North of Thailand

     The beginning of this month (April) started with a huge trip, all organized by Rotary. It was a multiple day trip to the north of Thailand. I thought there might be few boring museums and not fun places we were to go, but let me tell you that even the museums were awesome and kept me captivated. All of this was only amplified by the fact that there were over 30 exchange students all together going with me. I just have to say I had a great time!

    The trip started out with everyone meeting at the secondary airport in Bangkok (not the big international one, but the other one). We all converged onto the airport, and we made huge lines checking in. The airplane was also another experience...

Imagine having 30 plus teenagers (who all know each other) on the same plane. The only thing the plane had going for it was that most of us were extremely tired from traveling to Bangkok first.

    After the eventful flight we landed in Chiang Mai. We went to our hotel, and got ready to go to a dinner with a traditional Thai show added to it.

There were Thai dancers, man made dragons, and even knife jugglers. It was pretty interesting.

     We headed back to the hotel and that was the end to the first day. The next day we got right into it and went straight for the elephant center near Chiang Mai. There we saw an elephant show and got a great elephant ride over a river and through woods (but not to grandma's house).

Elephant show was great! It had elephants doing tricks, playing sports, and even painting.

The river was intense, but apparently the elephant had extremely sure footing.

These guys got a little scared when their driver jumped off, ran to the bathroom, and let their elephant room free.

  After the elephants, all the exchange students went for an nice ride down the river near by. We went white water rafting!

Look fun?

  After that we went to a calmer place, and did some relaxing...

Well at least I thought it was relaxing. I tried to take a nap with one as a pillow.

Yes these are real by the way. We just weren't allowed to go near their heads or touch their front paws.

We went and had dinner after that, and that ended the very eventful second day.  The next day we got up, packed, and headed to Chiang Rai. On the way we stopped at a hot springs and the famous white temple of Thailand.

This is what the hot springs looked like. I had to try it out with just my feet first. (And if you Culver viewers notice, I'm wearing my Culver t-shirt!)

I finally let go and just put my whole body in. It was hotter than a hot tub, and I got a little dizzy after a while. 

This was the white temple. I had been before (I think I have other pictures on the blog of it), so I didn't worry too much about pictures. It was still as cool as the time before.

   After lunch we went into the country side and visited the hill tribes of northern Thailand. One of the tribes was even the people who use the neck collars in their culture to represent beauty.

Some of the tribes put on a little musical performance for us.

They said that the girls (the ones that wear the collars) start out very young. This picture shows just how young.

At the exit they even had a collar that anyone could try on. I don't think it made me any more pretty...

   After that we went to our place to sleep, headed out for dinner, then return and ended the third day of our already exciting trip. The next day we headed for Mae Khong river, or the Golden Triangle (the border between Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar). There we took a boat ride and actually got to walk in Laos for a little while.

The nice sign depicting where we were. There was an actual piece of land in the shape of a triangle in the middle of the river, which you can sort of see in the back ground.

The boat ride over was nice.

The only Asian (non-Thai) exchange student we have. On the trip we roomed together, and he kind of became my little brother.

We basically went to a small market on the bank of the river in Laos.

They had really cheap whiskey, but it had snakes and scorpions in it. I of course bought some, but only for my host dad.

The boat trip on the way back. We got to see a little of Myanmar that time.

   After that we headed to the opium museum, and no, there were no free hand outs. It was actually really cool. It reminded me a lot of the Lincoln museum in Springfield, Illinois with all of its interactive and movie capabilities. Sadly enough they didn't allow for any pictures...  After lunch we went to an art museum that was called the Black House Museum. It was pretty, but it also had some weird art inside.

The outside and front of the museum.

I don't believe this was made for sitting...

Some of the strange artwork that we saw there.

    We went out to dinner after and then ended the fourth day. The next day we woke up and went to another intense adventure: Ziplining!!! 

In the middle of putting the zip line gear on. It reminded me of my summer job with the Boy Scouts.

The district youth exchange vice-officer.

One of the exchange students from Venezuela taking his turn.

