Golden Triangle of Northern Thailand

This had to be one of the longest tours I have ever done in all my travels. Most of the tours I did, I booked through Travel Hub : Chiang Mai and they used Journey Tours. The Golden Traingle Tour takes you through the Chiang Rai Province, The Burmese Border, the Mekong River and an optional boat trip over to a Laos Market.

Journey Tours picked me up from my hostel in Chiang Mai and we traveled about three hours to Chiang Rai to see the White Temple, also known as Wat Rong Khun. This temple is more impressive in person than pictures can even show. An artist, Chalermchai Kositpipat, designed and constructed this impressive building site. He has spent his life working on this beautiful structure and has trained apprentices to carry on his work after he passes. The area is supposed to represent heaven and hell. When you first walk in, there are hundreds of hands reaching up from the ground to symbolize desire, human suffering and hell. The bridge towards the building represents crossing over from death to rebirth into a state where you are no longer suffering. The way to happiness is by overcoming worldly temptation and that's what crossing the bridge will get you. It's a really pretty building and has all of this symbolism the artist has built in to it. The only downfall of this place is the amount of people there and the guards shouting at people through megaphones. You're pretty much herded along like cattle until you reach the very end and then you can breathe again.

We stopped for lunch right before we got to the Mekong River and had some traditional Thai and Burmese food. Finally, we got the actual part of the Golden Triangle. The Mekong River connects several countries and I was going to get to see two of them! Most of the people on the tour hopped on to the boat that goes over to the Laos side and we took a pleasant cruise up the river. We were offered a "welcome" drink to Laos. Our options were viper and scorpion whiskey, turtle whiskey, ginger whiskey and a couple of other scary sounding whiskeys. Needless to say, I skipped out on my welcome drink and proceeded to look around at the market. Everything I saw was much cheaper than Thailand's prices which was amazing because Thailand is already much cheaper than the U.S. For example, I found a painting I had been looking at for half the price I was told in Thailand. In the U.S, the painting probably would have cost about $60. In Thailand, it was $30 and at the Laos market, I paid only $15.

Next, we were taken to the Burmese border market and it's probably the biggest market I saw while in Thailand. It went on in both directions as far as I could see. It would have be incredibly easy to just get lost in all of the food and trinkets that were being sold.

This wasn't my most favorite tour but it did take me to a few places I wouldn't have made it just on my own.

Cooking Class In Chiang Mai

The cooking class I did while in Chiang Mai was one of my  more enjoyable tours. I chose the Asian Scenic Thai Cooking School. They pick you up from where ever you are staying in Chiang Mai and take you to their nice little school area.

We only had about 10 people total in the class and our teach was excellent. The course started and our group was taken to a nearby local market. The teacher was only there to show us where the ingredients were coming from as they already had everything stocked back at the school. Once we returned, we were shown their garden and all the homegrown herbs and ingredients. (Since I can't remember the teacher's name, he will be known as 'J' in this post). J took each herb/leave/root from the garden and let us smell it and get familiar with what we would be using for the day. There were many different types of herbs he handed out I had never heard of before. I didn't know there was such a thing as normal basil and hot basil.

After seeing all the ingredients we would be using for the day, we were handed a menu with all the options of the days courses. There were so many! We got to choose one option from each category and there were seven categories! All I could think about was how I would manage to eat all of this food. But before we would start cooking, J served us a plate with a leaf, and random bits of ingredients on it. He told us it was for luck before we began. You mix all the ingredients on top of the leaf, fold it up and eat away. I expected it to taste very funny because it was a mix of nuts, a sweet sauce, shallots, chilies and a couple of other. It tasted so yummy though, I ended up having three of them!

