ELEPHANTS

Hiii! I'm sorry it's a been a little over a week since my last post, the travel life is time consuming! Just kidding, I've just been lazy. Oops. But now I have lots to update you on about our explorations :) Lucky for you, it won't be as long as the last post! Just some sweet nothings about adventures in Chiang Mai and Laos! 

After the orphanage, we slowly made our way up north to the incredible Chiang Mai. It was extremely touristy, but my favorite spot in Thailand thus far! It's a big city with so much to do and most importantly, SO.MUCH.FOOD. All different kinds! After having rice three times a day at the orphanage, saying we were sick of Asian food is kind of an understatement. We spent 6 days in Chiang Mai filled with gourmet pizza, whole wheat pancakes, peanut butter, sandwiches, and Mexican food. I actually had the best burrito of my life in Thailand (other than Chipotle of course). Weird? On top of having healthy food places, this was obviously my dream come true. 

Speaking of food (I swear I really have other hobbies besides eating...), we got to take an awesome cooking class! It was taught by this adorable Thai woman right in the backyard of her house. We even went to the market with her to pick up ingredients before hand. And it was the real market, the kind where there are no tourists and everyone stares at you like you are a multi colored hippo or something. I learned how to make curry paste, yellow curry, fried rice, and banana steam cakes! Hope your drooling because it was all so yummy. She gave us cookbooks so I can attempt to put together these magic creations back home! 

Okay, time to stop talking about food. There are other things we've done besides eat like Americans! For example, fish spa! Yes, it is exactly as it sounds. I've always wanted to try it so when we walked by one on the street, I convinced Chris it was a necessity! Obviously there are health benefits to willingly having fish bite your feet, right? Literally all you do is sit down and stick your feet in a giant tub filled with little fish. And then they just go at it. They supposedly are eating dead skin (gross, don't think about it), but it actually feels like death by tickle. Probably never doing that again. 

Another first time experience was going to a Mauy Tai match!! Which is basically a big arena full of foreigners and different bars. It's like the fights on tv! It was awesome and really entertaining, even if it was partly staged. While in Chiang Mai, we also got to check out the well known Sunday Night Market. Every Sunday from 4pm until midnight, they close down an entire long street and random booths set up shop! It's full of hundreds of street vendors, art, and cheap souvenirs. It's also more crowded than Disney Land. My favorite part of the market was getting a Thai foot massage in an alley. Sounds sketchy, I know. But it wasn't at all and that's why Thailand is so awesome! 

Saving the best Chiang Mai activity for last...elephant day!!! I have a new obsession with elephants after this experience. There are many excursion options, so we did research and made sure to go through a company that treats the elephants well. It was a perfect full day trip, starting when our crazy tour guide picked us up. He literally calls himself "Eddy the Elephant Man." With a name like that you have a lot to live up to.  We went to the middle of the jungle to an elephant camp and started off by feeding them bananas! Elephants are HUGE. I mean really ginormous. You don't realize how massive they really are until you are standing next to it as it tries to basically eat your hand. Pounds of bananas later, we got trained to ride them bareback! And by trained, I mean they taught us a few commands in Thai and then you were thrown up there.  Somewhat terrifying but once your sitting on his back and petting his cute fuzzy head its fine. After the "training" and a great lunch (again with the food), it was time for the full ride! This part was interesting because we had paid to just both be on one elephant. But Eddy liked Chris and I so much that last minute he told each of us to jump on our own elephant! Which sounds nice, but of course my elephant was the extra giant one with no ropes at all! Even though it's bareback, they all had a rope around them to hold on to. But not me, I just had a mahout  (elephant trainer) sitting on the back with me who spoke zero English. Sounds safe huh. Thank God for that fuzzy hair on the elephants head. It was all I had to hold on to! But we both survived the jungle trek and then got to swim with the elephants in the river!!! That was the best part. We also got to see a 6 day old baby elephant. Needless to say, I told Chris I want a pet elephant for Christmas. 

After the best day ever, we took a longgg 12 hour bus ride to Vientiane, Laos. Luckily the seats in the bus were reclining and massage chairs! We planned on going to Laos to get our Thai visas extended. Our 30 days were up and we needed to get a 30 day extension tourist visa, which you can only get when you are out of the country. It sounds simple, but it was such an extreme process. Once getting to a town near the border of Thailand and Laos, we had to jump in a taxi to take us to the border. Then once at the border, we showed our passports and had to wait a bit to get on a bus that would take us across the border to Laos. At the Laos border, we had to fill out some paperwork and wait to get our Laos visas. From there, we had to get in yet another cab to take us to the Thai embassy. At the embassy we filled out some more paperwork and dropped off our passports in order to pick them up the next day with our visas. It was exhausting! But we ended up staying at this incredibly awesome hostel called Sihome Backpackers Hostel. It was full of wall paintings done by young artists all around the world! It was also brand new and had only been open for a couple of weeks, so it was exciting to get to experience it fresh!  A couple of guys named Steve and Phil were in charge and they do a great job at making everyone feel at home. We met some pretty awesome people our age from all parts of the world! Australia, Switzerland, Ireland, Germany...just to name a few! The hostel had beer to purchase and even gave you free vodka. We found out that playing drinking games with Europeans is a challenge! We loved the hostel so much, we ended up staying 4 nights. We did some awesome sightseeing in Vientiane, including a day trip to the beautiful Tad Xai waterfalls! Now I can check swimming in a waterfall off my to-do list. 

