We flew into Chiang Mai from Koh Samui (we went through Bangkok). We stayed here for one day, and it was freezing and rained for the entire day. Since it was raining we decided to go and watch Star Wars again, because Mom and my sister hadn't seen it. After watching Star Wars we had dinner reservations at an awesome restaurant that served great American comfort food, mom wanted to go there since she was freezing. Dinner was delicious, although since it was a more upscale restaurant, we felt really out of place as everyone else was dressed up. After dinner we walked back to our hostel and went to bed because we were being picked up early the next morning to go spend a few nights in a treehouse.
Treehouse Day 1
We were picked up from our hostel around 8:30, the driver was a little late but when he arrived we jumped into the big van with all of our bags. Our driver, who was wearing a fox hat, was really tall, and it looked like a funny fox was driving us. It was about a two and a half hour drive and we stopped at a market along the way. The market was almost empty (the prime time to go is about 5:30am), but we observed some of the meat stalls before heading out to breakfast at a nearby bakery. After grabbing some banana bread, we drove for another hour before stoping at the Sticky Waterfall. Amazingly, this was actually one of the coolest waterfalls of the trip, it appeared as if a ton of large rocks were stacked on top of one another. The water was even warm. After the waterfall we drove for another half hour until we arrived at the treehouse. The treehouse wasn't quite ready when we arrived, so we had to wait for about 15 minutes while they were cleaning it. When it was ready we walked over a bridge that crossed a stream and then down a path for about fifteen more yards. Our treehouse was really close to the stream, so at night you could listen to the water gurgling. It was basically like a house on stilts, although there was one odd looking room at the very top. It wasn't massive, but it was plenty of space for two nights. There was one bed on the very top level, two in the middle, and one on the bottom. After we finished hauling all of our bags inside, us kids did homework, while mom and dad sat around a fire, and my sister played with another little girl from China. We did homework until about six, when it was time for dinner. For dinner we had fried fish, which was fantastic, along with sweet and sour chicken, and of course, rice. After dinner, we walked back to the treehouse. Finally, it was bedtime.
Treehouse Day 2
Finally we were able to sleep in. We slept until about ten and then headed to breakfast. For breakfast the staff served scrambled eggs, sketchy looking sausage, toast, and delicious orange juice. After breakfast we did homework for a half hour and then biked on some of the nearby trails. We biked to a bat cave where we saw a few bats, and then we biked for about another fifteen minutes before arriving at some red sand dunes. These were really fun to bike on and we stayed here for about an hour before heading back to the treehouse to have lunch. After lunch we hiked down a road for about twenty minutes to try and find a waterfall that we weren't sure existed. When about twenty minutes had gone by, I decided to turn around because I had so much homework to catch up on. According to the story that I was told, everyone else proceeded to become lost, and then found their way back. Finally, when they found the treehouse again, dad made a fire, my brother and I decided to try and to try and start a fire with a stick by twisting it back and forth on top of another stick. We tried this for two hours, but sadly never succeeded, the only thing that we took away from that endeavor was multiple blisters on each hand. After our failed fire attempt, we did homework until dinner time. For dinner we had chicken with sweet and sour sauce, and chicken mossoman, a traditional Thai dish. Surprisingly, when dinner was finished, mom and dad told us kids to go and do homework for about twenty minutes. After the twenty minutes was up they had a fire going and told us to find sticks to roast s'mores with. We did have to improvise though because the shop didn't have everything, so we used pink march mellows and put them in between two Oreo cookies. It was fun to get to roast s'mores again and it almost felt like we were at home.
Treehouse Day 3
Today we had to get up earlier, because checkout time was 11am. After packing up and having breakfast, we loaded all of our bags into a pickup truck and we rode on seats in the back. We drove for about five minutes until we arrived at a lake. We then loaded all of our bags into a tiny little boat and boated across the lake for about ten minutes before docking and loading our bags into a different truck. We spent about 45 minutes in this truck before arriving at our Airbnb house that we were renting. We thanked the driver and then hauled our bags inside. Overall, I really liked the treehouse, it was so quiet and peaceful, and we were able to catch up on homework. It made a great getaway place, and let us all have a chance to relax from the stress of traveling.
Chiang Mai:
After our terrific time at the treehouse we took a shuttle bus to Chiang Mai. Our house in Chiang Mai was huge, it even had a pool table, and I had my own room. The first night we were in Chiang Mai we met up with a lady named Noot and her family, we knew them through some friends that we worked with in Young Life. We went to a Northern Thai restaurant that was delicious. Since the restaurant was not touristy, it was really cheap. The next day we did homework all day long, and then went out to eat, my brothers had so much homework that they actually stayed back to do it. It was really nice to spend a night with just mom dad and my sister, as we don't get much alone time together.
