Day 131313

December 20: Day 13 (Last day!) Emily Hello again, friends. Wow, I need to write in order to de-stress. It’s been a long day. We packed all of our things and after cleaning up the shards of glass from a bottle I accidentally knocked over, we got on the ferry to Koh Samui, where the airport is. Got on a shuttle, and arrived. The airport is literally awesome. The gates are outside, with nice comfy chairs and complimentary chocolate milk and pizza. I’m not kidding. So we arrived in Bangkok around 5pm, and I checked into my hotel, which is swanky, let me tell you. A picture of me in the lobby is below. My room is super nice, with a bathtub and a shower. Wow it has been a long time since I’ve been in a nice hotel. We got on the subway to meet up with Christopher and Kiran somewhere in the city and got our last dinner together of ramen and dumplings. It was nice to see them again. I have to interrupt now to say that “What Does the Fox Say” is playing in one of the restaurants in the lobby right now. Life. Made. Anyway, after dinner and saying goodbye to our friends, Joey and I took a cab back to the hotel so he could pick up his bags. We had one final cuddle sesh, then off he went. And now I am alone. I was seriously stressed out for a lot of the evening because I was worried Joey would miss his flight, and I saw that the spa “menu” in my room said the spa was open until midnight. Hmm… a relaxing massage would be nice. Or a “milk and honey bath”. I set out to find said spa. I ended up at a deserted swimming pool with a lone barman and a very creepy garden. Eventually I found the spa and they said there were no more available treatments today so I left. I started experiencing drug-addict-like withdrawal symptoms from my lack of internet, so I went down to the lobby to search for some. $10 is a reasonable investment to pay for video chatting with my parents, I’d say. So, now I’m here, in the lobby of the airport hotel in Bangkok, and I don’t want to go back to my room because I haven’t been alone – really alone – for the last 4 months. Can you believe that? I need 30 people around me constantly now to feel normal. I used to love my alone time but now it’s just sort of… stressful and scary. But I’ll be fine. Well… I guess that’s it then. The end of the blog. You’ll have to check facebook to see what I’m up to back in LA. I can’t wait to be home and with my family for 6 weeks. Then… off to the next adventure! Alright. Goodbye! Emily PS: Now I get to go back and read all of Joey's posts... Tee hee hee! And, we are going to see each other when we are both back in LA… hooray!

Joey is on his way back to Texas now!

Swanky hotel lobby…. and me

Day 12

Post beach pictures

New sunglasses

"Foreigners"

We just fit together so well

Days 10 and 11

Emily Yesterday we went to the beach and fell promptly asleep. Then we met up with our friends Kiran and Christopher who had come to the island for one night. It was nice to see them again. We got dinner and then danced on the beach with the other tourists all night. I even got my arm painted like a tiger. Man, dancing was really fun! So we slept in this morning. Actually, I slept most of the day. We only ventured outside to get food and buy Joey those shorts he wanted. And we took a walk. On our walk we saw a Thai fighting stadium, and I’ve been wanting to see some Thai fighting. So we went in and watched. The matches were good. It felt weird clapping for someone who just knocked another guy down, though. The nice thing about Thai fighting is that the competition is friendly… they are very respectful towards one another. This island is a weird place. It caters to a very specific audience. Goods/services for sale include: Alcohol, (Western) food, hostel rooms, clinic services, bro-tanks, sunglasses, snorkeling trips, taxis, tattoos. All we’ve bought so far from this list is food, one taxi, and a hostel room. I might get some sunglasses here, though, just because they’re more expensive in the U.S. We wanted to go snorkeling tomorrow but the waves are supposed to be 4 meters high so we’re out of luck. Oh well. Beach days are good days, too. My arms are cold and my stomach feels weird (again) so I’m going to bed. PS: Today I saw a guy wearing the worst shirt ever. It said, in bold, all-caps letters and in three different colors: VIRGINS HERE I AM … There are only two responses he could possibly get by wearing this:       1.     The optimistic response: “Hello, I am a virgin. I see from your shirt that you are here. What can you do for me?”       2.     The realistic response:  “Dude. Seriously. Change.” Bye. Emily