After leaving Laos, it was another grueling bus ride to Bangkok! We arrived yesterday morning, and now I'm sitting in a coffee shop on Khao San road as we speak :) It is only a quick stop though, because tonight it's another 8 hour bus ride followed by a 2 hour ferry. Next stop: Koh Tao island! 

I promise I won't get too distracted by the beach and neglect to update on island adventures :) lots of love! Xoxo

An example of a street food vendor in Chiang Mai! You learn to get over health code ideas real quick in Thailand 

Have you ever had dragon fruit before?! It's a main fruit here and I'm obsessed. Not just because it's so pretty, but it's super delicious as well! 

Fish spa! 

Chris couldn't handle it! 

The Muay Tai match! 

Inside some temples in Chiang Mai 

Our cooking class set up! 

Showing off his yellow curry creation 

The steamed banana cakes I made! Mmm

Eddy the Elephant Man throwing a plethora of bananas on the truck 

Feeding the elephants!!!! I was a little skeptical at first 

Awww this is Jenny! 

They literally kissed me!!! It was so tickley 

Just a view of Chiang Mai 

 The Mekong river at sunset! In Laos 

These are all paintings on the walls of Sihome Backpackers Hostel! 

The Laos victory monument! We climbed all the way up there! 

The view  of Vientiane! 

Tad Xai waterfalls! 

Two weeks in the jungle

Hi everyone!!!! We just got back to civilization after being at Safe Haven Orphanage for 2 weeks! It was definitely one of the best experiences of my life. It's going to be tricky to explain the magnitude of this great adventure, but I'm going to do my best to paint a picture for you! Warning...this entry is going to be VERY long. Like you might need a potty break half way through. Also possibly a little spastic! But what else is new :) 

It was chaos from the very beginning! We arrived in a town called Mae Sot, and had directions from the orphanage director to get on what is called a Song Thaew (pronounced song tou) that would take us to the orphanage. This is literally an orange pickup truck that is like a taxi for multiple people. Everyone hops in the bed of the truck and you must hold on for dear life as the driver goes through windy country roads as if he were driving a small motorcycle. Motion sickness was my worst enemy at this point. We ended up getting off at the wrong village and got lost! NO ONE spoke a word of English and I thought we were doomed. We wandered to the local police station where, after multiple attempts at communicating with the officers, still had no clue where to go. Finally, one officer told us to wait there as he went and got his English speaking wife! She appeared like an angel. Her English was perfect and she explained to us that the orphanage was still 50 kilometers (yes, I use kilometers now!) away and we needed to get back on the orange truck from hell. A total of 4 hours and bruised butts later, we arrived at the orphanage! 

This is where things get overwhelming and I'm not quite sure how to sum up the 2 weeks that followed! I've decided it would be best to pinpoint major details, so use your imagination! 

First and foremost, I just want to state that these people were some of the most incredible human beings I've ever met!!! The orphanage had about 40 kids ranging from 4 months old all the way to 23. Every single one of them had the best manners and the most genuine smiles. To my surprise, they are much more provided for than I imagined and it was not a sad experience at all. The woman in charge is Tessenee, and for lack of a less cheesy phrase, she literally has a beautiful soul. Referred to as "Big Mom," she lives at the orphanage and provides the most welcoming and loving atmosphere. They have worship every night and go to a non-denominational church located right at the orphanage every Saturday! What she does for these kids is nothing short of extraordinary. She has a lot of help from Nico, her right hand man. He is 23 and actually lives at the orphanage with his wife and two stunningly beautiful daughters. He is working nonstop from sunrise to sunset, doing tasks ranging from building bathrooms to cooking AMAZING Thai meals. He spoke a good amount of English, so him and Tessenee both would translate for us. Chris especially became good friends with him, and they would do man things together like building and carrying big boulders. Precious. Speaking of amazing people, ironically there was another volunteer there at the same exact time we were! Caroline was from London and along with Thai, I learned some awesome UK phrases. Bloody hell is one of my favorites. She added so much to our adventure! It was so nice to have a new friend there to experience it all with us. She was also a professional dancer (what are the odds?!) and a cinematographer! She's working on an awesome documentary about the orphanage! Now we have an excuse to go to London :)

One of the best parts about our stay was the delicious food!!! We were eating rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner but boy do the Thai know how to spice up a bowl of rice! The older girls or Nico would cook amazing Thai dishes for us 3 times a day.  The weight I possibly gained in these 2 weeks was well worth it. We also got delicious coffee made for us each morning. Spoiled! A few times we experienced some interesting meals though, such as fried crickets and even a hog head (which I'll get to later). But other than that, it was a constant full tummy!! 

