After my last post about my day trip with my coordinator to Mae Salong, I spent the next 2 weekends in Chiang Rai feeling rather isolated from life. I had an unfortunate accident where I hit my head and had a concussion, which forced me in bed for nearly a week! Luckily for me, the family was arriving shortly only a week later, so I knew I had a few exciting weeks to look forward to. And exciting they were.
First of all, after a week of feeling like an utter recluse with a concussion, it was an amazing reward to see the family and be taken care of. They were here for about 10 days and it flew by much too quickly. We spent a few days up North around Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai. We agreed that this part of Thailand is what you think of when you think Thailand, rice farmers and fields... Beautiful mountains that really compare to no other scenery I've ever seen.
One of the first things we did was take a long-tail boat down the river to the Karen village and ride elephants.
We went to an elephant show in Chiang Mai, which was surprisingly amazing. Those elephants are incredible animals - they can paint, play soccer, play darts, massage, and much much more! The elephant just may be my new favorite animal. I'll add pictures in a new post, stay tuned!
We then went and spent some time up close with the tigers... Olivier insisted on this little detour, I think this was the highlight of the trip for him. The rest of our time in Chiang Mai was spent Christmas shopping, getting massages, having incredible Thai food...
Christmas was spent on the road between Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai and although it was by far the most atypical Christmas I've ever celebrated, I felt so lucky to spend it with family.
On the 27th, we flew down to the spectacular Krabi province in the south near Phuket. We spent 5 glorious days, speed boating from one island to another, taking noisy long-tail boats from one beautiful beach to the next, getting many more massages, and lots of snorkeling...!
We spontaneously decided to sign up for an afternoon/evening snorkeling trip on the 31st with an interesting group of travelers from an array of different backgrounds and countries. We were taken to secluded rocky islands and saw fish like I've never seen. We picnicked on an isolated sand bar just hours before the new year. I met some cool people on the boat and we all went out later that night. Olivier, Victoria, and I danced the night away! This was definitely one of my more unusual and spontaneous New Year's Eves. Spontaneous is the way to go on New Year's ... :)
The next day, I said good-bye to my parents and Victoria, which was really hard. Luckily, Olivier and I spent the next 3 days in Bangkok together, which ended up being the perfect transition back to my life here in Chiang Rai. There is a lot to say about our weekend in Bangkok, and I will just have to write another post about it very soon!
So the last few weeks have been fun-packed and in the midst of all of this excitement, my best friends Lauren, Nikki, Liz, Dominic called me. It was so amazing to hear their voices. It was very hard to say goodbye to the family, but I only have less than 2 months left teaching. Time really does fly. Moreover, my good friend Liz has just landed in the country!
Finally, I want wish everyone a happy new year. I know that the global situation is tough and many are feeling it in their personal lives, I just hope you will all find happiness despite the challenges ahead, think outside the box!! I know I have :)
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