The first category to choose from was a stir fry. What I liked most from this school is that everyone could choose something different. It wasn't a group decision on what would be cooked. I chose something familiar, pad thai. I always get this back home when Jeff and I go out to the thai restaurants and have wanted to learn how to cook it. Turns out, it's not really that difficult. I realized that there are no measurements taken in this class. J kept telling us to add the ingredients based on our feelings. If we felt we wanted more of something, add a little more. J gave us a general amount but then we would take it from there. As easy as the pad thai was to make, I accidentally added too much water and mine was a little runny. Once our stir fry was done, we took it back to our cushioned seats and chowed down.

Next up was a choice of salad and I chose glass noodle salad, which is actually kind of spicy but sooo good. It's a mix of noodles, vegetables, chilies and minced chicken and served cold. I'd never had this before so it was a weird combination to me at first but I rather enjoyed the flavors and having noodles instead of lettuce for a salad.

We got to make our soups next. Tom yum soup is an incredibly popular soup in Thailand and very spicy. I had been to chicken to try it for a normal meal incase it was too spicy but decided this would be the perfect time to make it. If I didn't like it or couldn't eat it, I had a lot of other food to eat for the day. Since we could add more or less of what J told us to, I added only two chilies. But then he came around adding chili jam and that really spiced up the dish. If I got close enough to the pan, the inside of my nose would burn! As expected, the dish was too spicy for me but was incredibly tasty. J even complimented me and said that's exactly how Thai tom yum soup is supposed to taste! I picked the shrimp out of the dish and ate those with a little bit of the broth. Some of the items in the soup are only to flavor the broth but you don't eat them.

The spring roll was next and I was so excited! I love spring rolls anywhere and anytime. My dad's side of the family are Filipino, so we always make a similar dish called lumpia, one of the main differences is that we add meat to our rolls. We cooked the vegetables down and let them cool first before taking and wrapping them. Once everything was set with the oil, we fried them up and got to enjoy them. The only bummer about this part is that we didn't get to make the sauce that's used for the rolls.

The hardest part was up next. We chose our curry and curry paste we wanted to make. J told us we were making our own paste instead of using the pre-made paste. The class was broken down into smaller groups based on the types of paste we would need for our curry. J handed us our ingredients and told us to chop everything up as finely as possible and then put the ingredients in the motar for smashing. Once my group chopped everything up as small as it would get, we went to work on the paste. We smashed and twisted and pushed and scraped and still our paste was to grainy. After 45 minutes of switching people and smashing and getting J to help us, our paste was finally done! Whew, it certainly worked up some sweat.

I chose khaw soi curry because I had never heard of it and the description J gave us made it sound delicious. It's made with noodles instead of being served with rice like most curries. It's also not as soupy. Once again, I didn't add as much paste as J suggested and the dish was still quite spicy but edible. I loved this curry! I can't wait to make it when I return home because other than that class, I couldn't find khaw soi curry served anywhere I went to.

Last but not least, our dessert. Once thing I have been curious about since arriving in Thailand was how rice and mangoes went together. I had seen the dish served at my favorite Thai restaurant back home but have never tasted it because it didn't make sense to me. So I chose it for my dessert to find out what it was all about. I certainly was not disappointed. It's meant to be a dessert and once the sticky rice is cooked, it's mixed with coconut milk until the rice soaks up all the milk and looks like normal rice again. The mango is cut up and a sweet coconut sauce is poured over all of it. Lip smackingly delicious and I couldn't believe it took me two weeks in Thailand before I had it. It's served everywhere you go and at all the food markets and street stalls.

I had such a fun experience doing this! I love cooking and being able to try some new Thai dishes I had been afraid of trying. Everything I made was enjoyable, except the soup but only because it was too spicy for me. When I make it back home, I'll skip the chilies and just add the chili jam. At the end of the class, J gave everyone their own recipe books to take home with them and all of the recipes are listed on the Asian Scenic Thai Cooking School website. WHEN I return to Chiang Mai, I will most certainly take this class again and choose different dishes.

