I'm in Thailand! Another long-time dream of mine, and I'm so excited to be here. We left Cambodia just after noon and flew to Bangkok where we had a short layover. Since we hadn't had lunch yet, we all went off to find something to eat while we waited for the next flight. I was thinking, yay! Thailand! Thai food! My choices for lunch? McDonald's, KFC, Burger King, Subway, 7-Eleven, and Krispy Cream. Seriously? There were a few places to buy instant noodle bowls, but that was about it. So weird!
Anyway. We had a brief lecture from our educator Glenn while we were waiting - he talked a bit about the recent history of Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge. It was all new to me and quite fascinating. Then we boarded our flight to Chiang Mai where we're staying for a few days.
At the airport, our contact Anong welcomed us with leis of jasmine flowers. They smell amazing! Then we got to the hotel and were welcomed with glass of delicious and bright green juice... guava, maybe? Hopefully they'll have it at breakfast and I can figure it out. Then we just had a few minutes to get to our rooms and freshen up... I think someone on my floor ignored the specific "no durian" sign out front (it also said no mangosteen which I thought was odd... they don't smell! Maybe something else?) Definitely a bit of a stench, but fortunately not in my room!
We headed out to go to another dinner and show, this time with dances to the region around where we are here. They brought traditional food as well, which wasn't what any of us were expecting!
Family style again, shared by groups of 4. We started with slices of fried banana (yum!) and then had this tray of different items brought along with rice and a broth. There was fried chicken, some curried pork in a delicious sauce, veggies, noodles, pork cracker thingies (like pork rinds, but shaped like Cheetos) and a few sauces for us to try - one was full of chili seeds and really hot, the other was a red chili paste that was hot but a good hot. We finished with some really sweet fresh watermelon. Definitely not was I was expecting! But quite good... we're thinking maybe it's regional? I didn't really do research before showing up, so who knows?!?
During dinner was also the traditional dance show. Different from Cambodia in some ways, similar in others. It was all very nice.
After the show we went outside where we were able to light lanterns and send them up into the sky "Tangled" style. This is a traditional thing here in Chiang Mai - it's symbolic of letting your cares float up and away. You can write messages or whatever on the lantern (and they were huge! So much bigger than I'd imagined) and then they light them for you and you hold on until they're ready to float away, and you just let them go and watch them disappear into the night.
All of us got to light one and send it up... they were so beautiful, and I really did feel a sense lightness and exhilaration as I let mine go and watched it drift up and away. They caught the breeze as they rose, snaking into the sky until it looked like its own constellation - one shaped like a dragon. It was wonderful.
So that's it for today... lots of travel and an early morning tomorrow (breakfast is at 5:30am!) so I'm for bed! TTFN!
Anyway. We had a brief lecture from our educator Glenn while we were waiting - he talked a bit about the recent history of Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge. It was all new to me and quite fascinating. Then we boarded our flight to Chiang Mai where we're staying for a few days.
At the airport, our contact Anong welcomed us with leis of jasmine flowers. They smell amazing! Then we got to the hotel and were welcomed with glass of delicious and bright green juice... guava, maybe? Hopefully they'll have it at breakfast and I can figure it out. Then we just had a few minutes to get to our rooms and freshen up... I think someone on my floor ignored the specific "no durian" sign out front (it also said no mangosteen which I thought was odd... they don't smell! Maybe something else?) Definitely a bit of a stench, but fortunately not in my room!
We headed out to go to another dinner and show, this time with dances to the region around where we are here. They brought traditional food as well, which wasn't what any of us were expecting!
Family style again, shared by groups of 4. We started with slices of fried banana (yum!) and then had this tray of different items brought along with rice and a broth. There was fried chicken, some curried pork in a delicious sauce, veggies, noodles, pork cracker thingies (like pork rinds, but shaped like Cheetos) and a few sauces for us to try - one was full of chili seeds and really hot, the other was a red chili paste that was hot but a good hot. We finished with some really sweet fresh watermelon. Definitely not was I was expecting! But quite good... we're thinking maybe it's regional? I didn't really do research before showing up, so who knows?!?
During dinner was also the traditional dance show. Different from Cambodia in some ways, similar in others. It was all very nice.
After the show we went outside where we were able to light lanterns and send them up into the sky "Tangled" style. This is a traditional thing here in Chiang Mai - it's symbolic of letting your cares float up and away. You can write messages or whatever on the lantern (and they were huge! So much bigger than I'd imagined) and then they light them for you and you hold on until they're ready to float away, and you just let them go and watch them disappear into the night.
All of us got to light one and send it up... they were so beautiful, and I really did feel a sense lightness and exhilaration as I let mine go and watched it drift up and away. They caught the breeze as they rose, snaking into the sky until it looked like its own constellation - one shaped like a dragon. It was wonderful.
So that's it for today... lots of travel and an early morning tomorrow (breakfast is at 5:30am!) so I'm for bed! TTFN!
Ahhh Thailand! My favorite! Your trip looks amazing! I'm as jealous as I can be, but so glad you're having so much fun!!
Posted by: Laura | February 14, 2014 at 08:32 AM