Joey It’s me, Emily, writing this for Joey again. Here’s what I think he would say if he weren’t asleep right now: Today I saw the cutest puppy! There are a lot of Israeli tourists here, more so than I would have expected. Many of the signs are in Hebrew and stores advertise the Israeli food they sell. Every time I turn a corner I hear people speaking Hebrew. It’s a nice surprise. Speaking of which, I taught Emily the history of Israel by drawing in the sand on the beach. I really don’t know what else he would say, except maybe that he’s tired, he had fun with Christopher and Kiran, and maybe he would make up a story about elephants storming the beach and attacking everyone and how he saved not only me, but everyone on the whole island. Just a hunch. -Emily

Day 9

December 16: Day 9 Emily Let me start right where I left off. Sorry, this is gonna be a long one. As you know, I consumed two boba drinks last night, both of which were caffeinated. I knew this going into it, and I prepared myself for a restless night of sleep or lack thereof. But nothing could have prepared me for what actually happened. I managed to fall asleep around 12, but it was a very light sleep. I was somehow jostled awake at 1:30, and didn’t know why. A few seconds later, a shrill, female scream tore through the alley next to our hostel, followed by three aggressive and threatening-sounding male shouts. Then, nothing. No sounds of violence, but… I didn’t know what to do. My heart was pounding from fear and caffeine. Joey was asleep, as was everyone else in Thailand it seemed. Dogs started barking and I held my knees to my chest. What was I going to do? The front desk closes at 9. I don’t speak Thai. I don’t know the number for 911. I wasn’t about to pull a Nancy Drew and venture outside to solve a mystery and put myself in danger. I tried to look out the window, but the glass was frosted. I didn’t want to be seen, so I opened it just a few inches to see down below, but there was nothing obviously wrong… except that there was nobody around. I couldn’t have been the only one to hear it. I woke Joey up to tell him, but he fell back asleep. I heard footsteps coming down the hall and a shadow passed by the crack under the door, so somebody was up – maybe they heard it, too. I went into the bathroom so I wouldn’t wake Joey up and called my parents, who told me to open the window more and look out again. I did, but I still couldn’t see anyone. The dogs had started barking again, but the sound came from beyond a building that I couldn’t see over or around. I locked the window and my parents said that there wasn’t much that I could do about the situation. I ended up talking to them for two hours, just about normal stuff, which was very comforting. Well, I fell in and out of some kind of sleep stupor for the rest of the night, woke up with a stomachache and swore off sugar for the rest of the trip. Nothing online this morning about an attack last night. Hm. Got a great breakfast with Joey (who else?). The rest of the day was a travel day. We are now at our hostel in Koh Phangan, perfectly safe. Pretty touristy, but nice people so far. Heads up, tomorrow’s blog post might be delayed because we’ll probably be up pretty late and only want to sleep when we get back to the room. Speaking of our room, it smells like fish rotting on a giant kelp plant half buried in wet sand during the hottest part of the day. See ya, Emily

Joey Joey didn’t feel like writing anything today, but he probably would have said something along the lines of: My breakfast was way too spicy, we took a cab, a plane, two minivan “limos”, a ferry, and another minivan to get from Chiang Mai to Koh Phangan. My dinner was also too spicy. But I love curry so much I can’t help myself. The beach here is pretty cool, too. There was a guy twirling these fireballs on a platform and there were sparks flying everywhere and Emily’s and my jaws dropped. It was amazing! Maybe I’ll buy a pair of shorts here. So excited for tomorrow’s adventures! -Emily

Attempted cuddles at the Chiang Mai Airport

Airplane magazine advertisement. The caption for this picture read: "The best beach club: for nice people only". Apparently nice people can be identified by their hooded swimsuits.  

Our exact expressions during our final minivan "limo" from the ferry to our hostel. We've had about enough of these full days of travel. 