My failed attempt at scootering

I had arrived in Koh Phangan for the full moon party and was just relaxing for the remainder of the day when this German girl asked if I wanted to ride to the night market with her and meet up with some friends. You can't turn down the chance for a street food market in Thailand. So we scootered off.

"Have you ever driven a scooter before?"

"No, but I would like to try at least once before I leave Thailand." I had wanted to try since I had arrived in Chiang Mai a month before but had been to chicken to get on one and drive around in Thailand's version of traffic. There aren't really concepts of lines on roads, overtaking on hills and around sharp curves isn't deemed unsafe here, and scooters just wizz in and out of cars any way they find. It's amazing that I only saw three accidents my whole entire time in Thailand. Everyone drives like a stunt devil and it's sometimes fun to watch.

Later, after we had eaten, Hanna asked if I wanted to learn how to drive a scooter. "It's easy, really! We can try after we finish eating."

I was a little nervous, because I know using your feet for balance are apart of scootering and I'm short. But the lesson was happening and I was hoping for the best.

Hanna found us a little side road with a dead end. All that was there was a little security booth with a few Thai people and a parked truck off to the side. Perfect spot for a quick lesson.

"So, you turn the key and push this button to start. You have your gas here and these are your breaks. Before you start moving, keep your feet on the ground for balance until you have a good speed. And that's it. Really easy!"

I turned on the scooter and got on. I had barely pulled the throttle just a little bit and lurched forward at way to quick of a pace for my comfort. I let it loose and tried again. This time was better and I was able to move forward at a comfortable speed until I reached halfway down the road. There were three massive ropes across the road, blocking me from the end. I wasn't ready for bumps yet, so I started backing up and put my feet on the ground. Hanna was walking towards me and as I looked up at her to say how it wasn't that bad, I speed forward. In my panic, I couldn't understand why the scooter did that! It happened twice more before Hanna finally reached me. I looked at her again to stay I didn't want to try anymore but as I was shifting my feet to balance the bike, it started to fall over on top of me towards my left side! I couldn't hold the weight of the bike on just the ball of one foot and I was too short to have both feet down.

The next 30 seconds are a bit of a blur. I manage to hop off the bike just in time but as it was going down, I grabbed the handles and the scooter shot forward at top speeds with me still hanging on. I think I may have been screaming and Hanna telling something, but I have no idea. I just know that the scooter was shooting straight towards that parked truck and the scooter was a rental. With every ounce of strength I could muster, I jerked the bike away from the truck and held on. Spinning around and around in circles right in front of the truck, it finally dawned on me what Hanna was shouting.

"Let it go! Let it go! Let it go!"

I realized that it had been me the whole time, pushing down the throttle. I let it go and the bike immediately stops. I back away from the bike slowly, like a rabid dog. Hanna straightened the bike up and we both examined it. Amazingly, there wasn't one bit of damage on that bike. And even though we were inches from the truck, no damage came to that either. I laughed nervously and looked at Hanna.

"Are you alright?"

"I think so, but I am NOT getting back on that thing to drive. I think I'm good." I was shaking and still panicked, thinking how bad that could have been.

Then, I heard laughing and snickering, looked over and saw the few Thai people in that booth laughing. Mortified, I just looked away when one of the guys shouted at us in Thai. Thankfully, Hanna responded because I couldn't get words out.

"You had some stunt devil moves there, getting the bike to just spin in circles."

I looked at her and we busted out laughing. After making sure we were all ok, we got on the bike (with me as passenger of course) and laughed our way back to the hostel, recounting what had just happened.

"I thought it would be easy, but I suppose that's because I've riden a scooter before. And I don't want to be rude, but you're kind of short."

I have no doubt in my mind it had to do with because I was short. Every time I had put my left foot down, my right hand would slide down on the throttle to compensate for my lack of balance, which shot me forward but because I wasn't used to a throttle being the actual handle, I didn't realize I was doing it or how to stop. When the bike started falling, I had grabbed on to the handles tightly, and the angle at which the bike was falling, had my hand gripping the throttle to the max. So it was me all along that caused the bike to shoot forward.

