I sent a post card to the family! Then we went to the real museum we were meaning to go to. It wasn’t that entertaining for me it was just the history of Thailand and you just walked through and read everything. After that we went and got some lunch. I have been super worried about the food cause I am really picky so we tried to find a place with somewhat normal food. I ended up getting spaghetti, but it was not good at all, the sauce was basically ketchup with some spices. Then just around the corner we went and got Thai/foot massages that were amazing. After that we went shopping through all the little markets on Kao San Road. The people in these markets are so pushy it is ridiculous, I get very frustrated very easily. But I ended up getting a little sling bag, and we saw tons of cool shirts and sun dresses that we almost got but we decided to keep looking throughout the trip. Then we headed back to the hotel and I just crashed on the bed for about 3 hours (time change is killing me here). My dad woke me up about 9pm (8am Utah) to go get some dinner. I wasn’t too hungry and I was completely dead but I got up cause he said he found a nice chinese place. So we walked around forever and when we got there he looked at the menu and said it didn’t look good so we kept walking and nothing sounded good so we just came back to the hotel and had this for dinner. Luckily I was not hungry at all. Now I am wide awake from this darn time change. I am trying to think of any other details I should tell… there are dogs everywhere here they are so cute and look so sad but are really nice! Tap water is not safe to drink. Most restaurants cook the food in alley ways behind the restaurant. Its very nice that they have so many thing in English here and I am very surprised by how many locals know so much English. It costs 4 dollars a minute on phones here, and text are crazy too, so sorry if I don’t text back or answer. I hope everything is well back at home. Everything is great here, I absolutely love the culture here. It can get really crazy at times but it’s totally different and I am liking it so far. 1 day down(:

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*pictures coming soon*

Getting there.

The adventure began last month when my dad took me out to grab some dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. In between courses he pulled out a map of where Continental/United airlines flew and said “anywhere but Europe.” I picked out three places Athens- Greece , Beijing-China, and of course Bangkok, Thailand.  My dad did his research and picked out Thailand. He has been there 2 times before and loved it. I asked him while he was planning everything to keep it a secret I didn’t want to already know what I we were going to be doing; I think that takes away from the adventure. So he did his job…to the best of his ability. My dad was in London while I was trying to get a flight to Houston. He had everything planned out and the flights were “wide open”. I was to take a flight to Las Vegas alone and run to connect to a flight to Houston. My mom took me to the airport and everything went as planned and I got to Vegas no problem. Then I was supposed to run to my flight to Vegas, which I shouldn’t have done. I got bumped off of 4 flights in 8 hours. Meanwhile my dad is on a 10 hour flight back to Houston from London. So luckily I had family to rely on for looking at flights. When my dad finally landed he called thinking that I’d be waiting in the Houston airport to meet up with him, he was shocked that I didn’t get on so he looked online and got a cheaper ticket for me. While waiting I didn’t have any money on my debit card which sucked, luckily my dad transferred money and everything went smooth. I eventually got to Houston safely! The next day I went to teach a routine to the Klein Oak High School Strutter Officers. I did the piece to Lost by Anouk and they danced with chairs. The girls worked very hard and learned the routine quick. I’m excited to see what these talented girls will look like when they actually compete it! So I got my first paid teaching job…yay! I was asked to come back next month to really clean the dance up and come periodically through the year to critique and stuff. Then my dad and I just hung around the rest of the day and packed again for our flight the next morning.  We made it to Tokyo, Japan on first class with continental airlines and it was absolutely wonderful. Here are some pictures! Then we had a 6 hour layover in an airport with no a/c…FUN! We decided to buy a day pass to go to the Presidents club airline lounge with free food and drinks. We then got on the flight to Bangkok, Thailand. My dad and I sat separately due to the whole non-rev thing, but it was fine I just slept the whole time; we got there around 11:30pm Bangkok time (10:30am Utah time). After going through customs we got a taxi to the hotel, which took a lot longer than expected because the driver didn’t know where it was exactly. But we got to the hotel “Furama Silom” which is very nice! We have an interesting shower though! Picture! Our phones don’t work over here so we bought internet for an hour and connected to the world on fb and a phone that connects through the computer. Then we went to bed for a few hours. That’s just the getting there part...time for the real fun.

*pictures coming soon*