Day 8

December 15: Day 8 Emily Meow. Woke up. White bread. Marmalade. Another open-back van picked us up today, and there were many people in it. Two Germans, two Danes, two Australians, us… and…. Two Dutch people. As if that weren’t wonderful enough, the Dutch guy had been an AFS student in high school, and studied for one year in Mexico!! We’re like twins. I love Dutch people. I think I have to move back to the Netherlands at some point. This amazingly cute and hilarious Thai woman showed us around the market to introduce us to some of the ingredients we would be using in the cooking class. She made two very notable comments about Thai cooking:     1.) “Thai people eat rice because we are happy.” (Good enough reason for me.)     2.) “In Thailand, we have rice noodles made from rice, and egg noodles made from egg… we also have glass noodles, but not made from glass. That would be too hard; you cannot eat that.” (Word.) We drove up to this organic farm and learned about the plants from the woman while walking around the garden picking basil and long beans etc. Then we each ground up our own curry pastes with a mortar and pestle. We actually made a lot of dishes. Today I made yellow curry with chicken, tom yam soup with prawns, cashew chicken, spring rolls, and…. Bananas in coconut milk…!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE THIS DESSERT! IT’S SO EASY TO MAKE AND I WILL EAT IT ALL DAY EVERYDAY WHEN I GET HOME. We got cookbooks, so I’m actually serious. After the class Joey and I headed over to the Sunday market where I finally bought those touristy elephant pants. I’m wearing them now haha. I also bought the last of my holiday prezzies for my fam, hooray. On the way back, Joey let me indulge in my one dream for Thailand… all I ever really wanted from this country was a real, Thai boba (bubble tea). And I got it. The best part was that Joey didn’t want his after all, so I got TWO bobas! Which was even better! Until I drank all of his and most of mine and ended up curled up in a ball on the bed feeling water-logged. Stuck out the pain. Finished my boba. I believe the saying, “youth is wasted on the young” is most appropriate here. Lovely this trip has been so far. Traveling tomorrow. Hopefully everything will run as smoothly as it has been. Goodbye for now. Emily PS: Joey says it feels like we are playing house. I agree. I say things like, “Did we turn off the bathroom light? Let me go back and check real quick…” and today I made him hold my purse while I tried on a sweater at the market. He didn’t like that very much. But I did. Lol.

Day 8, Dec 15 Joey Curry count is now to 6. Ate a bowl yesterday and a bowl today. Of curry that is. I didn’t eat any actual bowls. Prologue – Naturally, Emily and I have been spending a ton of time with each other. Like, I don’t think there has been another time in my life when I have spent this much time with one person for a week. And what happens when you start spending this much time with one person? You lose your conceptions of what is silly/weird/normal. So for example, sometimes when we are just hanging in the hostel, I will roll over onto her and say, “Leach!” (beacuase leaches do that?) Or we have whole conversations where no actual words are exchanged and instead we just mumbled and grunt and make weird noises before breaking out into laughter.  Sometimes, I growl at her. Today we did a cooking class. There was a lot of cooking, and a lot of eating. Like lots of eating. I had to save my list so I could remember. Today I learned to make the following: Green curry with chicken, vegetable Thai soup, chicken with cashews, pad thai, and mango with sticky rice. It was incredible. Literally, each dish was better than the one before. Which makes sense because I love desert and we started with the vegetable soup which wasn’t great. Highlights include: A really fun group of Dutch, Danish, German, and Australian folks, a really cute instructor lady who is pictured somewhere on this blog, eating the equivalent of three meals in 5 hours, receiving a cookbook with all the recipes, using a wok, and having tons of fun.  After the cooking class, we got dropped off at a market. Lilly (read previous posts for description of Lilly) told me about a really cool Sunday market that happens in Chiang Mai. Well, we asked to get dropped off there, but I think we got dropped off at a market that happens all the time because I saw this one yesterday when I was looking for the bookstore. But it was still cool and I almost bought a shirt with a cool frocket. Emily bought some stuff, including the classic “I went to South East Asia and all I got were these “ elephant design pants. We also got some boba after the cooking class. I’m not a big tea/coffee person (except diet peach tea Snapple. I live off that.), but I decided to get some boba anyways. Emily has been talking about getting some for days, but we haven’t yet. Until today, when we both got some. About half way through, I decided I didn’t like mine, so I gave it Em. She then drank both. Emily is a champ. On the walk back, we also noticed that our legs were covered in sticky burrs. IDK why anyone would care, but now you know. Tomorrow we leave for Koh Samui and Koh Phangan for the rest of our trip. We are now officially over the half-way mark, which is sad because this crazy adventure (IHP + travelling) is coming to a close, but I can’t deny that it will be great to be home and back at school. Peace and love friends.

