Part 4: Chiang Mai

From Burma, I headed back to Thailand.

I arrived in Bangkok where, the same day, I took a 10 hour overnight bus to Chiang Mai. The AC was BLASTING the whole way.

When I first arrived, I nearly unsuccessfully found a cafe that I was meeting a woman I was to later take a cooking class with. The class was to be a three day cooking course held at a community outside of the city on an organic farm. Uuuunfortunately, she came to the meeting to tell me that I was the only person signed up and she wouldn't be doing the class.

I had lunch with her and few other people she knew before spending the day wandering around getting lost in Chiang Mai. ;)

For the first time, I realized exactly how long a month traveling alone could be. I had chosen very specifically to travel on my own during the next month. I have traveled a bit before, but I wanted the experience of traveling totally on my own...figuring it out on my own...making decisions on my own...and making mistakes on my own.

What I soon realized was, when you travel "alone," you are never really alone. There are so many other solo travelers out there and friends are so quickly made when we're all out of our element, that I never went more than a day without a friend.

Although that first night, I definitely wondered if I would make it through the next month. After getting lost multiple times, urging myself to leave the comfort of an internet cafe, getting lost again a few times, and finally finding a place to spend the night, I sat down at a bar to read a book and drink a glass of wine. I deserved it, I decided.

The next day, a Thai guy (nicknamed Bell) the same age as me randomly talked me into a 2 day trek at a guest house I wasn't staying at. Haha! I signed up with a group of random strangers. Strangers who became fast friends. On our trek, we had 3 Aussies (18 and 19 years old), a Korean couple (26 years old), 2 Dutch girls (27 years old), and a Swiss couple (26 and 27 years old). The first day, we visited a gorgeous waterfall, relaxed in a natural hot spring, and trekked through the jungles of Chiang Mai. We stopped at two hill tribe villages on the way to our final village destination for the night. After a quick dip in the river to wash up, we had dinner and ate sticky rice by the fire. The second day, we started with an elephant ride through the jungle...segue into a fantastic story.

While on the back of an elephant in the middle of the jungles of Thailand, I heard someone screaming my name. Tim Polakowski, a friend of mine from college who is in his first year of Fulbright in Korea, was shouting to me from a raft with 3 other Fulbright friends of ours. Their trekking group was only the second group I had seen while trekking. Small world, right?!

So, anyway, after elephant trekking, we also rode/surfed on bamboo rafts down the river. It was very relaxing. The adventure came in when one of our two rafts got stuck between rocks and was quickly sinking. Our guide jumped off of our raft to rescue the raft that was sinking. The girls on the other raft were in the process of climbing to safety and rescuing the bags that nearly met the same fate as the raft when the guides were able to pull the raft back to the surface. After lunch, 6 of us decided to do whitewater rafting. We learned the basics and had a guide. The rapids were only at about a 3 because of the low water level, but that didn't stop 2 of our 4 members in the raft from falling overboard. ^_~ It was a good time minus an annoying guide.

I spent the rest of my time in Chiang Mai, experiencing a motor bike ride for the first time with Bell as we sneaked a peak at the flower floats for the flower festival, meeting up with Timmy and the other Fulbrighters I saw during my trek, hanging out with the amazing group of people from my trek group, meeting up with a good friend of mine from Burma, and eating INCREDIBLE food!

BTW...Chiang Mai is a vegetarian's PARADISE!!^^