   After lunch we went to our place of resting: the supposedly number one home stay in all of Northern Thailand. It didn't let the title down. The people were nice, and it had a great view.

The view from my room at the home stay.

 We spent the rest of the evening there. They fed us a great meal and showed us another traditional show. That ended the fifth day.  The next day we spent the morning in the home stay participating in traditional Thai activities.

In the morning we went to give food to the monks of the temple in the home stay. I believe it was almost too early...

     After the morning's activities we left for our next destination: Pai. The route to get to Pai was an interesting road...

This is the best way to describe how we got there. It really did turned that much, but probably not in loop-d-loops.

   The trip there lasted basically the whole day. When we got to Pai we went straight to the place we were going to sleep. It was great; we had the whole place to ourselves, and the workers were all very nice.

This was what we saw as we walked into our individual rooms. Elephants!

The Brazilians taught me a Brazilian card game.

This basically shows that we had the whole place to our selves. Such a good time.

That night we went to the Pai walking street and just enjoyed our selves in a relaxed mode.

Nice shops to buy really cheap ok quality stuff.

My friend, Joao, trying on an earring.

    That ended the sixth day of the trip, just a little over half of our entire trip. The next day we woke up relaxed. We headed out late, but headed to a great destination: the Pai canyon.

It was beautiful, but so dangerous. Here I am basically standing on a peninsula, but instead of water surrounding me on three sides its just air.

   We spent the rest of the day resting at the resort in Pai. At night they had a big dinner/party for us. We found out that the party was to celebrate all of the birthdays that were in April (which included me and three other people). They even had a cake...

Instead of eating the cake, we had a giant food fight with it. It was the best way to spend the evening.

    That was the great end to the seventh day. The next day we headed out of Pai on a long trip back to Chiang Mai. We got to the Chiang Mai lake for lunch. Then, after, we headed to the same hotel we stayed at before we left for Chiang Rai.

This was what the tables looked like at the restaurant on the Chiang Mai lake.

    After we got back to the hotel in Chiang Mai, we headed out for dinner in the Chiang Mai walking street/market.

This had all of the foreigner food you could want. I of course choose the Subway.

The market was full of stuff to look at and buy.

 That ended the eighth day of our trip. The next day we traveled to what is said to be the highest point in Thailand.

We gathered for a big group picture.

    We walked around for a while. Then we headed off for our next destination: the gardens of the King and Queen (I think). It was at the top of a mountain.

This is a great picture of me wandering by myself.

There were two separate peaks, and they both had temples at the top like this.

     After we headed back to our hotel, and had another night at the Chiang Mai walking street. This ended the ninth day. The next we got up, packed and got ready to leave. Before we went to the airport we headed to the Chiang Mai zoo...

This was the entrance. I think they added great emphasis on the fact that the elephant is the national animal of Thailand...

We got to go to a panda viewing area. They are always cute.

After the pandas, we got to go to a "winter-land". They didn't have animals there, just a place for us to play. It was so much fun.

After everything was done, we had a wile to walk around by our selves. I found a loose peacock. It was pretty cool to be that close to such a colorful bird.

   After the zoo we headed to the airport for our flight home. Everyone was tired, and it showed on the plane.

Just some of the sleeping exchange students.

    We reached Bangkok, and everyone went their separate ways. It had been a great trip that will be hard to forget, and we were all tired and ready to be home (wow I'm thinking of my Thai house as home now). We got home just in enough time for us to rest before our next big event...

School Trip

     So I left off with my last trip to a wonderful and relaxing island. Well a few days after that trip I had been invited to go with my school class on a trip to the southeast area of Thailand. I, of course, took them up on their invitation.
       We left in the evening of the first day, and we didn't arrive until really early in the morning the next. We arrived so early in fact that no one slept, and instead we all took showers and got ready for the next day. After eating breakfast we went to a not so well known temple. After that we went to the most famous temple in Bangkok and probably all of Thailand: Wat Phra Kaeo. Then after that we went to what I came to understand as a palace, but it was basically a museum to for the past royal ways.