December 15: Day 8

Emily

Meow.

Woke up. White bread. Marmalade.

Another open-back van picked us up today, and there were many people in it. Two Germans, two Danes, two Australians, us… and…. Two Dutch people. As if that weren’t wonderful enough, the Dutch guy had been an AFS student in high school, and studied for one year in Mexico!! We’re like twins. I love Dutch people. I think I have to move back to the Netherlands at some point.

This amazingly cute and hilarious Thai woman showed us around the market to introduce us to some of the ingredients we would be using in the cooking class. She made two very notable comments about Thai cooking:

    1.) “Thai people eat rice because we are happy.” (Good enough reason for me.)

    2.) “In Thailand, we have rice noodles made from rice, and egg noodles made from egg… we also have glass noodles, but not made from glass. That would be too hard; you cannot eat that.” (Word.)

We drove up to this organic farm and learned about the plants from the woman while walking around the garden picking basil and long beans etc. Then we each ground up our own curry pastes with a mortar and pestle.

We actually made a lot of dishes. Today I made yellow curry with chicken, tom yam soup with prawns, cashew chicken, spring rolls, and…. Bananas in coconut milk…!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE THIS DESSERT! IT’S SO EASY TO MAKE AND I WILL EAT IT ALL DAY EVERYDAY WHEN I GET HOME. We got cookbooks, so I’m actually serious.

After the class Joey and I headed over to the Sunday market where I finally bought those touristy elephant pants. I’m wearing them now haha. I also bought the last of my holiday prezzies for my fam, hooray. On the way back, Joey let me indulge in my one dream for Thailand… all I ever really wanted from this country was a real, Thai boba (bubble tea). And I got it.

The best part was that Joey didn’t want his after all, so I got TWO bobas! Which was even better! Until I drank all of his and most of mine and ended up curled up in a ball on the bed feeling water-logged. Stuck out the pain. Finished my boba. I believe the saying, “youth is wasted on the young” is most appropriate here.

Lovely this trip has been so far.

Traveling tomorrow. Hopefully everything will run as smoothly as it has been.

Goodbye for now.

Emily

PS: Joey says it feels like we are playing house. I agree. I say things like, “Did we turn off the bathroom light? Let me go back and check real quick…” and today I made him hold my purse while I tried on a sweater at the market. He didn’t like that very much. But I did. Lol.

Day 8, Dec 15

Joey

Curry count is now to 6. Ate a bowl yesterday and a bowl today. Of curry that is. I didn’t eat any actual bowls.

Prologue – Naturally, Emily and I have been spending a ton of time with each other. Like, I don’t think there has been another time in my life when I have spent this much time with one person for a week. And what happens when you start spending this much time with one person? You lose your conceptions of what is silly/weird/normal. So for example, sometimes when we are just hanging in the hostel, I will roll over onto her and say, “Leach!” (beacuase leaches do that?) Or we have whole conversations where no actual words are exchanged and instead we just mumbled and grunt and make weird noises before breaking out into laughter.  Sometimes, I growl at her.

Today we did a cooking class. There was a lot of cooking, and a lot of eating. Like lots of eating. I had to save my list so I could remember. Today I learned to make the following: Green curry with chicken, vegetable Thai soup, chicken with cashews, pad thai, and mango with sticky rice. It was incredible. Literally, each dish was better than the one before. Which makes sense because I love desert and we started with the vegetable soup which wasn’t great. Highlights include: A really fun group of Dutch, Danish, German, and Australian folks, a really cute instructor lady who is pictured somewhere on this blog, eating the equivalent of three meals in 5 hours, receiving a cookbook with all the recipes, using a wok, and having tons of fun. 

After the cooking class, we got dropped off at a market. Lilly (read previous posts for description of Lilly) told me about a really cool Sunday market that happens in Chiang Mai. Well, we asked to get dropped off there, but I think we got dropped off at a market that happens all the time because I saw this one yesterday when I was looking for the bookstore. But it was still cool and I almost bought a shirt with a cool frocket. Emily bought some stuff, including the classic “I went to South East Asia and all I got were these “ elephant design pants.

