Christmas in April

After 4 weeks of waiting and dreaming of tostitos chips, taco bell salsa, tostitos cheese dip, JIF peanut butter, hand sanitizing wipes, and some other items, a BIG box came TODAY!!!! It was quite a bit of drama for it to get here. Since it busted open in transit, it got held up once it reached Bangkok. It literally took twice as long for it to come from Bangkok to Chiang Mai as it did from Richmond, VA to Bangkok! That's typically how quickly things over here happen...slow as cold molasses. Well, anyways...it was worth the wait! The box had busted open and the post office put it in a plastic bag. I carried it home over my shoulder like Santa Claus!!!

Check out our latest photos! Although it may look like it's Christmas morning, it's just another great day here in Chiang Mai! Thanks to our friend that sent this that would probably like to remain anonymous. >>Click here for photos

Hiking at Doi Suthep

Today, Court and I did some serious hiking up around Doi Suthep. It was super hot outside, but it was a very clear day! We started around noon and then finally came back down the mountain and to the main road around 6pm. It was very challenging being as most peeps drive all the way up and we chose to be brave (or stupid) and hike up it! We made our way around the waterfalls and then up a few VERY steep sections and then around to where we found a place to chill and rest for a bit. We were definitely not the only ones there...plenty of Thais were enjoying the scenery too!

We saw that we were near the road that peeps take the little red trucks up to get to the places way on up the mountain. Well, since we were already part-way up the mountain, nobody was stopping to pick us up. So..I said, forget it, let's do this and walk up!!! This was no small task! Even the Thais were impressed! As they drove by lots of them would wave, honk, or holler at us to cheer us on! They seemed to be very surprised! That was cool and lots of fun to wave to peeps all the way up!

We got up to the main waterfalls that we really wanted to see, but unfortunately, due to the lack of rain, they were pretty pitiful. But that was OK. We enjoyed the journey!

We're worn to the bone now! Well, here are a few photos from our hike. Hope you enjoy! Click here to view our photos!

I survived Songkran '07

Well, this was my first Songkran and it was buckets of fun! Songkran is a celebration of the Thai new year. It involves lots of water throwing. I'm sure at one point, it was something orderly and respectful and now it's developed into an all out water throw-down! Good times were had by all!

Check out this video clip from my first Songkran experience! The quality is pretty shady, but you'll get the idea. The video footage is great quality, however, where we uploaded it, the file size capacity couldn't accommodate the quality that I prefer...so, this'll do. Have fun!

>>Click here for Songkran '07 madness

*Once you click the link above, please allow for time to load the video. The first time it will play it may start and stop, but play it through again and it should be better!

Sawasdee Kha!

Meet one of the world's most patient people in the world, my Thai language teacher, Khun Panida! She is awesome! She is a graduate of Chiang Mai University and currently has LOTS of students! Panida comes to our house every Monday and Wednesday for 2 hours each day. And bless her heart, she puts up with my Tennessee Thai! It's all good though. She's super encouraging and makes learning fun! I wish y'all could meet her!

Nomads: Travel Hard, Rest Easy

This past Thursday I got to join 3 of my friends on a short trip to Northern Thailand to spend the night. 2 of my friends were dealing with visa stuff at the border and they got all of that worked out. You just have to cross the border and come back in every 90 days...so, Myanmar was the border of choice for this particular trip.

On the way up, we stopped at an awesome restaurant and got a perfectly spicy dish of sweet basil and chicken with rice. We capped off the meal with an ice coffee and a piece of cold lemon meringue pie!

After that refreshing pit stop, we pressed onward to the Golden Triangle. This is the geographic location in which Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar all meet. There is a HUGE Buddha statue there, tons of tee shirt and water vendors, and plenty of tourists. Here's THE photo opp of the Golden Triangle...

5 hours of driving, laughing, talking, and napping, and we finally reached Nomads Guest House. We pull up to what appeared to be a small storefront. But once we stepped inside, we were greeted with warm smiles, a great internet connection, and a spectacular view of the Mekong River! The sunset reflected beautifully against the river's glassy shine and we stood with our jaws to the floor in awe of this incredible scene. There's no doubt that I'll be making plans to head back up north to the border for a retreat from the "big city" of Chiang Mai!

Kayaking on the Ping River

I had an awesome day with my new friend, Emily. She's super cool and is just herself all the time! I love hanging out with somebody who is very real and is a true cool creation of the Father! Anyways...we hung out and went kayaking on the Ping River.

I'd say it was around 100 degrees and we felt every bit of it out on the river! We walked around trying to find the little kayak place and got turned around a couple of times. Since we were walking all of this, it took quite a while to get there. When we finally did, I felt like I was walking through someone's house to get through to the back yard which was really the bank to the river. We squeezed ourselves into these super bright yellow kayaks. Here we go floating down the Ping in these huge banana boats!! We're grateful that the mosquitos weren't too bad and the sun was going down which really made it beautiful! We just chilled for most of the time and leisurely floated until we were ready to leave, then we really hauled it and paddled hard to get back.

We passed a few vacationers armed with cameras snapping photos of the american kayaking girls! A policeman was chillin on the bank and he was nice and waved to us and asked how we were doing. But we had a great time talking and laughing and making fun of each other and enjoying a beautifully day created for us to soak up!

Then, we went back to the Night Market area and ran right into a wind storm!! It was crazy!! It looked like it was raining, but it was the wind swirling dust around. All the peeps selling stuff were scurrying to cover their merchandise with sheets of plastic. Here's Emily hanging on to dear life! She survived the wind just fine. My stomach was hurting though...from laughing so hard! We had a blast and the Thais enjoyed laughing at us, I think!