Moral of the story for me: Do not drive a scooter!

Phuket Island Hopping

I loved Phuket. I knew I wanted to stay near the beach and picked a place on Karon Beach. I got to see a beautiful sunset each night I was there and it wasn't incredibly busy.

I found a few island hopping that trips that weren't expensive and went to a few of the popular islands. 

First up was Maya Bay, which was used to shoot in the movie, The Beach.

I could have stayed here all day. The sand was such a powdery soft white, it felt like walking on fluff. The water was the perfect temperature for swimming and so clear, I could see my whole body even when I was all the way in. The only negative to this place was how many people were there and the, what felt like 3 hours, horrendous speed boat ride to get there from Phuket. 

We were next taken to a lagoon area, but since the tide was too high, there was no beach. We ended up all just jumping off the side of the boat instead to swim around and enjoy the views of the massive cliffs surrounding us.

Finishing up with our swim, we were then sped off to an area for snorkeling and food. I always expect snorkeling to be different in different places. But it's always the same. Pretty blue and green tropical fish, big sea urchins, and mounds of hard coral. 

For lunch, we got a huge buffet of Thai food and fruits on the island of Phi Phi. There were plenty of people all over the beach, so I just decided to snack on some coconut ice cream and enjoy the view of the beach away from everyone else. 

After the morning ride to Maya Bay, I was not looking forward to our ride back, especially since I had just filled my stomach up with food and ice cream. But, it was nothing compared to the morning and we had a decently smooth ride back. I enjoyed the day very much and managed not to get myself sun burned more than I already was from a couple of days prior from a few hours on Karon Beach. 

Goodness sometimes stems from something truly horrible

Last month, I had the opportunity to walk among some of the most amazing and one of my favorite animals, elephants. The experience I had at the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai was once in a lifetime and something I'll never forget. I did not realize how truly special that day would be to me until today. Even learning all the stories from the different elephants, it was today, that struck home how important the nature park is.

I had taken a couple of months to research the location of where I wanted to have an elephant experience and finally settled on the Elephant Nature Park. Several thousand great reviews on TripAdvisor had convinced me this was the place I had been looking for, even the bad reviews had nothing to say about the mistreatment of the animals. I booked the trip and anxiously awaited for the day I would get with these beautiful gentle giants. The day had finally come when I was going to get to walk and play with an elephant, a day I had waited for for well over a year. And it was everything I imagined and more.

I was picked up first thing in the morning and taken to the park about an hour outside of Chiang Mai. The best thing was that we were in a small group of about 10 people and we would be split into two smaller groups. Once we pulled in, I was already hopping out of the minivan and rushing over to the edge of the cover we had pulled up to. Right in front of me were three elephants, unchained and eating everything they could get their trunks on. Pretty soon, two different elephants were walking up to our group and it was time to start feeding them! It was two females who were best friends and in the same herd. We fed them watermelon. At first, I was a little nervous, but being so excited, I stepped up first, grabbed half a watermelon piece and 'slunk,' the elephant grabbed it right out of my hand with her massive trunk and into her mouth. Our group fed each of the elephants a massive basket of watermelon before they were led away to another area while two more elephants came up for us to feed. The other two ladies were part of a different herd and not supposed to mix. We were being introduced to our ladies for the day by feeding them baskets of fruit. After about 30 minutes, we were separated into our smaller groups and began our walk with the elephants.

The guides had given us a bag of bananas with a warning not to put the bags across our bodies in case any wondering elephant trunks found their way into our bags. The elephants we had that day came from the tourist industry throughout Thailand, mostly from the southern region near the beaches. Younger elephants are used on the streets to get money for the owner. The owner will chain the elephant to him and walk around the streets and charge for people to take pictures with and/or feed the elephants. Older ones are used for trekking in the mountains or on the beaches. Logging with the use of an elephant is now illegal in Thailand but is still done discretely occasionally. However, logging with elephants is still legal in Myanmar (Burma), right across the border. The camp has several elephants that have been rescued from the Myanmar logging industry.

