Mountain Adventure

So after a long day of shopping (you won't know how long until you go shopping with Jessica, but its all good, we love you Jessi) and hanging out with friends, I call for a ride home for myself and Dengtai (who was staying over at the time) and when we get in the car, my mom asks if we want to go with her to the mountain.  I didn't know what she meant, but Dengtai said her friends family had taken her to one of the temples on the surrounding hills of Chanthaburi.  So we decided "yes, we'll go see the temple".
It was a long drive down, longer still as we had to stop and talk to friends of the family along the way, one of which was going to join us in our car on the way, but opted out when we already had three people in the back (but by no means is this opting out a regular occurrence as we often drive with four people in the back seat).  We finally made it and were wondering what was going to happen, as communication is not a priority generally (all they've said was that we'd get tired and be scared or excited).
So a few minutes pass and we see a lot of trucks coming and going, from this we surmise that we will be taking a truck up the mountain.  So we pick a truck and we get in the truck bed that has been outfitted with benches and railings, and head out.  We don't get far before the truck we picked runs out of gas, some seemed irked by this development while I was merely curious and happy it didn't happen farther up the mountain.  A new truck is quickly arranged and we are fast on our way to the top.  When I used fast just then, I meant it.  The truck goes speeding up the mountain!  Taking sharp curves on a narrow road in the dead of night at stomach churning speeds!  It was totally AWESOME! We were screaming and laughing and being laughed at the whole way up, so enjoyable!  It seemed like there were some close calls, as those coming down were using the same road as those going up, and their speed was only slightly reduced so they could brake properly, also there were tree root and large rocks to navigate around.  Dangerous? Yes.  Necessary? No. Fun? Definitely.
So we get to a stop and get out of the truck, only to be put in another truck and told this one is more dangerous and steeper.  They weren't lying, we had to hold on to the railing so we didn't fall off the back.  It was just as fun though, couldn't go as fast, but had to keep the speed pretty high so they could make it up the hills.
That was the last up round of fun, and at this point I was hoping down would be just as fun.  But it would be hours before I found out.  We weren't at the top, but the trucks couldn't go any farther so it was on foot from there.  I can't guess how far it was, it seemed longer going up than coming down, but I would estimate it took maybe an hour, hour and a half to get up.  Along the way there were these series of bells, there were at least a hundred.  And you took out a coin and hit every bell along the way with it, if you missed one it would be bad luck, so we did this and at the end you put the coin in an unmarked donation container. Suspicious, a little, but I can only hypothesize that the temple uses it as upkeep money and it counts as spiritual merit (merit being like when you say Hail Marys or Pray and follow the rules kind of thing, I don't know how to explain you can Google it if you care) for the person.
So we get to the top, long walk, and find out we went to go see Buddha's footprint (at Khao Kitchakut).  I'm sure the more spiritual would have found it to be kind of profound, but as a tired person who isn't very spiritual, I just thought that I walked all that way to see a giant rock.  But I got over it, and joined in with those making merit, figured that I came all the way up here might as well make the most of it.  So I took off my shoes (they're big on that here) and waded into the sea of people to get closer to the giant rock (I mean footprint of Buddha).  The rocks were painful and I was sure I was going to get a foot disease from all the bare sweaty feet, but I made it to the offering place with Dengtai and we threw flowers into a pit of some kind wishing for good health and happiness for a bunch of people,  I threw two in for my mom, my cat, my family and myself as well as all my friends, one in for a good future, one for driving safety when I finally get out on the road again and then just to make sure one in for "Peace on Earth and Good Will towards Humanity (I think I said "men" but I meant it in that "humanity as a whole" way).  Then Dengtai and I got out of there because they were going to to a mass group prayer.  We sat on the steps overlooking the exit and waited, for like two hours.  We finally headed down about 1am and got into the trucks around 2:30ish.  Down was also fun as hell!  Thought I was going to lose my glasses because of the sheer angle of the truck (I didn't).  It was harder to see because the brake light was in my face but that kind of added to the "OMG I'm gonna die!" aspect of the whole thing.  Also we went faster on the longer stretches that we did on the way up, presumably less static friction to overcome.  We made it down alive and in one piece and were headed home by about three.  Got back faster because we didn't stop, ate something and went to bed.  Classic times.

Chiang Rai, etc.

     Hello All, I know its been quite a long time, but this time I really have been busy.  I'll try to cover everything up to now in this post, it won't be overly detailed, because some of it happened soooo long ago.

     So, I'll start at the Chiang Rai Rotary Trip.  We were all told we were going to Chiang Rai for a conference, and we did drive through Chiang Rai, stopping to visit the White Temple (really pretty) and eat at the Night Bazaar (our first American food in a long time), but then we kept going and ended up in Mae Sai.  I suppose it was just a miscommunication as all of the exchange students thought we were going to Chiang Mai the city, but Mae Sai is still in Chiang Mai the province. Its on the border of Myanmar, way up north, so we enjoyed the cooler weather.  There is very little to do in Mae Sai, you can shop, go to the caves or go to Myanmar.  We did 1 1/2 of these things.  We shopped and we walked to the Myanmar border, but we weren't allowed to cross.  We did a lot of shopping though, we had three days there and none of the conference was pertinent to us (we just had to come because everyone else in our clubs was going).  We also looked and prayed at a temple.  It was a really pretty temple, at the top of an immensely large flight of stairs...it was fun though and the climb was worth it there were lots of cool statues and architecture up there, as well as great views.  Its very mountainous in the North so some of the houses are built right into the mountain side, its really pretty.  All the exchange students from my club (and DangTai, who rode down with us), got a cold, a terrible cold, because the air conditioning in the van was at a stupidly low level and the Thai people had jackets, so they weren't cold and so they wouldn't turn off the a/c for us when we asked, so we froze, I literally (and that's a literally that is used properly, I don't mean figuratively) couldn't feel my nose, it was like winter.  That was a bit "rant-y" but it upset me because I was sick for like two weeks, and I hate being sick.