On Wednesday we went biking, I really wanted to rent road bikes because I have never ridden one, but they didn't have a size that fit my youngest brother so we rode mountain bikes. We rode up a hill for about two hours trying to find the mountain bike park (it was supposed to be up there) until one of my brothers tired out. When we turned around it only took us five minutes to get to the bottom, which made our last two hours seem worthless.
The next day we were picked up at 7am by a tour company called Elephant Discovery. We drove for two hours through beautiful countryside until we arrived at the tour site. We were planning on spending all day with the elephants, and would have the chance to feed, bathe, and ride them. We started off by simply giving them bamboo. Afterwards the tour operator gave us a briefing on what we would do, elephant commands, and how their tour company was better than the other ones because they helped the local village. For the first half hour we played with the elephants in the water and gave them a bath. We would say "mellow" and they would lay down in the water. Then we would throw buckets of water onto them and scrub them with brushes. When they were finally clean, we made them get up and walked them up to a clearing where the guide taught us how to mount them. There was one elephant who was even trained to lift you up on his trunk and then let you walk on his head. Once the entire group had mounted, we rode the elephants down the road. Our group rode the elephants for a total of about two hours, but we had a half hour break in the middle to eat lunch. After lunch, and before riding again we had a photo shoot where we would climb on the elephants and do different poses. While riding the elephants back to the clearing, my brother's elephant took down an entire tree with his trunk. Elephants are so strong. When we arrived at the clearing, we dismounted the elephants and some local ladies tried to sell us souvenirs. One of the things that they were selling was local tribal shirts. Mom really wanted one, but didn't like any of their colors. She decided that the liked the one that the elephant care taker was wearing the best, and so she bought it off his back, for just less than $10usd. After saying goodbye to the elephants, we began the long drive back to Chang Mai. When we arrived at our house, we thanked the driver and walked into the house. It was about 6pm and it had been a long day.
The next day we did school, but the day after that Noot gave us a tour of the city. We started off at a buddhist temple. She explained the story of the lord buddha, the buddhist religion to us, and the cycle that they supposedly go through, it was really cool to get to hear her side of things from a Christian perspective.
On Saturday morning, we met up with some friends from our church. We met them at about 11am and then went out to eat. They had two cars, one that they used, and another one that they rented out and let other people use. It was really cool to get to ride in these vehicles because they were purchased by Speed the Light, an organization that my youth group in Minnesota supports. It was cool to get to actually see how much our giving is doing. We drove for about two hours, until we arrived at our guest house that we were going to be staying at. We dropped our bags off inside our room and then drove to the missionary's house. We talked for a bit and the they told us that when you are in the mission field the missionary kids (MK's) call them Uncle and Aunt, so we started calling them that too. Uncle P knew how to ride unicycles and so he promised to teach us over the next week while we were here. He is also really great at card tricks, and so he taught me a few tricks. For dinner we went to a Thai restaurant and had about five orders of chicken wings, along with a traditional soup, and sweet and sour chicken.
The next day we put up new sinks in our friend's bathroom, just hung out, and then went back to our guest house to do school in the afternoon. Our friends have been serving in Thailand for around five years, although they just moved to Lampang a year ago, and so they are still trying to get involved in the community. That night we went to a park where many of the local Thai people come to play soccer, badminton, basketball, or work out. Our friends come here at least twice every week and are simply trying to get to know the locals and become involved in the community. We played soccer with some of the Thai people, and it felt so amazing to touch a ball again. The next day we did a walk around the university. That night we went to walking street, which was the local market. We looked at the different things that the people were selling and we also had what could potentially be the world's best Carmel Corn.
Our friends also do a "large group" at their house, I played guitar for them and then their friend led the discussion. She has been in Thailand for seven years and is fluent in Thai. While we were here, it was Aunt R's birthday, her birthday was on Thursday, but we celebrated on Wednesday. Lampang is known for its ceramics, and they have many different ceramic factories. Our Aunt and Uncle's friend took us on a tour of two of them and showed us how they make different items. Lampang's signature symbol is a rooster, and so this is on almost all of their ceramics. All of the ceramics are ridiculously cheap, handmade ceramic plates are under a dollar.
Our last day we spent with our friends. We drove to Chiang Mai to catch our flight to Bangkok, before leaving Uncle P gave me a set of cards so that I could practice my magic tricks. We went out to eat with them for the last time and the place that we went to was so delicious. I ordered an egg sandwich on a bagel and an egg and bacon burrito. When we drove to the airport Uncle P was explaining to us, that since the parking lots are so tiny, there are not enough parking spaces for everyone. So if there is not an open space, you will simply park your car behind one that is in a space already, and leave it in neutral. If the person who you are blocking needs to get out, they have to push your car out of the was so that they can get theirs out. When we walked into the airport, we learned that our flight was really delayed, and so they moved us to an earlier one so that we could catch our flight out of Bangkok. We had plenty of time, but in Bangkok and Doha, we would have about fifteen minutes to catch our next flight. After praying for our friends, and having them pray for us we said our goodbyes and headed through security.
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