Our walk was slow and peaceful. We had three guys from the camp with us. One, was our guide and the other two guides were the elephants mahouts or their 'trainer.' The mahouts are assigned an elephant for life pretty much. From the time of the elephant's arrival at the camp, they have their 'person'. The mahout ensures the proper love and care of their elephant. As we walked along, the mahouts and guide told us a bit about the camp and elephants but mostly let us bask in the awe of walking and feeding the elephants. I was sad when our walk came to an end but then we got to bathe them! Splashing around in the water with them and handing over food when they stuck out their trunks was truly a sight to see. They just seemed happy and playful.

Once we finished up with the bathing, we were able to take some pictures and say our final goodbyes to the beautiful ladies. It was time for us to go into the actual camp where all the other elephants were. As we passed each elephant, our guide would tell us the story of how he/she came to be at the nature park. Most of the injuries the elephants received were from logging or land mines in Burma. Others, like the ones from our group, were from the tourist industry and had been severely mistreated. No matter what industry the elephants are in, they need to be trained to do what the owner wants them to do. In order to do that, the elephants are almost always highly abused through starvation, beatings and isolation until they are broken. They know nothing of kindness or gentleness from humans when raised in these conditions. It blows my mind to see how, after all the treatment they were dealt at the hands of humans, they calmly and lovingly interacted with us and their trainers. Some elephants had lasting effects of their captivity and would have PTSD attacks. The best part about this camp is the use of positive reinforcement to get the elephants do what they want them to do. Not once did the mahouts yell or hit or beat the elephants to get them to comply. If the mahout wanted the elephant to stop, they would use a command and hand over some food.

My day ended happily. The elephants had been abused but had been able to come to this wonderful nature park for healing and love from a new herd and their mahout. People wanting to visit the Elephant Nature Park can do so through a variety of ways. There are several different one day trips or you can volunteer at the park and help with the elephants and educate the nearby villages. It's an incredible organization and going to the park helps in the care of these wonderful animals and allows the camp to expand their elephant families.

Today, I saw none of the kindness and care given to elephants at a waterfall I went to. I ended my day sad and disgusted. Seeing the positive aftermath of something horrible can sometimes make the horror seem not as bad. I know what I saw today wasn't the worst I could have seen, but it was enough to leave an impact on me. I decided to take a tour around Koh Samui and one of the stops was at Namuang Waterfall. Elephant trekking and feeding is offered here and it's the first thing thrust in your face when you arrive. There were five elephants in a very tiny enclosure off to the side of the parking lot and was impossible to miss or ignore. Immediately saddened by seeing them, I walked on up to the path to the waterfall, ignoring signs to ride elephants. I took the pictures of the waterfall like a good tourist and ate some food at the restaurant but had nothing to do for the last 30 minutes.

I went and sat by the bus and just observed the elephants. The first thing I noticed was a male elephant off the side. I noticed him first because he was circling and waving his head and trunk around back and forth and shuffling his feet. I looked down at his feet and noticed one had a broken chain on it and the other had a chain and rope on it, tied so taunt and tight, he was unable to do anything but his distressed shuffle. I walked up to him and just watched. I didn't know what to do, I knew this was a sign of major stress in an elephant. He was terribly malnourished and with every swing of his body to the left, I could see the protruding of bones on his side. His circling, swaying and shuffling didn't stop the whole time I was standing there, waiting for the bus to load. Right outside his reach, was a teenager elephant. From what I learned at the camp, he looked to be about two or three. He was tied up just as bad as the other elephant and had the same rocking, shuffle motion. The elephant in the back, had a riding harness on and was standing so still, I didn't realize she was a real elephant at first. I made my way to the elephant closest to the buses. She had visible open wounds around the side of her body that I could see, as she was chained so tightly, she could only stand in one direction. I was so shaken and upset by the wounds I didn't notice at first why she appeared to be bigger than the other elephants. Then, I heard a little trumpet and looked to the side to see a baby elephant. It was much skinnier than the other babies I had seen at the Elephant Nature Park. It looked to be trying to get milk from it's mom but didn't seem to be having any luck as she was rocking too hard for the baby to catch on.