     So that was Chaing Rai, despite the sickening end to the trip, it was still a good fun time to hang out with all the other exchange students.

     That's the only big thing that happened in the last little while. Besides Chiang Rai, I switched host families and our Mexican, Jessica, had her birthday.

     Switching host families, I didn't know how I was going to fit all of my stuff into my bags, its strange how you accumulate things so quickly.  At first I didn't want to leave, I think it was that I had gotten comfortable in my first house (probably because they told us we wouldn't be switching this year, but there were complications).  I love my new family though, there are more bugs and more lizards in this house, but there's also better food and good people.  The three things you hear the most are gin reu yung (have you eaten), sabai sabai (its all good) and mai pen rai (no worries mate).  Well fed and happy, all is well in this new household, I'm sad that I will be switching again in April.  Also, their dog is adorable or creepy...I can't tell, I think adorable though.  And it doesn't look like a dog...

     Jessica's birthday was on the 14 of February so we all got together and Jessi made Mexican food for us all.  I now love chilequiles and have to learn to cook Mexican food (as well as Thai food, Indian food, "Canadian" food and Italian food).  Good times.

      Foods that I miss include well-made sandwiches, potatoes and peaches.  Going to Subway as soon as I get back.

The White Temple

Cool Architecture at Temple

Heads hanging from tree at Temple

Depiction of souls suffering in Hell

The Bathroom at the Temple

The Giant Staircase to a temple in Mae Sai (Temples here are like castles in the UK)

Scorpion Statue at top of the stairs

View from the Top

Buffet, my host family's dog

Phu Kradeung

November was a really busy month.  At the beginning of the month we travelled to the province of Loei to climb Phu Kradeung and celebrate the Loy Krathong festival.  The festival entails floating krathongs, small boats made from banana leaf with candles and flowers and incense, on some kind of body of water.  Also, lanterns are lighted and floated into the sky.  Picture that Tangled scene, but with fireworks.  If anyone's wondering what happens to the lanterns: the flame eventually goes out and the paper thing falls back down, slowly enough that one can dodge though.  Some of the lanterns didn't quite make it into the sky and there were people there who would catch them and try to push them back up, so they didn't light anything (or anyone) on fire.  One lighted lantern didn't make it up, but it fell down over water, so no one could push it back up.  The fountain destroyed that thing (which sadly means a lot of bad luck for the lantern owners).  On some of the lanterns they attached fireworks to the bottom and when the lantern was full of hot air, they lit the fireworks and then let go of the lantern.  If no one has ever done that before, the lantern doesn't rise as fast as one generally runs away when one lights fireworks.  So, needless to say, I did not feel safe when those were sent off.   

We celebrated Loy Krathong at ground level and the next day we headed up the mountain, Phu Kradeung.  It took about 5 hours to get all the way to the top and the last 2km or so was literally climbing up large amounts of steep, rocky terrain.  We stayed at the top for a few days, it cost 50 baht for a warm shower, so I had cold showers.  Due to the altitude the temperature was cooler, more like a Canadian autumn but with more sun.  The cool mountain air was refreshing.  We watched the sunrise one morning and then walked 30km to the other side of the mountain to see the sunset. My friend and I almost got lost once.  We decided to explore (and we did tell one of the adults) and see some more of the waterfalls before heading back for dinner.  We saw a sign that said to be out of the forest by 3pm because that's when the wild elephants come out, it was 2:30, so we headed back.  This friend of mine kept wondering how the elephants got up the mountain in the first place, its not an easy climb.  

One drawback of the mountain was the sheer amount of leeches.  The leeches here are different then they are in Canada.  They are smaller, faster and live in grassy areas.  The first night we were there my friends and I spent an hour on the porch picking leeches off of each other and each others’ shoes.  I had eight in my shoes and two on my socks and I picked four off of one person’s foot and applied first aid to another’s.  Classic times.  Through the night on occasion you would hear some of the kids coming back from their friend's cabins and then you hear screams as they discovered the leeches all over their feet.  I invested in a pair of leech socks, which you put on over your socks and pants and they keep the leeches on the sock and off your skin.  They'll make a good souvenir.    

Counter-intuitively, going down the mountain was both harder and more dangerous.  Either because we were tired from our week of hiking, or because gravity thought we were spiting it, I don't know.  But everyone made it back safe, with only a few minor injuries and very sore appendages. 

Hard to get a good picture because I would jump every time a firework went off :)

Krathong

Lantern

          

       After we got back to Chanthaburi; which meant a 5 hour bus ride, a night in a hotel, a three hour van ride and then a 2 hour truck ride; we had a few days rest before we were headed off to Pattaya for a conference, some fundraising and some fun at the beach.  The Rotary kids walked in a parade to raise money for the flood victims, with the exchange students holding the donation boxes and walking down the sidewalks beside the parade.  The parade marched to the central mall, where a show was then held to raise more money.  People preformed dances, sang and two of the Mexicans put on a magic show.  At the end the Exchange Students all went up together and sang Imagine by John Lennon.