One of my other favorite parts was teaching English every night. The middle age boys and girls would sit for an hour as we taught them nouns and the confusing present-tense verbs of English!  It was so rewarding to see them get excited when they answered questions right or win the team review games we would play. I also realized that English is an extremely complicated language and I truly feel sorry for anyone attempting to understand it! Words that are spelled the same but have completely different meanings? Whose idea was that?! 

Even outside of English class, everyone referred to us as "teacher." Even the little ones! I don't think I ever heard my actual name. It was the cutest. 

Besides playing with kids, doing manual labor such as building (I won't even pretend I took place in this. All Chris.), relaxing, and teaching, we went on some epic hikes through the jungle!! One day, Nico and some of the other boys said they would take us to a good spot that overlooked all the surrounding villages and Burmese refugee camps. It was only supposed to be a simple one hour hike to the top, but it ended up being a grueling 5 hour trek!! And I didn't even pack snacks. If you know me at all, you know this was the absolute worst part. BUT, the rock climbing (literally! It was terrifying) and the massive amount of sweat was kinddd of worth the pretty awesome views! We could even see across the river to Burma! But I can't exactly say I love hiking as much anymore....

Another major event that I will remember forever is the day Caroline and I accidentally went to a monk shrine. We were walking home from the nearby village market when Tessenee's daughter Doo drove by with her husband and some of the orphanage boys. We thought they said they were going back to the orphanage and we could jump in for a ride. Unfortunately for us, somewhere along the line there was a major language barrier. We realized this as we drove PAST the orphanage. I also had to pee very badly which made it all the more worse. We ended up at a monk shrine (I think?) and I've never felt like more of an outsider! They proceeded to give offerings as Caroline and I just stood there very awkwardly. These offerings included pretty fruit baskets and two whole hogs heads. I kid you not. I was repulsed but tried not to show it. To make it even funnier, the shrine was vegetarian so the hogs heads were set down across the street on the side of the road on a little pedestal then later brought back with us (remember when I mentioned that time they served us pig head meat for lunch? Yeah). After these offerings took place, everyone suddenly disappeared and we were left standing outside wondering what the heck to do. It had been almost an hour at this point and I still had to pee. Then Caroline mentions that she has to go to the bathroom as well. Not pee, if you catch my drift (Caroline if your reading this, I'm sorry!) Miraculously enough, we had bought toilet paper earlier at the market and just happen to have it with us. With no other choice, we walked down the street and proceeded to each do our business on the side of the road. Cars passing by and all. Quite possibly one of the funniest moments of my entire life. Obviously, I finish before Caroline (hope your getting this...) just as two of the boys start to walk our way. I yell to Caroline to hurry it up and she says "stall them!" How in the world do you stall someone that doesn't speak your language? So I just start walking towards them waving and smiling. They spot Caroline anyways and so she just stands up and says "Hiya!" with an extra friendly wave. My laughter was uncontrollable. It gets better. We walk back towards the shrine and Caroline proceeds to go down in the stream near the shrine to wash her hands. The husband had done it minutes before, so it was only natural to assume we could do the same. Plus it was deathly hot outside. Caroline stood in the water for a bit to cool off and apparently no one noticed right away that she was in there because about 10 minutes later the boys started yelling "no!" and waving at her to get out. Come to find out, it was holy water and no girls were allowed in. Who knew? This may not sound that funny to you, but I was actually in tears I was laughing so hard. THEN, we get invited to go inside and join everyone in eating these fruit offerings. One of the boys pulls us aside and shows us a sign next to stairs leading up to the temple that literally reads "no girls" with a picture of a hand drawn stick figure girl with a line slashed over it. He says "see, no girls there. You, no. Me, yes. You, no. Okay?" Being the witty woman that Caroline is, she proceeds to tell him that it's actually not okay and it's rather sexist but he wasn't understanding so we reluctantly agreed. Not like we would attempt to walk up those steps anyways! Apparently after the holy water incident, they felt the need to make sure we understood our place. To make the entire situation worse, this whole time poor Chris was freaking out waiting at the orphanage and searching the village for us after we had been gone at the market too long. He was picturing the movie Taken. Ah! Now we can laugh at this day, but at the time it was quite emotional. Have I mentioned that he's the best? 

