Since school is over and Margo's friend Ariella is visiting, we have done a bit of traveling. We took a trip to the Elephant Training Center about a 45 minute motorbike ride outside of Lampang. In the middle of the ride I thought to myself, "Man, it would really suck if I got a flat tire right now." Not even 2 seconds later...putt putt putt...my motorbike stopped and black smoke puffed out and refused to start. Margo & Ariella were already out of sight and a few kilometers ahead of me. One guy stopped and called the police for me while another guy with a truck stopped as he saw me walking my bike. He offered to help me find a shop to fix it, so we loaded it in the back and went in search of a bike shop. At the first place we tried, the technician was out to lunch. The place next door claimed that my bike was "too hi tech" for them to fix it, but really they were too busy enjoying their lunch to even give my bike a glance. They gave us directions to a place about 9 km away. The third place took a look at it and immediately realized the problem was a missing cap that let out all the oil. It only cost 200 baht to fix and I gave an extra 100 to the guy that was kind enough to stop and help me out. I was able to catch up to Margo & Ariella at the Elephant Camp in time to see elephants paint and play.
We took another trip to Apple's house in Thoene to visit the waterfall and cave once again. The cave was a bit scarier this time. Although we had made it through once before through the cave-maze, this time there were bats flying all over the place...and really low.
We also took Ariella to Chiang Mai, where we also applied for our Chinese Visas! We'll be in China in less than 3 weeks! Last week, Ariella, Margo & I took a mini trip to Pai, a little hippie town in the mountains. The drive there was 3 hours of crazy curves (762 to be exact.) For those of you from Westchester or have ever driven to my house- picture Bear Mountain on crack....for 3 hours. We made it there without spewing our lunches, but I can't say the same for everyone in our van. The town of Pai itself is really cute. Its full of little hippie shops and cute cafes...but all overpriced. I think I saw more people with dreadlocks in 2 days than I've ever seen before, and more white people in general than in a long time. It was a relaxing 2 nights in our little guesthouse. Most of our time was spent looking for the next cafe we would try or restaurant we will eat at since there wasn't much else to do without motorbikes...and we were too cheap to rent them. We headed back to Lampang and went to Jae Sorn National Park on Saturday with Apple & Maprang. Although Margo & I are done with school, Apple and Maprang are not, so we waited until Saturday to go camping with them. The cabins were booked, so we stayed in tents. One was already set up, so we had to set up a second one before it got dark...and by we I mean me. Not that it was really hard to set up, but all the camping and sleepovers on our front lawn came in handy. The National Park has hot springs, so we spent the evening down by the hot springs boiling eggs and letting the stones warms our butts since at night in the mountains its a bit chilly. In the morning we headed down to the hot springs again, this time to a private room that filters in the spring water at a reasonable temperature into a hot tub. Nice and relaxing.
Despite my busy week and weekend traveling and camping, the highlight of my week was buying new jeans. Sad, I know, but new jeans after 5 months in Thailand with only one pair that didn't even fit that well before losing weight can only be described as amazing. I made a half-hearted attempt to try to find a pair at one point a month or two ago while Maprang was looking for a pair, but girls jeans didn't run in my size. I was astonished how fast I found a pair that fit me, since I never find clothes that fast even in the US, so I didn't mind shelling out 1000 baht for them.
Almost all the other Farangs that were teaching in Lampang have left already, but we got to hang out a bit towards the end of their stay and had a blast. Going out to clubs with a bunch of Farangs is a completely different experience than going with mostly Thai people. We met way more people and had several amusing conversations with Thai guys...the best 3 questions:
"Where are you?" as I'm standing there talking to him
"Do you want to be hungry?"
"At how many o'clock?"
They all got their points across, but its so funny to hear.
The next few days is a bit more traveling and then back to Chiang Mai for my birthday. My birthday is just an excuse for us to party for 4 nights. Between Lampang & Chiang Mai, we have some fun nights of dancing ahead of us.
As for what I'll be doing next/when I'll be coming home (since I've gotten several questions about that):
I have yet to decide exactly what I'm doing after China, but I know I won't be leaving Asia for a bit. Margo & I might try to get tutoring jobs in Bangkok to make some money before traveling more (hopefully Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Nepal). An English Camp in Korea in July or August might be in store to make some fast cash to fund where ever else we might want to go.
At this point I am free as a bird. All I know is that I'll be studying for the GREs and taking them in Bangkok sometime after April. I found a neat Masters/Peace Corps program at the University of South Florida in Tampa that I'm gonna apply for.
Before I go...one more story. My student Phin called me the other day and asked me if I wanted to go jogging in the park. Although I was busy packing up all my stuff and moving out of my former apartment and scheduled for dinner for my friends birthday in an hour and half, I decided I could use a jog, and why not go with my student? So we went the park and walked 2 and jogged 2 laps. She said that she wanted to lose weight and come to the park, she just couldn't go by herself. She then told me I could be a model if I lost weight. I took that more as a compliment since in Thailand, calling someone fat is not considered offensive.
