So to celebrate my birthday I knew I wanted to do something fun and exciting; but I never imagined I would have a week off of teaching and be able to head north to the wonderful city of Chiang Mai. As soon as Katie and I heard we had some days off, we didn’t hesitate to plan our trip. We took an overnight bus from Bangkok Monday night and arrived in Chiang Mai Tuesday morning. The seats on the bus were high class; very comparable to first class seats on an airplane. We even had our own T.V. screen in front of us to watch movies of our choice. We were quite tired when we arrived bright and early to Chiang Mai. We checked in to our hostel and decided to explore the town and walk around. I was told by some fellow teachers and read in the guide books that one of the Northern food specialties called khao soy is a must try! So the first place we went I ordered it; unfortunately, I was a little disappointed. As we walked, we found a great food market and a market with hysterical T-shirts. I gave in and bought myself a, “Same Same. But Different” one.  One of our stops was for a Thai massage. It was amazing! I never knew my body could move in the ways my missus moved it. Even though there were some times of discomfort and awkwardness, I don’t think I’ve ever felt so relaxed after the massage was complete. We stopped at a Mexican Restaurant for lunch and had a yummy burrito. I really didn’t miss the food I would usually be eating at home until I had that burrito. It was delicious! Later at night, we met up with Kelsey, the only teacher who was placed in Chiang Mai that went through the CIEE program. We went to dinner and did some mad bargaining at the Night Bazaar. They had some really unique stuff. I didn’t go too crazy buying wise but I did catch on to not even ask how much anything was unless you were certain you wanted to buy it. The vendors seemed rather desperate. Each time I would ask how much things were, they were rather fast to drop the price and work a deal. It got to be overwhelming though, because there were so many things to choose from. We stopped at McDonalds for a pre-birthday treat before heading back to the hostel. I’ve noticed the McDonalds in Thailand are much nicer than those in the U.S. The McCafe was its own separate counter from the regular food items. They even have a glass case filled with baked delicacies.  Oh and they even sell batteries at this Mickey D’s! haha

I woke up a little early on my birthday to receive my birthday Skype wishes from my family and headed off to the Jungle for zip lining! The guide who picked us up at the hostel fell instantly in love with Katie. It was adorable! She didn’t realize it probably till later on that night though. Little did we know that he would be driving us around to see all of Chiang Mai for the rest of the time we were there. The drive to Jungle Flight got to be rather exhilarating. There were a lot of steep hills and narrow streets through the mountain. It was a very beautiful drive. We finally made it to our zip-lining destination. We geared up and were off in to the jungle. Although I’ve been zip-lining before in Costa Rica, I forgot what to expect and was a little nervous the first few times. I also didn’t remember the height of the platforms being as high as they were in Chiang Mai. My fear of heights was kicking in for the beginning but as we went I got better. Katie and I were paired with a brother and sister from Canada and our two jungle guides. It was a fun group. The zip lining adventure included one very narrow, curvy staircase down a tree, wooden bridges, and zip lines that dropped you vertically downwards. One of the times, I could have sworn the guides were yelling, “break, break” which means to use the “monkey stick” to slow yourself down on the zip line. Well I must have been hearing things. I broke too soon and ended up not making it to the next platform. I zipped all the way back to the middle of the line. Mind you this line was probably the highest from the ground. It was extremely frightening. The guide came to my rescue and pulled us back to platform safety. The name of this blog post comes from all the “Oh my God” screaming us farang were doing while we zip lined. Every time we would yell, “oh my God!” the guides would correct us to say, “oh my Buddha!”   Later, towards the end of our adventure, I was surprised with a birthday present on one of the platforms. One of our guides zip lined across to the platform I was standing on and sang Happy Birthday while holding a very “natural” present. It was bananas and a muffin wrapped in banana leaves. The whole act was very thoughtful. Most creative birthday gift I’ve ever been given!  After our zip lining adventure was over, we had a very good lunch. So far it was turning out to be a great birthday! After my birthday burrito for dinner, Katie bought me a mini cake and a birthday candle that said, “Happy Birthday” in Thai to help begin the night’s festivities. It was a very fun night! We began pre-gaming with music and cards. Next, came the candle, cake and more Thai food and we ended the night at a Thai, cowboy bar dancing the night away with a bunch of locals. Oh yeah, can’t forget about the blow horns Katie brought with to help us celebrate! It was a great birthday!! The next morning we were supposed to do a full day cooking class, well let’s just say we had a little too much fun. Unfortunately, what we thought was a really bad hangover turned in to us truly being sick. Katie and I both came down with bad cases of the cold…bad coughing and stuffiness in the head. It was not fun. We laid around all day Thursday and finally ventured out at night. John, Katie’s Thai “boy” friend was very kind to invite us to a Traditional Thai Dance and Dinner show. It was packed with farang. The food was pretty good, unfortunately Katie and I couldn’t enjoy the night as much as we would have liked to since we were both not feeling well and Friday morning we were due to “fly” bright and early. We figured we would go “all out” while we were here in Chiang Mai. You only live once right? We noticed one of our roommates at the hostel had a flyer for Chiang Mai Sky Adventures.