We also got some boba after the cooking class. I’m not a big tea/coffee person (except diet peach tea Snapple. I live off that.), but I decided to get some boba anyways. Emily has been talking about getting some for days, but we haven’t yet. Until today, when we both got some. About half way through, I decided I didn’t like mine, so I gave it Em. She then drank both. Emily is a champ. On the walk back, we also noticed that our legs were covered in sticky burrs. IDK why anyone would care, but now you know.

Tomorrow we leave for Koh Samui and Koh Phangan for the rest of our trip. We are now officially over the half-way mark, which is sad because this crazy adventure (IHP + travelling) is coming to a close, but I can’t deny that it will be great to be home and back at school. Peace and love friends.

Joey in his cooking outfit - the sombrero is a necessity 

Our amazing, cute, wonderful, sassy, and hilarious chef instructor

Believe it or not, this is a dragon fruit plant

Emily's yellow curry paste (left), Joey's green curry paste (right)

The cooking station 

Joey making Pad Thai! Maybe he'll make some for you if you ask nicely

Emily's excitement at the prospect of having not one, but TWO bobas - a joy that is pure and good

Day 7… Halfway!

Day 6

December 13: Day 6 Emily Joey saved my life today. We woke up this morning to our usual breakfast of white bread and marmalade. At 8:30, an open-back van picked us up from the hostel and off we merrily went. Two couples shared the van with us. An older British couple and a younger Dutch one. What?!? Dutch?!?! People who speak Dutch?!?! A dream come true! I was practically doing back-flips and somersaults I was so excited to talk to them. And they were so quintessentially Dutch, too, ohmygosh throwback. They were all really cool and nice people. Anyway, along the way we bought three giant bags of bananas. When we arrived we were instructed to put on these oh-so-very flattering outfits to play with the elephants in. Suddenly, a real live elephant came lumbering towards us, enticed by our attractive, yellow treats. Soon, two more elephants joined in the fun of holding out their trunks to grab a banana and fold it into their mouths. After the snack, we were allowed to practice riding the elephants! It was pretty difficult getting on and keeping my balance and actually it was all pretty difficult but fun nonetheless. The elephants then gave us “kisses” by sucking on our cheeks with their trunks. We made and ate our own papaya salad and then it was time for the trek. Joey and I got on the back of an elephant and embarked on the jungle pathway. Joey sat up front, on the neck, and me on the shoulders. However, our elephant was irritated. She kept throwing dirt on Joey and flapping her ears against his legs. She also kept stopping and ripping out plants to eat and scratching her back on trees and rocks, which we had to avoid being crushed against. She also wagged her head a lot to the side while jerking around going downhill, so we were scared we would fall off! Eventually we got to the river, and our guide said something in Thai and tapped the elephant on her trunk and was suddenly lifted effortlessly from the ground onto her head! Amazing! As we were going through the river, the elephant showed more signs of irritation. She started making sounds with her trunk and did not want to stand still for us to climb off onto a log, but luckily the guide held her still long enough for us to get off, which was kind of a relief. The three elephants had tons of fun playing with each other in the water and rolling around. We got to splash water on them and brush them. Then we had to take a lot of photos and pose with them. Then we learned how to make elephant laxatives. You pound rice so the husk comes off a bit, grind it with tamarind, sugar cane paste, and bananas and roll it into a ball and garnish it with a slice of cucumber (?). So, now you know that. I fed mine to a very pushy elephant who insisted I give it to her, and then she grabbed me with her trunk tying to keep me there, but I escaped after a bit of a struggle. Hooray, then it was time to see the baby elephant! Only 5 weeks old, she was a real beauty. She liked to hide between the legs of the other elephants, who were chained up actually… (don’t worry, they were really well treated it seemed, but they had to be chained at certain times so they wouldn’t run away or have too many roaming at one time). Joey loved the baby and pet her a lot and was smiling like a little kid the whole time. I wanted to pet an elephant who wasn’t getting a whole lot of attention from the group. Joey and I went over to her and were petting her trunk and talking to her. She was feeling me a lot with her trunk and I thought it was cute and funny… until she wrapped my head up like a boa constrictor and started pulling me towards her face. She was about to put my entire head in her mouth when Joey grabbed me, cried, “No, she’s MY Emily!” and yanked me away. My hero. My head kind of hurt after that – elephants are strong! I was told that the elephant did that because she liked my hair. Uhm. What? Luckily we got back to the hostel in one piece, showered, and looked up the address of a restaurant Joey’s friend recommended. It was a great choice. I ate foods from my childhood, like Tom Ka Gai and black sesame paste. We walked there but took a tuk tuk back. Now I’m in my room, about to watch a movie with you-know-who. Sleeping in tomorrow, without any strict plans. So, basically, today was perfect. I hope you enjoy the pictures! Thanks for reading. Buh bye. Emily

