Awesome Weekend

We have had a very adventurous couple of days, starting on Thursday. A new Wat (temple) was just built in our neighborhood and there was a huge festival in celebration of its completion. There was music, dancing, food, and even carnival games. Although I may be short, I was unfortunately not short enough to ride the carousel. Robbie tried to throw a tennis ball to knock over a pyramid and I tried to throw 7 darts to hit 7 balloons. We both failed but were given nasty Cola flavored lolly pops anyways.

On Friday, class went very well. We had planning time from 9-10, then had the 5th and 6th grades together from 10-12 (yes, two full hours.) We had a ton of fun with them though. They are very smart. Though there is one boy (Non) that is a bit of a trouble maker. After we taught for a while we decided to give the kids time to run around outside, and it actually turns out this trouble maker is soo sweet and affectionate. Although he's twelve years old, he was still holding our hands and hugging on us. It was nice to be reminded that even the trouble makers need love and attention.

After school, we (Robbie, Steph and I) made the trip to Wat (Temple) Doi Suthep. Chiang Mai is in a valley and there are mountains around it. At the top of one of the mountains, in the middle of jungle, is Doi Suthep. It is the only building you can see on the mountain from Chiang Mai, and it had an amazing view of Chiang Mai. We'll try to upload pictures soon. We took a 30 minute taxi ride up there and then hiked 306 steps to the top of the stairs to see the temple. It was incredible. There were so many shrines to Buddha, and so many people making offerings and praying on their hands and knees.

On Saturday, we traveled about 45 minutes to a village outside of Chiang Mai called Bo Sang. This village is known for hand making and hand painting paper and silk umbrellas. We walked up and down the streets for a few hours looking in different shops and ended up in the factory where they make the umbrellas. It was very cool to see each woman working and the process of making the umbrellas.

Later in the day, a new volunteer arrived from England. Her name is Neha and we all took her out to dinner for her first night. We went to a nice Thai restaurant called "Huen Phen."Robbie and I both got fried rice and chicken, and our bill at the end of dinner was 140 baht = a little over $4. Ahhh I just love it here. We all stayed up playing cards, reading and getting to know Neha. Jet lag is finally gone and we actually stayed up until 1:00 am!!!

Today was a very nice and relaxing day. We woke up and went to our new favorite cafe, EllieBum. It has the best smoothies ever and wonderful food. A great way to start the day. We next ventured over to a hotel in our neighborhood and paid 99 baht (about 3$) to go swimming. We basically had the place to ourselves and it felt amazing to go swimming since it's so hot here. Then the four of us went to a travel company and paid for a trek for next weekend! We're going to ride elephants, visit and swim in two different water falls, trek through the Thai jungle, go white water rafting, go bamboo rafting, and visit two different villages. This is a three day two night adventure, including food, transportation and lodging, and was only 40$ per person!!! We're pumped. After booking our trek, we walked up and down the Sunday Walking Market, which was unbelievable. There are a million vendors and everything is soo cheap. It's hard to resist all the temptations, but the only thing Robbie and I bought was pineapple. We'll definitely be going back to get gifts/souvenirs though.

Oookay that was a long post, but this was a great weekend and I wanted to share it all. LOVE,
Maggie and Robbie