Is This Real Life?

Is this real life? I asked myself this question multiple times this weekend. I had so much fun, and so much happened...so this is probably going to turn into a long post. But I promise, you are going to find some pretty dang good stories in this one. So let's just begin with the start of my weekend adventures.

Amy, Torie, and I left the farm just after lunch on Friday. It had been a great week of teaching but we were all ready to have a different kind of fun in the city. When we got into Chiang Mai one of our coworkers from Joy's House showed us a small guesthouse where we could stay. We dropped off our bags and hit up the city. I have been here for over a month and so I thought I knew the city pretty well. But it is a whole new ball game when you go around with the locals. I met so many people and found these awesome shops that I never knew existed. So that was great. Then we went back to the guesthouse to get ready for dinner and a night out on the town.

With our coworkers and friends we ate at the Riverside. It is a well known restaurant and bar as it is located right on the edge of the Ping river. We arrived around 7 and started eating some of the most delicious Thai food. -Side note: I am going to miss real Thai food...a lot.- Then some older guys started playing guitars which was really cool and we were sitting right next to the stage they were on. My coworkers told me to prepare for a night of dancing, but I was really confused because while it was super cool listening to these guys play, it definitely was not what I consider dancing music. So we just kept chatting and having a good time. Then the two old men just stopped and left, only to be replaced by a young band. And the party began. For the rest of the night these young (and really talented) bands were playing familiar American songs. My table started singing and dancing to all of the music, thoroughly enjoying ourselves. At first everyone in the restaurant just stared, but our fun and craziness became contagious. Before we knew it tables and chairs were being moved out of the way and there was a straight up dance party at the Riverside. Oh my, it was so much fun.

The music stopped and the bar was closing just after midnight. So I was assuming we would all part ways and say our good byes. But I guess that's not the Thai style. According to my Thai friends, when they party, they really party. Once one bar closes, you go to the next one that stays open until 4. I had never seen the real night life of Chiang Mai so I decided to stick around for the adventure to come. And what an adventure it was.

Our friends took us to the biggest gay bar in Chiang Mai city. And oh boy, it was crazy. Crazy fun. We walked in and the place was huge! It had a monster stage with multiple bands playing on it. It looked like it could be a part of some tv show like American Idol or something. The music was great and so of course we all started dancing. At one point a transgendered...person came onto the stage to sing some songs. Her voice was really good, her outfit a little questionable, and while she was singing Torie decided to snap some pictures. Well after the first couple of pictures, the singer stopped the music and called everyone's attention to the couple of farangs sitting close to the stage. She walked over to us and asked Torie if she was interested in men or women. Torie nervously responded, "...men..." and the singer ripped off her wig, made a couple of jokes, and gave Torie a big old hug. Um wow. That was an experience to say the least. We kind of just looked at each other and asked, "did that just happen"?? Later on she...or he came over and introduced herself and she was pretty sweet. We stayed until 3am, dancing and having a great time meeting some really nice and funny people. But by the time we left we were all so exhausted and starving. So at 3:30 we ate some burgers and fries (super healthy...) and crashed into bed. Chiang Mai is a whole new city at night.

My alarm went off at 7am and as you can imagine I felt like death. But I dragged my sorry little self out of bed and got ready for my big trip. I met up with everyone from my program and we headed for another mountain about an hour out of Chiang Mai. Our first stop was to ride elephants. Yep, elephants. Each elephant had a driver and then this box seat on it's back for two students to sit in. So Jenna and I hopped on Wan Dee's back to go for a nice stroll through the jungle. She would walk a few steps and then just stop, demanding that we feed her sugar cane and bananas. And we willingly gave it to her because it was so cool to see her gently take the goodies out of our hands with her trunk. The driver told me to switch spots with him so I would be sitting on her. Straddling an elephant's neck is pretty dang difficult. It is a balancing act as there isn't much to hold on to. We ran out of the sugar cane and bananas pretty quickly which wasn't good because Wan Dee was particularly hungry. So, with me sitting on her neck, she decided she wanted to eat some tree branches that just happened to be hanging out over a huge cliff. With nothing to hold on to, I used my abs like I have never used them before. The driver was hanging on to me by my shoulders so I wouldn't go tumbling down the mountain. It was a tad bit frightening. When she got bored of that we continued on our peruse through the jungle. The driver was feeling extra adventurous so he had me scoot up and sit on Wan Dee's head, with my feet over her ears instead of behind them (which was a nice relief from getting constantly slapped by her ears). Sitting like this was easier balance wise, but there was a lot less to hold on to. We were walking through a river and she kept splashing us which was fun. It was also cool when she would raise her trunk and lightly blow on me (despite the drops of elephant snot that came with it). I would blow as hard as I could back and we had this little game going on for the rest of the ride. We also saw a baby elephant (I think it was Wan Dee's niece) and I shook hands-trunks with it. So that was awesome.