Day 6, Dec 13 Joey             Emily and I are on a roll. If it isn’t a travel day, you can bank on us doing something awesome. And today was no different, and may actually take the cake so far. We spent the whole day with elephants.             Before we begin, these elephants were beautiful. They were so big, and had so much personality, and they loved eating everything green. So…             First we fed them bananas. Then they gave us elephant kisses. Then we learned to ride them. Then at some point we went for a ride to the river. The elephant that me and Emily were on gave us a mildly scary ride. He kept throwing his trunk up at us, and stopping suddenly to try to eat a tree. It’s also difficult to balance on the elephants, and especially hard when they move their heads. I thought I was going to fall once or twice. Then we bathed them.             The first best part was saving Emily when an elephant tried to eat her. I know what the zoologist in all y’all is thinking, “Wait, I thought elephants were herbivores.” (That is what everyone thought…right?) But this one was inspecting Emily with her trunk, as they normally do. And then she tried to wrap her up and pull Em into her mouth. I yanked Emily away. It actually wasn’t that scary, but lets just all say that I rescued someone from a freak carnivorous elephant attack.             The other first best part was that we got to play with a BABY ELEPHANT. Like a really little one. 5 weeks old. She would wander around and then come hang with us and we could pet her and it was beautiful.             There is a lot more to today, but I’m tired. Emily just told me she wrote 800 words, compared to my 300 and change so go read hers.

Elephant handling costumes

Emily provides a tasty treat!

GIMMIE DAT FOOOOOOD!! (Don't eat my iPhone! It's not food!)

The elephant is impatient with Joey and wants food now now now

Emily attempts to ride an elephant without being awkward. Fails.

Joey climb elephant? 

Emily attempts to pose with elephants without being awkward. Fails. 

Joey plays with the babeh. His life is wonderful.

Proof that an elephant tried to eat me

Day 5

December 12: Day 5 Emily Hey. I got to sleep in a bit this morning. ‘Til 8! Crawled out of bed to a breakfast of white bread and orange marmalade. A man wearing yellow camo shorts and a white polo shirt and emanating so much swag rolled up in a red Honda and became our personal driver for the day. We drove allllll the way up to the mountains to get to the temple called Doi Suthep. The drive was beautiful, with lots of trees, and Joey noticed how smooth the roads were compared to the other places we’ve been driving in. We expected the hike up to the temple to be long and painful. Instead, it was short and painful. That’s what four months of sitting still gets you – low stamina. Anyway, the temple was so shiny that I had to squint and Joey even put on sunglasses. It was plated in gold and people walked in circles around the gold tower with tulips, praying. It was sort of a weird mix of really serious locals trying to pray and really serious tourists trying to take pictures. When we were done there, our swaggy red Honda guy took us to go play with some tigers. Funny thing, at really touristy places, people will always greet us in Thai first with their palms pressed together and a huge, welcoming smile, and then switch immediately into English. Just something I’ve noticed. Anyway, so they greeted us and then said, what size tiger do you want to play with: smallest, small, medium, or big. We chose medium. It was a great decision. We got to meet “Fat Boy” and all his lady friends. The trainers had some pretty funny jokes up their sleeves. Jokes like, “Hungry tiger, tiger hungry! Oh, Fat Boy, don’t eat them!” and “Don’t worry. His teeth are small” *lifts mouth to expose 2 inch long fangs*. The best was, “They like American meat”. Ha. Hahaha. Ha. We both fell asleep in the Honda ride home. Then chilled in the room until we decided it was time to eat. Joey really wanted Massaman curry, and found a good place online. We attempted to find it, and crossed many streets, but it was to no avail. We ended up eating somewhere we passed along the way… you probably know that I don’t eat very quickly, but there was no stopping me this time. I am really going to miss the food in SE Asia. We walked around for a while just to check the city out, got tired, returned to the room. Lots of much needed chilling got done. We also raced each other with online geography games. He beat me, 2/3. I won Africa, he won Europe, and won South America (but only by 3 seconds), and we tied for Asia. Since Joey was determined to get this curry thing, we traversed the scary streets with relentless traffic again. We eventually arrived at the dot on the map, but it was just some outside hut where the people were really confused by us, so we left. It took us 20 minutes to cross all those streets again. Well, we made it to a really touristy spot where we got the Massaman curry and mango juice. So. Worth. It. Good job, Joey. Now we are in the hostel. Tomorrow we see elephants. Joey will probably call them giraffes. They are not giraffes. Byeee. Emily

