Way up north.. And back

Alrighty, wow it's been awhile. Apologies to my avid readers (aka my Mom) ;)
Almost two weeks ago now we left the town we live in, Krabi, and headed for Bangkok for the English assembly. That was fantastic. Very encouraging :) We met tons of really great people from all over the world. It's so awesome to be surrounded by people who really have their heads on their shoulders and know exactly what they want and make those goals happen! Definitely was inspirational for me :)
After that we headed for Chiang Mai and embarked on the longest train ride of our lives. What was suppose to be a 12 hour train ride ended in 15+ hours. Needless to say I haven't felt in need of a shower that bad in my entire life. But we had someone from our guesthouse ready and waiting to take us to our much needed showers.
Chiang Mai.. how I love thee.. We stayed at a super rad guesthouse that was 4 bucks each a night (awesome). The food was great and the people were even better. We had planned ahead of time to go on a trek through the mountainous area of Thailand through them. Best. Decision. Ever. (To any who are reading this for travel advice: definitely stay at the Libra Guesthouse in Chiang Mai if you ever go) As far as the activities we've done so far in Thailand the highlight of my trip has been this trek for sure. It knocked my socks off. Day one we start at 8:30 and drive to a local market for our guides (Galu and Tao) to buy fresh food for our meals, then we drive to one of the most beautiful waterfalls I've ever seen! Next we drive to hot springs and after a quick dip start trekking for 4 hours to the Carin hill tribe where we stay under mosquito nets with mats on the floor. Lots of roughing it on the excursion which of course made it way more fun. 1/2 way to our first overnight spot we get hit by a torrential rain storm. We're talkin instant shower. It was exactly what I'd been wanting this whole time in Thailand and here we get in the jungle. Epic win :D But not only is it rain, it's lightning, thunder and hail. And not just your baby hail you see at home. Nope, we got the nickel sized 'ouch that really hurt' kind. But we survived and lived to tell about it. And It. Was. Awesome. We were with people from London, Liverpool, Manchester and Scotland. Three of them worked together and boy they were a riot. Made our trip fun! Our bathrooms consisted of outhouses with squat toilets and no one really liked going alone so anytime one of them had to go you'd hear in a Scottish or English accent 'anybody gotta go for a wee?' Haha good times.. My new favorite saying to get people motivated I'm stealing from Donna, the Scottish chick, 'commmmee onnnn!!' Of course this will have to be used with an accent only. So friends back home..prepare yourselves. I'm coming back with a Scottish accent ;) Day two started with us hiking three hours and stopping for lunch at some random huts in the jungle. (Side note: all of our meals were cooked fresh for us by Galu and Tao. These boys work hard. Right when we make it to camp they start cooking while we're all hobbling for a chair and looking for water. They're my heroes. Also, they cook some mean Thai food..mmmn) after lunch guess what happens!? Yep. Elephant rides eeeek!!!! We met the elephants and got to give them baths and of course we had to start a mini water fight. We rode the elephants to the next village of the Lahu tribe. Best. Day. Ever! (I'm most likely spelling the tribe names wrong. My bad) Galu grew up there so we got to meet his dad and he dressed up in the formal tribal wear and played some kind of musical instrument for us and we danced around the fire. So fun :) we got to light a huge paper lantern and watch it float away with fireworks in the background...totally felt like I was in the movie Tangled :) Day three was a short day but a good one. We floated down the river in what? Oh just some bamboo rafts...bamboo rafts!!! It was killer. (Dad you would have loved it!) On the way one of the rafts got turned so it was floating lengthwise and went into the rocks in some rapids and we ended up going over the top of it. Galu had to grab one of the woman that was on the other raft and pull her to ours to keep her from getting hit. Intense! Mai pen rai though Galu is the man!
After that three day excursion I can honestly say I think I was suppose to be born in the jungle. It's just fantastic.
The day after the trek we slept in to rest up and headed to Tiger Kingdom. I can't even express what this was like. We were petting tigers!!! Little baby tigers up to the really big ones. It makes me look forward to the future when I'm able to do that with all the animals with no fear :) They had us with female tigers and I wondered why just females. Well...I decide to go explore the cages and I come upon this massive male tiger that's pacing his cage. As I'm standing by the cage in absolute awe of the power in front of me, the 'awesome' tiger turns around, lifts his tail and sprays me with pee. Ahhh! The nastiest thing ever! I'm really hoping I can put that under the 'once in a lifetime' category. Emphasis on the 'once'.
Apart from the epic adventures we also went to visit the Kingdom Hall in Chiang Mai and met some more really awesome people and got to hang out with some Australian chicks we had met at the assembly. They took us to a walking market where we had some great food and got to buy some of the local artsy fartsy stuff :) The talent some of these people have is mind blowing. I bought a handmade and hand embroidered bed cover from one of the hill tribes. I'm in love with it! I can't wait to show grandma!
After a week of adventure in Chiang Mai we were ready to come home so after 24 hours of bus rides (ugg) we finally arrived in our little town at 6 this morning. Whew! Back in service tomorrow and other adventures are sure to come :)
Until next time..
Dawn Scottish accent Macgyver Kovarik here to hopefully bring you some form of entertainment ;)