How many months later? Sorry, Grampa... this one's for you! Also, I promise to use only photos from my own camera on this post. So here we are: the major moments of importance during the last few months:
My 18th birthday. The actual day, January 25, was quite lonely, but then Carol rode in and saved the day, and then Ice and Nye surprised me with a cake!
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| Ice, me, the surprise cake, and the candles that never died. |
The Chiang Mai Flower Festival is one of the most important citywide festivals, and certainly one that makes Chiang Mai famous all around Asia. It's an entire street [and surrounding festivities] covered in flowers and floats decorated entirely in flowers; it's stunning!!
I sat in a flying machine!! Believe it or not, I don't have picture of this event, but I put on the 50kg backpack and turned it on. Not high enough to actually move off the ground because that costed 10000 baht [over 300 dollars], but still!!
We brought my host grandma back to her home deep in the mountains near Mae Sai, on the border of Myanmar, and stayed there for a night.
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| I don't know why, but I love this picture of Nye. |
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| Ringing the bells at the temple in the mountains. Well of course we went to a temple. |
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| You spineach of these for good luck. Choke dee |
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| My host uncle. He is praying toward the giant Buddha on top of the temple. |
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| View from the temple - a temple is always placed on the highest available space because nothing may be taller than the official temple [wat prathat] of a region. That's why the one in Chiang Mai [Wat Prathat Doi Suthep] is way up on a mountain above the city. |
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| Everyone loves gongs. |
Days with Carol... so many days with Carol!
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| Making our way from Lamphun to the big city, Chiang Mai |
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| And sometimes... Connor comes :D |
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| and this is life with Carol |
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| Among other things, she's an awesome photographer |
I became a Thai princess one more day. Granted, the other photos look better, but I promised to use only my own photos for this.
Most importantly, Central Triiiiipppp!!!
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| Random camels coming into our path |
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| Water market in Kanchanaburi |
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| Snakes |
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| Camp stuff |
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| Floating market in Kanchanaburi |
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| Our first night in Bangkok. Rather than stay at the nightclub, Cole, Hannah, Talia, and I wandered through the city. |
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| Bangkok: Wat Prakaew [aka The Grand Palace] |
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| Bangkok Grand Palace: On the other side of this wall is the super famous Emerald Buddha [or Jade Buddha], but unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. |
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| Bangkok Grand Palace: Outside the temple |
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| Bangkok: McDonald's the Thailand way |
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| Bangkok: Dried, salted fish market |
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| Bangkok: Siam Paragon |
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| Bangkok: We spent this evening at Asiatique, the old warehouse-mall on a former trading post. |
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| Bangkok: Buying our meals |
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| Bangkok at night |
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| Bangkok: View from the Rotary Centre |
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| The Bangkok Eye? |
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| Bangkok: First one to the corner get 5 baht :D |
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| Bangkok: Terminal 21, a super interesting mall - every floor is another country |
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| Beautiful temple in Ayutthaya that I forget the name of |
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| Temple in Ayutthaya |
Other things:
Dyed my hair red
Biked enough that I am now unable to get lost in the city area of Lamphun, now onto the even more confusing countryside
Changed hosts. Now I live in Laohajit Wittaya, the school I helped in the kindergarten room of a long time ago
Also, I've grown a lot more brave. Not saying that wandering down back streets in Chiang Mai alone at midnight on St. Patrick's day was the most intelligent idea, but it was a clear example of this new bravery. I can ride the songthaew to/from Chiangmai alone now, no longer hesitate to talk to anyone whether or not I fully understand them, make so many more friends who are older than me, and can research careers and actually see myself in them. Things are looking up :D I'm really wondering whether lack of bravery and self-confidence influence how connected you are with your surroundings. It was only after I started gaining these that I started to miss Canada/people back home. Not that I would leave Thailand any time soon [DEFINITELY not], but it will be nice to see people again. I'm wondering this because both Thai people and Brazilians, although polar opposites, both appear very comfortable with themselves/their surroundings, and seem to suffer homesickness quicker than others.
Yesterday evening, a few teachers at Laohajit and I participated in a yearly temple walk [from one temple to another up in the mountains]. Officially, the trip is supposed to be to the other temple and back, but most people only go to the first one and take a car back. There were about 200 people altogether who walked behind the numerous floats and drums. We started around 9, but several people became tired and at around 2 in the morning we took cars up the rest of the way. At around 6 or 7, we woke up to the sound of drums and watched the rest of the parade come in. Afterward, we went into the temple to do the Buddhist rituals and drove back down the mountain to the first temple, and back home.
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| In the temple looking down the steps; it's so easy to spot the line of monks when everyone else is in white |
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| Giving food to the monks |
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| A stunningly beautiful temple building, not the actual temple though |
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| The beautiful temple building |
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| Lighting a candle and incense sticks |
It's "summer" here now [meaning it's a little hotter than it normally is, and "actual" school is out, but everyone still goes to summer classes every day], so things coming up this/next month are [hopefully] swimming [believe it or not, this is rare], making Canadian food, ziplining, going to a festival with my friend Ness, SONGKRAN!!!, and then the Southern trip :D Whooot whoooooot [the sound of excitement, Mack]!
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| I'm not sure why, but I really like this photo of a temple building in Lamphun, my lovely Thai hometown. The sign says 'Wat Changrong', so it might be separate temple, but connected to the main one. |
And those are happenings in my life in Thailand.
ขอบคุณค่ะ and สวัสดีค่ะ
Anneke