Day 5, Dec 12 Joey             Highlights include seeing Doi Suthep, a fancy Buddhist Temple on a mountain, petting  “medium” sized tigers, lounging hard at the hostel, not finding a restaurant twice, seeing giraffes again, and bringing my curry count to 4.              Emily and I left the hostel at 9 for Doi Suthep. It is an incredible temple on a mountain just outside of Chiang Mai. Not overwhelmingly amazing like Angkor Wat, but really pretty, with lots of gold plated buildings, incense burning, statues of Buddha, and people praying and feeling very spiritual. We took lots of pictures and were generally thinking, “Dang, this is pretty dope.”             Afterwards, we went to a tiger-petting area thing. Apparently in Thailand you can play with tigers whenever you want, instead of in America when the only time is the one day in 6 years of elementary school when the tiger man comes. (Ian Dyckes, if you are reading this, know that I was thinking about you while petting the tiger.) We didn’t really know what to expect, but we got to pet these “medium” sized tigers that seemed massive to me. Huge paws and huge teeth. I was pretty scared while petting them, but the trainers were there with me and I think were enjoying how scared I was. They called one ‘fat boy,’ and were playing with them and telling us its okay to touch them. They also made comments like ‘Oh, he is so hungry. You are from USA? Fat boy loves American meat.” Really comforting. We also saw some baby tigers, a lion, and a parrot. Solid animal experience. Excited to play with elephants tomorrow.             From here, we were exhausted, so we went back to the hostel and VEGGED OUT. Like, we did nothing for about an hour, which is great because we have been running around a lot the last few days, and we’re on vacation. Whenever I thought “Yoo, you’re in Thailand! Go run around,” I replied to myself ,”Yo, you’re on vacation, lay can lay in bed if you want!.” (Weird to think that I’m on winter vacation right now.)  So we chilled out, eventually got up, attempted to find a restaurant called Bon Kitchen, failed, and then stumbled on some great Thai food.             On our purposefully detoured, long walk home, we saw two giraffe statues. They were located at the end of a line of statues of all different animals. Emily seemed to think the giraffe statues were in the middle of the row, but they were on the end. Silly Emily, she loves giraffes so much but still doesn’t know what they are.             For dinner, we attempted again to find Bon Kitchen. Our friend from Cambodia told us that the food to eat in Chiang Mai is massaman curry. So I googled massaman curry, and google informed me that Bon Kitchen had the good stuff. So again, we go on a journey to find this place. The first time, we weren’t close. This time, we think we find it, but it’s a patio with 6 Thai men laughing at us. So we left, found another place that served massaman curry, and it was amazing. I don’t know anything about it other than there were cashews, chicken, rice, peanuts, and some veggies in there. Guessing some curry powder and coconut milk. Must learn how to make.             Peace and love homies.

Idols at the mountain temple called Doi Suthep

Proof

More proof

Golden idols

Emily poses with her new friend

Joey has fun with his new friend

We're starting a band. This is our album cover.

Trainer plays with tiger

NEWBORN BABY TIGER IS OH SO CUTE!!!!!

Because this had to happen

Very hungry fish. I do not recommend a fish massage with these guys. 