I was heartbroken to see the way these elephants were being chained and barely fed enough to stay alive. I didn't even want to take pictures but knew I wanted to pass along this information so people knew how these animals were being mistreated just so we, humans, can ride them for enjoyment. The only one I took was of the baby and mom.

How can I say I was lucky to walk with elephants at the nature park, when the only reason it exists is to give shelter to them after they've been beaten and broken? I am happy there is a sanctuary for these animals after the injustices they have been dealt but heartbroken that it has to exist. I know things like this happen back in the US, but not so prominently and in your face kind of way. I'm not saying that keeping it hidden is good at all. But that's why I wanted to write this post. It's a start to a change. To noticing. That's what travel does. It opens your eyes to new things, not always good, as you can see, but it can change the way we live and the choices people make. If I can influence just one or two people to avoid riding elephants and visit an elephant care center instead to help them, then I feel like I've been successful in at least helping with this cause. I want people to know and care what happens. I want to make an impact in some way and just maybe writing about it will do something.

Rotten String of Luck

So I've been off the grid for over a week trying to get better and experiencing some of the worst luck I have ever had but still managing to enjoy my time on a peaceful and quite island, Koh Lanta.

It all started with a speedboat ride. I've been out on the water in boats quite a few times in my life and have never experienced sea sickness. However, this time I didn't want to take any chances and gulped down the seasickness pill the tour company offered. The day was extremely beautiful. Bright and shining sun, clear and cloudless skies and a constant ocean breeze that whipped my hair around keeping the heat of the day from bothering me. I've learned that wind isn't always such a good thing, and on this day for this particular trip, it was terrible. We had an hour and half ride to the first island, Maya Bay (the island they use in films from "The Beach"). I figured it was no big deal if we encountered some rough sea since I took the seasickness pills. I was proven how wrong that notion was within ten minutes of our journey. The waves were roiling and rolling the speedboat back and forth and up and down so hard, it was difficult to hold ourselves to our seats. The boat driving in Thailand is as wreckless and fast as they drive on the road. Our boat kept bouncing up and out of the water and us along with it with a hard slam back on the seats that jammed our jaws down together. Our tour guides seemed to be having the time of their lives, laughing and acting like young little boys when they know they're into some dangerous fun. My seasickness pill seemeed to have no effect at all and my stomach started rolling with the waves. I kept my eyes shut, mouth closed and wished over and over again nothing would come up. Our bodies took more hard hits as we bounded up out of the water and slammed back down. At last, our boat began slowing and finally stopped. I was so ready to jump up and off this boat, except when I looked up, we were still surrounded by the sea. There seemed to be a problem with the engine and it took a few minutes of tinkering to get it going again. I groaned silently and we resumed our roller coaster boat ride. Around 20 minutes later, I heard the sweetest words I'd heard that day, "Ok, errybody! We arr 2 minutes away. Dat was da worst of it. I promise. Now we go with the tide when we go and it will be easier." I uncurl my body from the tense position I had been holding and stretched out all my limbs, knowing I was going to be sore the next day. 

And sore I was. I felt like I'd been through a full body workout. At the end of the day, the beach I was on unleashed a massive thunderstorm and I decided to take advantage of the time and go for a nice aromatherapy massage. It was not as all what I was expecting. I figured it was the same as an oil massage but with scented oils. I'll never make that mistake again. The woman rubbed my muscles like she was trying to push them out of my skin and bent me in places I didn't think could bend. But at the end, I no longer felt the pain in my muscles from the previous day and that was all I cared about. 

