Chiang Rai
Two weeks ago I headed up to Chiang Rai with Stacey for my final visa run. (I've already been here 9 months - crazy!) Early Friday morning we set off for our bus. Sadly, we missed it by 3 minutes. No worries though, as 45 minutes later we were on a different one. Around one in the afternoon we arrived in the northern city of Chiang Rai Thailand. After my other visa runs to Laos and Cambodia it was nice to have a 4 hour bus ride and be done with the trip. Our goal was not actually to see much but to relax. Our goal was mostly accomplished. We stayed at a nice place called The Chat House that had clean, comfortable rooms and HOT showers! We got massages and ate delicious food. I think we hit almost every farang style restaurant in the place. While our meals at the school are good, and we are lucky because we don't have to cook (although cooking sometimes would be nice), it is still nice to have a meal that doesn't have rice in it. Friday night we went to an Italian style restaurant that even brought complimentary bread to the table. Ahhh, the things one takes for granted at home!
Saturday continued the relaxing theme and I don't believe there is anything too worth while to note. Saturday night, however, we enjoyed the Chiang Rai night Bazaar. They had a quite a few unique things for decent prices. Mostly it was just fun to walk around and look. I have a feeling I'll be back someday.
Sunday afternoon I took a bus to Mae Sai so that I could cross the border into Burma. I ended up arriving rather late, so I think I was only on the Burma side for about 5 minutes before I had to come back and catch my bus. I met a student of mine and a young man staying at the school who also had to extend his time. The three of us found out there wouldn't be any more buses leaving from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai so we caught the last bus to Chiang Rai and the 4 of us stayed another night. We left bright and early the next morning to gear up for another day of school.
Doi Suthep and Huai Kaew Waterfall
Last Sunday one of my students asked if I would like to go to a popular waterfall with him and his family. I readily agreed since the day was beautiful and I thought it would be fun to play with the kids! They asked my brother too, plus another of my students and soon we had a little motorbike caravan. I didn't know where the waterfalls are located, which is probably a good thing since it was my first time riding on the motorbike with Ben. While he is perfectly trustworthy, in some ways he's still my little brother and it's just weird to put my life in his hands! Considering the twisty turns and steep inclines, it was definitely better that he was driving. There's no way I could have gotten our little motorbike up the mountain. After many exclamations of "Ben, slow down!" and numerous replies of "Erika, I have to keep the rpms up!" we arrived in one piece at the waterfalls. We took some pictures and cooled our feet in the stream.
Soon someone suggested going further up the mountain to Doi Suthep. Even though I was a little worried about my nerves I gave an enthusiastic yes. Doi Suthep is probably the most popular tourist attraction in Chiang Mai. It's a Buddhist temple situated atop a hill, with great views of Chiang Mai. It was the views that I was most interested in.
After an exciting and not-as-terrifying-as-I-thought-it-would-be ride to the bottom, we headed home.