Joey smiles about his Massaman curry. The tourist behind him enjoys a beer.

Joey, quite full,  finishes his curry before the tourist finishes his beer. 

Day 4

December 11: Day 4 Emily Hello again. I just got soap in my eye. Thailand has very strong soap. We arrived in Chiang Mai today around 5pm. It took us a little while to figure out how to get a taxi, but eventually we did and off we went. So far, this city could be anywhere. I can’t find a particularly distinguishing factor. If you blindfolded me and just dropped me here and told me I was in Colorado, or New Jersey, or anywhere else, I would believe you. Until I tried to read a sign. Or say anything. This is what Thai looks like: มากินอาหารนี้ The people who run the hostel we’re staying in are so amazingly nice and helpful and have really cute babies. They helped us set up many activities for the next coming days. Aaaand… our room is pink! It's like an eight-year old's dream. With birds and leaves on the wall and it feels oh so cozy. See pictures below of how Joey so effortlessly and perfectly blends with this cozy habitat. It is also really hot here. We were walking around trying to find the means to fill Joey’s black hole of a stomach and I was sweating, even though it was 7pm. Oh, I forgot to mention earlier that Cambodia reminds me a lot of Ghana in certain ways. Anyway, apparently Joey is planning on counting how many times he eats curry on this trip and so far he’s at 3. What a fun game. Tomorrow we will see more of the city and go on adventures. Plus, it will be light out so I’ll have more to say and hopefully we’ll see more people and, well, stuff. It’s weird though – I’m so used to seeing familiar faces in unfamiliar cities, but now it’s only us two in Chiang Mai from our program. I won’t be randomly bumping into my other friends. You know, when I was younger, like, 10, I used to lie in my bed and wonder who else was out there, what are they doing, who are they, are they thinking this same thought as me? But now that I’ve met 31 amazing people, I know who’s out there and I know that whatever they are doing, they are doing it well. I like that thought… it’s pretty comforting. I’m glad that I decided to travel after the program. I could be sitting on my couch at home and eating frozen macaroons and watching movies with my family, but I’ll have time to do that soon (and trust me, it’ll happen). For right now, I’m leisurely perusing a continent I had never been on before. Nice. Okay, goodbye. Emily

Day 4, Dec 11 Joey             Like I said earlier. Today was a travel day. Woke up, said goodbye to our IHP family (won’t be seeing any IHP homies for sure until I get to the airport for my return flight), flew to Bangkok, layover, Chiang Mai, hostel in Chiang Mai, freak out because I’m so excited to be here, and curry. Which starts me on my new feature, the curry count. So, I’m planning on eating curry as often as I can while in Thailand, so I decided to start a curry count. Every time I eat a bowl of curry (its usually green), I add one to the curry count. Right now the curry count = 3.             During our 7ish hours of travel today, Emily and I played the game where we take turns saying a sentence, and each sentence is another part of a story. But its fun because your sentences don’t have to be logical and you just have to roll with the story. Eventually our story was about how one of the stone facades of a Temple in Angkor Wat turned into Santa Claus after some a huge crowd of armadillos did something. I forget, but the little moments where we pass the time and do funny little things is the real fun part of traveling I think. The big moments where you see Angkor Wat are great, and probably more memorable, but laughing at a silly game you play in an airport is where its really at.           OK, so Chiang Mai- My two best friends from home, Joe and Lilly Lerer, studied abroad in Chiang Mai when we were juniors in high school. Since then, I have heard a lot about Thailand, Chiang Mai, and have wanted to visit ever since. I am very excited to be here and explore the city. But at the same time there are so many touristy activities to do, that aren’t walking around and absorbing the city. There are opportunities for massage classes, cooking classes, and all sorts of ecotourism stuff. We’ll see what we end up doing and what we don’t make it too. But I’m definitely excited for the next couple days.

Zoe at our final dinner together - tourist paradise as a backdrop

Zoe, Joey, and Sophie on our hammocks by the lake

The inevitable hammock "selfie"

Priority seating in the Bangkok airport - monks

Making faces at the gate

We saw the plane's shadow inside a circular rainbow from the window

Joey blending in effortlessly and perfectly with the cozy habitat

A very interesting quote and a very pleasant wall decal