The next morning, I couldn't even move my body. I was in agony and for the first time since I'd been in this hostel, I was cold, very cold. I covered up and went back to sleep. Hours later, I woke up still sore. Blaming the massage from the night before, I got up and tried to move around. I managed to scarf down some breakfast before crawling my way back up the stairs to my bed. Throughout the day, my notions of why I was feeling so retched became clear, I had a fever. I have no idea how bad it was but my body was still so sore I could barely move. I tried writing and my words came out looking nothing like my usual hand writing. And my body altered between blizzard settings and hell settings of temperature. Stupidly, I assumed I would get better over night and booked my ferry and hostel for the next island I wanted to go to, Koh Lanta. 

Needless to say, I wasn't feeling better. But I packed up, dragged my belongings downstairs and dazed my way through the most of the day. The gentle breeze and light rocking on the boat did little to assist in making me feel better. And much to my dread, I had to change ferries in Phi Phi and when we docked, I grabbed my things again and slowly shuffled my way off the boat. I began walking to the next ferry. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw some debris in the water and looked down. Upon closer inspection, I noticed they were fish. Pretty blue and green tropical fish, just swimming all around the ...'scccciiiii, ahhh, crash and boom." Next thing I know, I'm on the ground and confused over what just happened. Obviously, I just fell. But I wouldn't figure out how as I was standing on flat ground. I looked down and over my wrist was a haphazard bleeding line, that anyone glancing without knowing the story, would believe I am self-destructive. I had managed to wrap my wrist around a sign as I fell and tore the skin to pieces. I hop up as best I can and quickly board my next ferry. A kind girl my age helped bandage me up and I tucked myself in to sleep my way to the next destination. It couldn't get any worse than this. 

I was wrong. I had three long days of fever and my hostel was stifling hot since they didn't use AC during the day. As my fever went, I developed a cough and lost my voice...for four days. I learned to just point at things I wanted when I going out to eat instead of saying them. The servers usually have difficulty understanding me when I can speak at full capacity, much less when I'm squeaking out my order. Four more days of this misery. I had tried pharmacy medicines but nothing was working. 

Two days into my cough, I began having ear aches and my hearing was faded. Fantastic! Swimmers ear! I knew how to deal with this issue. I get it all the time. Except I had been ignoring the pressure building up in that area for a few days, discounting it to whatever sickness I had going on. Nothing worked and the pain and pressure got worse in my ear.  

I decided to extend my stay in Koh Lanta. It's relaxing atmosphere would help heal me when I stopped new problems stopped arising. The next to last night I had in my hostel was a true nightmare. At least at the time it was. I had taken some sleeping pills to knock myself out but something woke me in the middle of the night. I had no idea what is was and hazily looked around with my eyes half open. I became quite alarmed when I noticed a dark solid figure sitting at the end of my bed. As I had no voice, my screams came out as quite squeaks and did nothing to alarm anyone else. I felt out with my foot and connected with a solid wall of flesh. I squeaked again and kicked for all I was worth, finally kicking the fully naked guy off my bed. He mumbled out an apology and scurried off. It was difficult to go back to sleep after that and every movement and footstep sent me into a new panic. I know I had to startle a few people, as they would near my bed, I'd slam on my light and point my selfie stick at them and back into the bed corner. I tried to relax and reassure myself nothing was going to happen in a dorm of 20 people and my selfie stick in hand. I finally fell into a restless sleep and first thing in the morning, I packed my bags and left the hostel two days and moved on to my private beach bungalow. 

I stopped being so stubborn today and went to the doctors. I've got all the medicine I need now to feel better and will be back on my feet in no time. One thing this sickness hasn't lost me are my sunsets. I've still enjoyed my time on the beach, sitting in the shade and being lulled to sleep by the quite whooshing of the waves. 