This is the not so well know temple, but still beautiful all the same.

I was trying to take pictures of my friends, but they got one of me instead.

The entrance to the famous Wat Phra Kaeo

I had been to the temple once before, so I spent most of my time there just talking to my friends.

One of many temples inside the Wat Phra Kaeo.

I know, another sideways picture, I'm sorry. This is the palace that we went to. We couldn't take any pictures inside, but I did get this one of the outside.

     I think after all of the touring we went to a zoo as well, but it wasn't worth taking any pictures there. The next day we got up, and I, along with the rest of my class, got to enjoy the experience of visiting Thailand's capital building. It reminded me a lot of seeing Illinois' capital building because of how small it was. After that we headed back to where we were staying and changed into swimming/beach gear. We headed to the beach and spent the rest of the afternoon there. Then we went for a nice dinner at a pier and retired soon after that.

These were some of the important documents on display at the capital building in Bangkok.

This is what reminded me of the capital building in Illinois. They have the same layout and everything.

Afterwards we went to the beach. They all decided to gang up on me and try to push me in the water.

Beach time, alright! Except for the fact that I have a dorky swimsuit on it was pretty cool.

The Thai guys are all into playing the guitar, and they brought two guitars with them on the trip.

As you can see at the dinner after I was pretty tired.

   Finally on the last day we traveled back to Udon. On the way we stopped at a huge image of Buddha inscribed on a mountain side by a laser, and after that we stopped at a winery near by. Then went on our way home...

Glad to have at least one picture with me and Buddha.

This is just to capture the shear size of the Buddha.

At this time I was looking at some of the teacher chaperons and trying to point out that there was no walking on the grass, even though they were doing just that at that moment.

A couple of my friends walking down some rows of grapevines in a great pic.

1st part of summer vacation

   So summer vacation has finally arrived here in little old Udon Thani, Thailand. Aside from the heat that keeps becoming hotter and the lack of seeing my school friends everyday, this has been a pretty good summer.

     Within a week of getting out my friends and I had a trip planned to go to an island in the south called  Koh Chang, or elephant island (because of the way it looks from an areal view, not because there are elephants there). We stayed with a Rotarian family for the first night, and then we headed off to the island.  It was one of the most relaxing experiences that I've ever had. We had no agenda, we were the only one's staying at our resort, and after the payment to rent the place everything else was free. It was great!

This welcoming sign reminded me a lot of the Hollywood sign.

This was our sleeping arraignments. We were right above the water.

Standing on the deck of our lodging place.

They had snorkeling as well as the kayaking. It was a fun filled adventure for sure.

  After the island, we went back to the Rotarian's house, and spent another two nights there. The next day we went to an elephant park that also had a large garden and some exotic animals.

Before the elephant show there was show on Thai traditions. They even had some fake Thai kickboxing.

At the elephant show there was a variety of things, from elephants painting (above) to elephants playing soccer and basketball.

They even had elephant massage, which sadly I did not get to participate in.

But I did get the chance to be picked up by one. It was very interesting.

The other exotic animals included tigers (above) and monkeys.

This is part of the garden that I was talking about.

   After the elephant park, we went to the beach for the rest of the day and relaxed, but also had some fun...

The relaxation I was talking about. 

And the fun I was talking about.

After that everyone was pretty tired, and we all headed back. The next day we spent in Paitaya waiting for our bus to take us home at around 9 o'clock. We went go-kart racing (no pics seeing as everyone in our group wanted to race), to this high building that reminded me of the needle in Seattle, and went to a mall just to hang out for the rest of the time before we had to leave.

The sign telling us what we could do at the top of the tower. 

Before you do anything look at the next photo. It is the photo I'm taking in this very photo here.

Somehow I managed to get my camera out of my pocket to take this.

Nothing but blue skies and a little bit of clouds.

  After all of that we finally went to the bus station. We boarded the bus and took the overnight bus to a welcoming home and bed.  But my next trip was only a few days later, so be looking soon for a new update...