Today I am introducing my very first feature! Features are always some of my favorite posts on the blogs I read and I am going to start mine off with a bang!
Trip One: Chiang Mai, Thailand
In August 2009 I got the opportunity to travel to Thailand with my bbff (boy bff) Matthew. His mom lives in Thailand and when he mentioned that he was going to go for a visit I invited myself.
Getting to Thailand is a challenge in and of itself Airfare cost an arm and a leg (I estimate that I waited about 250 tables to get there) and the over all travel time averaged a whopping 45 hours each way! Once I got there though it was amazing!
The most adventurous thing:
A white water rafting trip down a river with class 4 rapids and a ziplining tour through the jungle. Both were amazing...
The most beautiful thing:
The many many wats (or temples) that could be found on literally every street corner.
The most unique thing:
Would probably have to be riding elephants. I'm actually still a little undecided about this one. Riding elephants seemed like the perfect, exotic Thai adventure, but once we were actually riding it felt a little cruel, or at the very least unpleasant for the elephants. During the ride we were sitting on top of a wooden bench that was tied to the elephant, which did not seem at all comfortable for the big guys. There were also excursions in which you could go to an elephant sanctuary and help take care of rescued elephants, which, in hindsight, I really wish we would have done instead - and is what I would suggest to anyone going to the area.
My favorite thing:
Had to be the snake show we went to go see out in the middle of nowhere. It was awesomely hokey. The beginning to that 80's song "The Final Countdown" played over and over again while a man on the microphone repeated an obviously memorized script in a language (English) he clearly did not speak. We were almost the only people sitting on wooden benches surrounding a snake pit, watching two men repeatedly provoke and dodge all different kinds of snakes.
Check out the video- it doesn't really do it justice but it's something!
Here are some more of my favorite pics...
We aren't used to it in the US but there were several places that I couldn't go because of my gender. Matt took full advantage of that
Happy Trails! I'll be back next Thursday with another trip!
Filled with extreme travel envy!! But oh-so-happy that you've gotten to go to these awesome places. I still haven't done Asia really - Turkey calls itself Asia, but come on, that's totally cheating. I will look extra forward to Thursdays from now on!
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