After our elephant trip we met up with our guide who was going to take us through the jungle and up to a hill tribe village. This guy was about a head shorter than me, but 100% muscle. A long time ago some farangs nicknamed him Rambo, and that is the name he goes by. The only thing he carried on this overnight trek was a machete. Legit. He kept making us bamboo hats or fern crowns, so we journeyed through the jungle in style. This jungle trek was crazy insane. It wasn't just a fun little hike on some clear trails. We were climbing over boulders, jumping across streams, walking on rickety bamboo bridges over fast moving rivers. The trail at times would be no more than 6 inches across with a steep drop off on one side. And the first day of our trek was all uphill. I don't even think uphill is an accurate description. More of upmountain. I have never been that sweaty...ever. I would look down at my legs or arms and you could see hundreds of droplets of water/sweat from every pore. It was bizarre. But thankfully we found relief in the waterfalls. I don't know how many we stopped at but they were godsends. Jumping into a cool waterfall after hiking up an intense mountain was the definition of paradise. As we kept climbing up and up I kept telling myself this couldn't be real. It was just so gorgeous out there. And I was getting really frustrated because with every picture I took, I could never capture what it really looks like. I guess it is something everyone will have to experience on their own because pictures really can't do it justice.

When we made it to the Karen village (a hill tribe village) we all put our stuff in the bamboo hut we were staying at and then swam in one of the coolest waterfalls I have seen. It was amazing. Then we were just relaxing and Rambo started making us dinner (we were at his home village). I decided it would be fun to help out, so Jenna and I went into the cooking hut. I was frying up some chicken and tofu for our curry when I gave Jenna a turn to help out (we were in a pretty small hut). I realized that some men of the village were making themselves dinner and so I started helping them out. They were making one of their favorite dishes. We pounded up some chilli (and by some I mean A LOT), garlic, onion, and some other green herbs. Then we put a whole fish on a stone, took a machete and went to town on it until it became minced mush. We proceeded to do this with about 10 fish. I was pretty relieved that I would be eating curry and not cut-up fish eyeballs, guts, bones, scales, etc. But I continued to help them cut up lemon grass and fry it up altogether. It was great fun working side by side with them and learning how to cook one of their favorite meals. When it was all cooked I started eating my curry with the group and one of the men brought in a bowl of the final product so I could have some. It was very kind of them to share their food. And so of course I ate it. It was dang spicy...and I tried not to think of what it looked/smelled like when we were preparing it...and it was pretty good. I probably enjoyed the experience more than the taste.

That night before we went to bed Rambo told us all about the Karen people. It's that kind of stuff that I really love. People all over the world live such different lives but we are all so similar. I know I say that a lot, but it never ceases to amaze me. Anyways, earlier in the day Rambo showed us the village's church and told us how some time ago Catholic missionaries came in and baptized the whole village. They were very strict at first, trying to get the people to abandon their ancestral traditions, which they did, for about three years. The people all consider themselves Catholics, but incorporate their traditional beliefs as well. This is the kind of stuff I study in anthropology and it was amazing to see it first hand. Rambo taught us all about the magic they believe in and some of the men even did some "magic tricks" which really were some mind games that made all of us BYU students look really dumb. It was a great night and we has some good laughs.

After breakfast we said goodbyes to our Karen friends and hiked out of the village. We crossed some more bridges and narrow passes, but the hike was a lot shorter and easier. With that said it was still pretty intense with the steep decline we were trying to go down. After a couple more dips in some waterfalls we made it out and ready for our next adventure.

We had some lunch and then got on some bamboo rafts to float down the river. By this point we were all so dead tired that we just lounged around. We had a couple of mini-water fights, but we pretty much just bummed out on the raft. I had my feet dangling in the water until I saw this big old water snake coming at me (it disappeared into the murky water) and then I was slightly more alert for the rest of the trip down the river.

After the raft trip we went back to the city and got some food. With a couple of girls I went and explored the Sunday night market which is always fun. It was weird though because I ran into multiple people that I have met here in Chiang Mai since I have been here. It is weird starting to recognize people or run into people I know at the markets...I guess that's something I didn't think would happen at all when I'm in Thailand. But it's pretty cool that my circle of connections just keeps getting bigger.

Coming back to the farm was nice as always. Torie leaves on Wednesday, so that will be sad. We have had some pretty fun times out here together. And our teaching schedule will probably change once again. Mai pen rai.

Till next adventure,

Peace.