Best thing about solo travel... not having to stick to your original plans

I love Thailand so much for the simple fact that it's cheap. I have managed to keep myself on budget at around $25-$30 per day. It's funny how your perspective of everything changes once your on the road and dealing with different currencies. A friend and I made our way from Bangkok to Ayutthaya for 60 baht a person, which translates to a little over $1.50... yes, you read that correctly. We got a minibus from a city an hour or so away for less than $2! Upon arriving, the tuk tuk driver wanted to charge us 150 baht to drive 15 minutes. It was hard justifying taking that short trip for that much, but when I started thinking about it, it really isn't that much. That trip was all of $5 for the two of us.

Food is also extremely cheap here. Before I left Ayutthaya to Chiang Mai, we stumbled upon this little cafe. For 50 ($1.50 ish) baht, we each had a decent meal and a drink. The food stall across from my current hostel charges 15 baht ($.50) for a full plate of scrambled eggs and steamed rice with some mystery drink out of a container. And the food is good! It has flavor, is hot and fresh (most of the time) and it's not totally unhealthy for you either. Their sanitary standards are no where near ours back home, but that's ok. I'm still alive, I haven't gotten food poisoning.

So anyways, done with the rambling. I had this whole plan of hopping my way from one city to the next after leaving Bangkok until I made my way to Chiang Mai. The more I thought about it, the less enticing that sounded. I have never enjoyed fast travel on my own. It's draining, stressful and usually uncomfortable and expensive. I had enjoyed some small talk with one of the guys staying in my room. He happened to be from the U.S on a travel hiatus and we had swapped some stories. We got on the subject of how I was going to Ayutthaya and he'd heard good things. Previously finding out he had no plans the next few days, I invited him to come along with me. Surprisingly, he said yes and the next day we found ourselves overwhelmed by the awesomeness that was Ayutthaya. We ended missing a huge portion of the city we went by because we were so in awe over everything that was right in front of our eyes.

Ayutthaya was founded in around 1350 and became the second capital of Siam. Over the centuries, the city grew and became one of the largest cities in the world around 1700. Ayutthaya was explained as one of the finest cities of it's time but unfortunately, it all came to an end when the Burmese invaded Ayutthaya and burnt everything to the ground around the late 1760's. The only buildings to survive had been the temples and some palaces because they were built using stone.

Matt and I wandered around for hours, from temple to temple, wondering about the histories of such places and the extravagances that once were. There weren't many historical plaques explaining about the temples. Most of what I've discovered are from pamphlets and google. At the end of the day, we were both exhausted and all I could think about was how much I really wasn't ready to leave the city. I had already taken out Lopburi from my plans, which means I missed some ancient ruins over run by the infamous thief monkeys. Did I really want to miss out on another ancient city, Sukhothai? So I procrastinated throughout the morning deciding on what I wanted to do. As I was gathering my things to leave, Matt woke up and we decided to go for breakfast.

It's funny how one event can change the course of your trip. I found a pamphlet down in the lobby of the hostel and began thumbing through it. I couldn't believe how much we had missed the day prior! Matt was astounded as well and just told me I should stay. So I did. And I didn't regret my decision. We ended up spending a few hours looking for a new place to stay since our other place was sold out but once settled in to our new hostel, we hit the road once again. We had a plan and a layout of exactly what we wanted to do. Except it didn't go quite as planned. Ayutthaya is like a maze of wonder. You are lead to one impressive ruin and as you're leaving, you see another across the street and then you run into a street market with things you've never seen or tasted before. Then several hours have passed and you wonder how you got where you ended up.

We did end our day getting to see everything we had planned on seeing plus more. Ayutthaya was full of known and unknown gems and I am so happy to have been able to take the time to enjoy the ruins and making a new friend. Travel is all about the experiences you have and the people you meet. Going to Lopburi and Sukhothai would have probably been fun, but I would have been stressed the whole time about getting from point A to point B the most efficiently so I could utilize my time wisely. But instead, I took advantage of the city I was in.

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