Adventure!

Wow. Today was breathtakingly awesome. So many good memories were made in so little time. Sometimes its hard to believe how long a day really is. I woke up early to prepare myself for a full day of adventuring. By 8:40 we were out the door and on our way. I couldn't have been happier. We were loaded in to two different tuk-tuks and our first stop was a botanical garden that had a special butterfly unit.

Walking around amongst the Thai horticulture was absolutely stunning. The orchids were amazing though most of them were not at all fragant. I don't know if that's typical of orchids or not but they were beautiful in themselves. The butterflies that were flitting around the gardens were simply stunning. There was even one larger than my entire face. The colors were stunning and it was as if it were snowing in technicolor. We wandered around the garden for about a half hour before climbing back on our busses.

The next stop was the village of the karen or long-neck people. This was without a doubt the strangest experience I have ever had as we were going to look at people. Something about it felt terribly wrong and yet I also found myself fascinated by these long-necked women who sat dutifully at their looms weaving the most beautiful scarves I have ever seen. Although these tribes were originally from Burma, the fighting there has caused many of them to flee to Thailand where they make most of their money by opening up their villages to tourists and by weaving. Even though we were expected visitors, I couldn't help but feel like an intrudor. Plus, it was the one place in Thailand were no one smiled. An overwhelming sadness hung in the air like some thick sort of fog choking everyone into an awkward state of not knowing what to do.

In the end, we decided it would be best to buy a few trinkets from them hoping that they got to keep all the money we eagerly wanted to give. The encounter still sits awkwardly with my heart...

After that we went to a place went to an elephant camp and rode elephants. I thought it was going to be a weird-touristy thing (and it definitely was) but there was still something unbelievably cool about it. Not only that but the elephants seemed to really be enjoying themselves. Before our trip began we fed them bananas which they eagerly grabbed from our hands with their trunks. I never would have guessed how strong an appendage a trunk is until that moment. It was just so cool!

Riding the elephant was also a bizarre experience. While I thought I would have been able to compare it to a horse, the experience was not at all similar. It was rickety and bump and just plain hilarious. It's clear that the elephant is in charge doing what it wants to do and the fact that it is taking you from point Y to point Z is all well and good provided it can do what it wants in between. (mainly eat). I was also surprsied as how coarse elephant skin is; some weird combination of sandpaper and stone. Looking back, I feel like I should have expected them to have rough and tough skin but it really never occured to me.

When we got off our elephants we then walked a short bit (we didn't ride in a loop, rather we rode in a line) and arrived at a river where we entered a cage on a zip line and then used it to cross the river. It was awesome.

Then we went for a hike. Thank goodness we went for a hike. I have missed being outside so much that this was simply heaven. You know all those scenes in Jurassic Park where they are simply running around through the forest? Imagine that except with cows spotted about here and there. Thailand is fantastically beautiful. Like something out of a Tolkein novel. You can't explain how gorgeous it is with words and pictures, no matter how crafty the photographer, fail to capture the unending depth of the gorgousness.

My favorite part (besides the cows) was the bamboo forests that burst up out of the forest floor like living fireworks. The greenery is simply overwhelming. Along most of our hike were lechee trees and my classmates picked and ate their fruit but I am not allowed to eat fruit for the next few days. (bummer).

I wish I could capture how in love with this country I am but every time I go to try and express myself I feel that words are simply lacking. Everything about this place is amazing. The wildlife is amazing. The people are happy, eager to please, and always full of smiles. The kindness people show one another is simply overwhelming. ...

But back to my story. Our hike stopped briefly at a village where we eat pad-thai out of bamboo leaves and then continued further up the mountain until we arrived at about a 50 foot waterfall. I wish we could say we went swimming but in truth all we did was stand under the water fall but it was still pretty epic. Surprsingly, this was a lot of people's first hike so they found it difficult. Even having been in the hospital yesterday I found it easy and our Thai tour guide asked me why I was so good at scrambling over rocks, crossing rivers, and that sort of thing and simply told him that I love hiking. He smiled and said some sort of Thai expression that I don't remember...

The hike back was quick and we got to see the cows again. I love Thai cows. I'm not really sure why. Maybe its simply because they are everywhere or maybe its because they have this weird sort of beauty to them in the way they slowly carry themselves across the mountain or the rice paddy. I guess their dull expression makes them look strangely at peace. I don't know. I just really like them -- but I guess I've always had a thing for livestock. (weird, i know)

After that we did some "whitewater" rafting except there wasnt really any whitewater and was kind of lame but still a good time. The bamboo rafts we went on were hysterical as they sort of sunk under the water a little bit. You also had to sit perfectly still or else you risked tipping them completely over. I got to steer our boat (awesome!) which basically consisted of using a giant stick and poking it into the ground.

When all is said and done I'd say today was pretty amazing. To top it off we went out to dinner and then a couple of the girls went out to get massages. (nice treat!) Anyways I'd write more but I'm dreadfully tired after such a full day of adventuring.

Happy days!

Oh and on a sidenote sorry if I don't respond to emails / comments i love getting & reading them but I have limited time on the computer. Everything you send / post means a lot and I am so happy I have so many followers. Also sorry my gram mar isn't up to par -- I am pretty much free-writing my day down and don't have time to proof read : ( I wish I was better at grammar so I could get it right on the first go-round but..... ?

<3