Although it may sound like butterflies and rainbows, there were definitely some challenging aspects of this adventure! The title of this post is no joke, we were quite literally in the jungle. There was zero air conditioning. With 90 degree temperatures and outrageous humidity everyday, I eventually learned to accept the constant sweat and dehydration (but when we got an air conditioned hotel room last night it was quite possibly one of the best moments of my life). The shower also consisted of a basin of cold water and a little bucket scooper. Washing my hair was a joke. But worse than those conditions were the absolutely out of this world creatures of the rainforest. Moths and grasshoppers the size of baby birds!! No dramatization I swear, ask Chris. At one point I saw 5 snakes in a matter of 2 days. One of them being in our room!!! As you can imagine, I screamed bloody murder upon this discovery. There were scorpions on our room walls, in our shoes. Giant centipedes that we learned were poisonous. And of course, an endless flow of mosquitos. Everyday my "lotion" consisted of first lathering up in sunscreen and then coating that with extra strong bug spray. Add in the natural perfume of sweat and as you can imagine I was smelling like roses! I felt like Tarzan's girlfriend Jane. Slaying bugs and trekking through the jungle and such. 

Another hilariously repulsing constant occurrence was the children picking up dead creatures. They would walk up to us holding dead grasshoppers, dead worms, dead mice, dead frogs. The highlight was probably the day we saw them playing jumprope with a dead snake. 

Welp, that pretty much sums it all up! If your still reading at this point, thanks :) My fingers are sore from typing on my phone. Who knew blogging was such hard work?! All in all, I can definitely say it was a life changing experience and extremely inspiring. The pure simplicity of their way of life is like nothing I've seen before. Not just the orphanage, but all the surrounding village people as well. Watching women walk from village to village carrying big bags of rice on their heads was something I thought I'd only see in movies! Being stared at while walking through villages like you are an actual giant colorful alien was also a daily occurrence. But I loved every minute of it! I'm almost positive that these beautiful people had more of an impact on me than I did to them. Now we are looking forward to more backpacking explorations and Thailand adventure!!!! Can't wait to share it with you guys :) Lots and lots of love!!! Xoxo 

PS...If you happen to feel like donating to this wonderful place after reading this, the orphanage website is safehavenorphanage.org :) 

The entrance from the main road!

Our housing area 

The shower!!! 

The toilet! Yes, you squat. Made me realize the luxury of western toilets. This picture also makes it look extra gross. That's just mud! 

The process of the new bathroom that Chris helped build! 

This is their hangout area at the orphanage, but it is exactly what most of the village houses/huts look like! Bamboo and leaves.

Tessenee's housing area/where we ate meals/hung out 

Our beds! Thankfully they provided us with mosquito nets. I'd like to shake the hand of whoever invented these miraculous things 

Examples of some of the food! And no, I did not eat those whole fish. Scary 

Seriously, are they not the cutest kids you've ever seen?! Happy happy heart 

This is Christmas (Chris's amazing photography of course)! Both Chris and I's favorite. I know, we probably shouldn't have favorites but we couldn't help it. His personality is indescribable! Tessenee named him Christmas because he was left at the orphanage as an infant on Christmas Day 

This is Joseph, also known as 'Yu-Yu.' Another heart stealer. Just look at that little face! 

Nico's sassy 2 year old daughter Moo-Moo! This picture doesn't do her justice. She is literally the most beautiful child I've ever seen! 

This is 7 year old Ruby! Another favorite. Picture Lilly from the show Modern Family. She would kiss my cheek and my heart melted every time. Before Ruby was born, her mom tried to push on her stomach to kill the baby. Ruby ended up being born and the father threatened to kill her if the mom kept the baby. The hospital ended up contacting Tessenee and that's how this precious princess ended up at the orphanage. She can speak Japanese, Thai, and Koren! 

Me with Tessenee and some of the nuggets 

Saturday church! 

Ruby pretending to be a director with Caroline's camera! 

The kids favorite game was to have muscly Chris throw them in the air and swing them around! 

 Caroline! (This photo was taken by Christmas, by the way. A brilliant 5 year old that somehow knows how to work an iPhone?) 

Unfortunately, it was super foggy but this is at the top point of that epic hike! As you can see by my appearance, we hadn't gotten lost in the jungle yet 

This is legitimately a tree vine we swung on while trekking on the hike. Tarzan status. It was awesome 

Nico! Such an inspiring person

I didn't mention this, but this was a day we drove to Mae Sot and explored the markets with Tessenee's daughter. Yes, it's what it looks like. Behind the platter of cooked grasshoppers are bunnies and mice in cages waiting to be purchased and cooked. OH.MY.GOSH. 

Another market sight. Live turtles and eels in the food department. EW. 

...just incase the above pictures weren't   gruesome enough. THE HOGS HEADS. I'm still not over it.

Aww!

Some of the group!!!