Mountains, Camping, and Waterfalls

The past couple of days have been an adventure! Yesterday we drove up the tallest mountain in Thailand. It's called Doi Inthanon. Part way up the mountain are two Chetis. They were built for the king and queen on their 60^th birthdays. From far away they look like temples, but they are just gifts to the king and queen. They each have beautiful gardens behind them and have a wonderful view of the mountains. Inside each of the Chetis are statues of Buddha and inside the queen's Cheti are colorful murals. 

After we visited the Chetis we drove farther up the mountain to a campground with rows and rows of tents. There were 7 of us girls all packed up in one tent and we definitely needed to body heat to stay warm! It got pretty cold where we were staying.

The next morning we drove part way down the mountain for breakfast. Thai people don't really have the same kind of breakfast food that we do. They eat rice soup, which to me tastes like chicken noodle soup with rice. On the menu they actually had “American Breakfast” so most of us got that. I had an omelet with mushrooms that tasted a bit like it had been deep fried...

After breakfast was the adventure to find the waterfalls. There are several waterfalls that you can visit and we stopped at 3. At the third one there was a pretty good sized swimming hole so we all jumped in and swam around. It was freezing cold, but after a few minutes your legs go numbe, so it's no big deal. There was one part of the waterfall where the rocks were very slippery and soft from all the water. We had the great idea of going down it like a waterslide and it proved to be a fantastic idea. I think it has been my favorite thing so far :) So much fun! After swimming by the waterfall (in Thailand, in January!) we went to a restaurant for lunch that served food right by the waterfall. They actually had these bamboo table things that were on top of the water on rocks and stilts, and then little tiny tables that you sat in front of. We had fish and chicken with sticky rice and then we had sticky rice with bananas for dessert. Delicious :)

The taxis here are called songthaews. They're basically a pick up truck with a cover on the back that has benches on the inside. We rode in songthaews all the way up and mountain and back. On the back end of the songthaew there is a platform where you can stand, a couple of the other girls and I stood on the back of the songthaew for most of the ride home. It helped dry out our bathing suits and give us pretty awesome hair...

Tomorrow morning we start our Community Development class, which should be a lot of fun and very interesting. There's also a Buddhist temple just down the road that a couple of the girls and I want to visit. I hope everyone is doing well!

This is the view from the road on our first bike adventure. You can see the mountains in the background.

This is what was given to each us when we first arrived at the airport in Chiang Mai. I believe that you're supposed to hang it up and let the flowers dry out. They smelled so good!

Bike adventure

This is where they do cremations. It is located at the very back of our campus.

Our bikes!

Sawat-dee Ka!

Sawat-dee Ka! (Hello!)

We've safely arrived in Chiang Mai and I can't even to begin to explain everything that I'm seeing! The past few days have been a blur of airplanes and airports and the fresh air today was such a relief.

The 8 of us girls are staying on a campus called BVTC (Bi-Vocational Training Center). The campus is also a training school for Lahu (a hill tribe of Thailand) people who are wanting to become pastors and church planters. We will get to cook with them and some of them will be giving us Thai lessons and we will be helping them practice their English.

There are 7 bikes here at the center for us to take out into town and ride around. We went out today as soon as we got here to explore. Where we are staying is very safe and we can even leave our bikes out and no one will bother them. Knowing this makes me feel better about us girls going into town and into Chiang Mai. There are so many adventures waiting to happen!

It is absolutely beautiful here. I'm hoping to post some pictures soon of where we are staying. Tomorrow we are going to take a trip to a mountain that is the highest point in Thailand. We'll get to do some hiking and apparently there are some beautiful waterfalls where we can go swimming. It gets a bit cooler up in the mountains and the Thai people where parkas because they're used to such warm weather! After we get back from our excursion we will start classes.

I'll post the address as soon as I can in case anyone wants to send letters or packages. It's recommended not to send really big packages because they might get destroyed or just never get here. But letters are more than welcome and I will write you back!

DC Orientation

I've successfully made it to DC! The girls that I'm going to Thailand with are absolutely wonderful. We're going to have a great time. Tonight for dinner Go-ED took everyone out to dinner at a Thai restaurant, which was ironic, and we all stuffed ourselves with satay with peanut sauce, pad thai, penang currry, num tuk, som tum, spicy eggplant, dumplings, tom kha soup, tilapia, and thai iced tea. The thai iced tea is thai tea with condensed milk so it's pretty sweet, but delicious! I think my favorite dish was the satay with the peanut sauce which was chicken on skewers that you dipped in a peanut sauce. Granted, it wasn't the most authentic Thai food, but it gave me a taste of what to expect, and I have to say, I definitely won't go hungry while I'm there!

I have no idea what the rest of orientation holds, but just being here with all the girls is making me so excited to travel. We leave DC at 11 am Friday morning and it sounds as if I might have pretty regular free internet access while we're in Thailand. God is good! 

Time to pack!

It was so sad to see my blog all ready to go but with no post. So...I decided to write a little something so my page didn't look so lonely.

I spent all day organizing and packing everything for my trip. It was a pretty daunting task, but once I started I got into a rhythm and it was much easier than expected. I had to go through the clothes I am bringing to Thailand and slowly weed out stuff that I really didn't need (but wanted to take anyway). The whole weeding out clothes process was a little difficult... I LOVE CLOTHES...and shoes.

Only 2 more days until I head out for DC for my orientation. I'll be in DC until the 14th when we leave for Tokyo. From Tokyo I fly to Bangkok, and from Bangkok to Chaing Mai, which is where my program is based. Once I get to Thailand I'm not sure how often I'll have access to the internet, but I will give an update as often as I can! Feel free to email me as well because I will be able to check my email periodically.

Until then, I will be keeping myself busy saying goodbye to all my family and friends and trying to weed out more of those clothes that I really wish I could take with me. Thank you for all of your prayers!