" On the other side of fear, lies freedom."
Let me start by saying that the past few months, I have felt more free and alive than I have in my entire life. I've gained the realization that there is a way to do anything your heart desires, Anything; and although the best things require a lot of work to get there, they end up being so much sweeter when you've had to struggle to get there. I feel like Thailand has changed my perspective in so many ways, and I wont be afraid to aim high anymore, because anything is possible. So anyway, lets get down to business:
This past three-day weekend, I was able to experience two things that I've wanted to do my entire life and they exceeded my exceptions by far. We started on a 8 hour train to Chiang Mai for our second time. We arrived at 5 am and ended up not being able to get into our hostel. We waited around for three hours until it opened but it wasn't bad because all the monks come out in the morning so we just did some people watching. haha
When we got into the hostel it turns out that our reservations didn't go through and we ended up basically stumbling upon the nicest rooms we've stayed in for pretty cheap. After our housing was settled, four of us started to get ourselves pumped for bungee jumping! which I've been wanting to do forever!
I hadn't really gotten nervous at all prior to the trip, I even looked up the risks of the jump and everything that could go wrong but it didn't really hit me until about 30 minutes before we were going to leave. I felt a little nauseous but I still wanted to do it and by the time we were in the car I was pumped again!
When we got there, Sarah went first and watching her jump made me so excited, I decided to go second.
So they weigh you and then just tie you up in this chair! They were cracking so many jokes that I actually felt pretty calm. I decided to hit the water on my jump for the full effect, I thought, what the heck, if your going to jump off a platform and speedily approaching your death at the bottom, you might as well hit the water to make it scarier!
I was laughing the whole time i had to hop over to the platform. I just kept blabbering away to the photographer guy and before I knew it, BAM there is this view and the guy id helping me to the edge.
My toes dangling over the edge of this platform was such a crazy feeling because it was just my own wits and the count to three that kept me from falling of the edge for an awesome adventure.
I was surprised at how easily I fell forward, It only took one count-down 3...2...1... and then i'm parallel to the Earth and I swear I've never had such a huge rush of adrenaline. My terror and pure joy created the loudest scream my body has ever created and before I knew it, the world was gusting past me and the water was coming fast!
I was dunked in the water up to mid-torso and then I was shooting up into the air again.
I was pulled into the sky and then thrown back down over and over again and I couldn't help but laugh and laugh because I was so happy. I was wiping off my wet face and just looking at the beautiful jungle around me and I was so zoned that I didn't hear anyone, but then I had to come back to reality and grab the pole so they could pull me down.
So bungee jumping exceeded my expectations beyond imagination and I didn't even cry or pee my pants as we all accepted as a possibility. The adrenaline lasted through the day and I felt on top of the world
Later we rented mopeds and became true Thais, zooming through traffic on their "anything goes" policy. Although they drive crazy, they are all very mindful of where everyone is on the road so we felt relatively safe :)
We ended a perfect day at the Saturday Night Walking Street market and enjoyed some less stressful shopping (since we've got most of our gifts bought).
The next day, we had yet another perfect day, but this time, it was spent with my favorite animal on the planet, elephants!
We go to wear these shnassy full jean outfits while working with the elephants. Not only were they very practical, but they help the elephants (who are colorblind and don't have very good eyesight) recognize who is there to feed them and play with them :)
When we got to Baan Chang Elephant park, this is the first thing we saw and i got SOO excited! 26 elephants have been rescued and brought here to Baan Chang. I loves this elephant park because they gave us so much information about elephants and how these elephants have been protected and constantly cared for. An it's not just for show, you can tell that these are happy elephants :)
So this is my first time on an elephant alone and it was a little scary! we learn commands on how to get them to lay down,walk, turn and stop and it was sooo awesome when I would actually get my voice loud enough for them to respond!
This Mahoot was my favorite. He kept tickling my barefeet when I was on the elephants and would make fun of the way we said the commands. We learned a lot about the Mahoots and I think that they are incredible. The ones at this park are all from Burma and stay with the elephants more than 12 hours a day. Elephants in the wild have a leader to their pack, but since these people have been working with the elephants for over 1000 years and now each elephant selects a Mahoot who takes the place of his leader. The elephant gets distressed and frightened when the mahoot isn't near and so these men give their whole lives to the elephants, caring for every single need that it has. Anyway, I think they are awesome. Oh and they don't hit the elephants with that hook, its in case the elephant freaks out and tries to attack someone, the hook couldn't kill the elephant, but they are really afraid of sharp things so it would just scare it.
We got to feed all of the elephants loads of bananas and sugar cane. It's crazy cuz elephants can eat literally all day long if its the right kind of food for them and its not bad for them as long as they get exercise. These ones would just take like 6 bananas at a time and want more 5 seconds later! it was so fun :)
Then this adorable baby elephant gave us kisses! He would put his trunk right on you and suck in making this kissing sound haha, The mahoot (trainer) thought it was SOO funny to make him kiss us on the mouth lol
I was just being a creeper and looking at the elephants eyes and the Mahoot would come up and grab my ankles and scare the crap out of me! haha I was a little cautious considering there were 26 huge elephants just chilling all around me.
When we're not feeding elephants, we chill in super comfy bamboo hammocks. (I Want One)
We rode the elephants through the jungle and it was incredible and super fun. about half of it was either super steep incline or decline so it was exciting when all you have to hang onto is the elephants head haha.
This elephant got me good....about 5 times haha
After an amazing day we showered off, said goodbye to our elephant friends, got in the car and ended it with massages and shopping.
The next day we headed to Burma, or Myanmar to extend our visas.
When we crossed the border we mostly saw a lot of poverty and chaos. It's crazy how much of a difference there can be between two countries, between a few feet of land in fact. The Thailand side had loads of gold statues and soldiers and the Myanmar side had busy streets and people begging for help.
We didn't spend very long there. We went to a market and looked around but all in reality, it's not very safe. I did enjoy the experience though and thought the stark difference was incredible. Soon enough we were in Thailand again and on our way home.
Well, this three day weekend brought so much adventure I can't even believe it. And to think, I only have three days of teaching with my Thai babies this week, and then we're off to Krabi for the country wide water fight! My days are numbered here and every time I think about it I want to cry. So just don't think about it right!? that's my plan.
Love from Thailand
Nesha <3
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