We decided we had to do it! I went up in the air first. Whatever we flew up in was an open aired hang glider plane thing with an engine. All that was needed to fly was a helmet and a jacket. I sat close behind the pilot and was able to converse with him throughout the flight; our helmets had microphones in them. I was so surprised because not for one second was I nervous or scared; not even during takeoff or landing. We flew pretty high above Thailand’s beautiful paddy fields and countryside. Some interesting sites I saw was a Chinese cemetery, a school where morning assembly was taking place so I was able to see all the students, and the Mae Kueng dam. There was an island shaped like a turtle near the dam that the pilot referred to as “Turtle Island”. 

 I flew for a half hour. It was a great experience! I was happy when it was time to make our landing, it got pretty cold fast up in the air. We landed smoothly on to the runway, unlike Katie. The first time they were supposed to land they didn’t. I was right next to the runway with her Nikon waiting to snap pictures but they didn’t land, instead they flew past, circled around, and tried a second time. Well they landed the second time around. I didn’t really think anything of it when they weren’t slowing down on the ground like they probably should have been, I was too busy snapping pictures. All of a sudden I look up and realize they’re headed for the bushes and trees not stopping! I think the height of the bushes helped their stop. Talk about an almost crash landing ha-ha, that will make for a good video! Katie said the pilot told her he was having a little problem with the breaks as they tried landing the first time, that’s why they had to make a loop around and didn’t land the first time. Luckily, everything was fine and they were ok! They gave us a certificate in addition to the in-flight video we purchased. Written on the certificate is the following: “The holder of this certificate has demonstrated exceptional courage and has joined an elite group of thrill seekers dedicated to living life to its fullest. You must treat them with the utmost respect.”  After flying we were pretty pooped and still didn’t feel good. We relaxed all day until John took us to Doi Suthep. It was quite the hike up a long flight of stairs to get to visit the Temple. It was very beautiful though! Just very tiring considering I wasn’t feeling the greatest. We lit candles and incense and placed them in front of the Buddha. It was nice to do so, but I still felt a little awkward at the same time not knowing what exactly to do and what was considered most respectful. I just went with it though. After visiting the Temple, John took us to a Deaf School in Chiang Mai where he used to teach at and still has a few teacher friends who work there. This was probably the most interesting and unique thing that I’ve done in Chiang Mai. There were a group of boys there to greet us and sign to us hello. Katie and I decided the boys were asking John if Katie was his girlfriend. They kept signing, “Beautiful” and seemed to be asking him questions that John got all “smiley” from and would shake his head no. The school reminded me of a University. Many of the children spent the night at the school in what reminded me a lot of dorm style living at college, except there was one large room for all the children. They were absolutely adorable! I had a connection with one little boy. They were cutting out animal vocabulary words and I was trying to sign some of the animals to the boy. He ended up teaching me more than I could really even teach myself. It was so cute! I asked if I could take him home with me. I had John ask him, and the little boy shook his head and replied I want to stay here. After being at the Deaf School, I had this moment where I thought to myself how cool sign language really is. It seems to be one of the only, true Universal languages. No matter what spoken language you may speak, sign language for the most part, is very similar Worldwide. I wish I knew how to communicate using sign. We went out to dinner to a very local Thai place with John and some of his friends. Grossest thing ever was when John opened a container of live shrimp. They were jumping all over the place and he just popped some right in to his mouth…. I wasn’t going to be adventurous that way. I have to draw the line somewhere…

Saturday was our last day in Chiang Mai and we really didn’t feel any better unfortunately. We were able to find enough energy to visit the Tiger Kingdom where we were able to hold and play with baby tigers and a few big ones too. It was amazing! The only time I was nervous was when I was holding the baby tiger; it got a little feisty on me and started to growl. I let him down and tried to hold him for a second time but he did the same thing. The poor little thing just did not want to be held. I can’t blame him I guess…. Other than that incident the tigers were very calm and sleepy. Apparently the tigers do not need to be drugged to stay calm like they are. The workers told us as long as they are fed they are naturally calm animals. Also, during the day is a time of rest and relaxation for the tigers. I still don’t know if I believe it… It was pretty incredible how we were able to lay on and pet the tigers without them even budging though. Before we left Saturday night we went to the Saturday Walking Market. It was a very long street packed with the traditional northern souvenirs. As we were walking down the street, Thailand’ National Anthem began to play on the loud speakers. Everyone stopped in their steps and stood still as they listened. It was quite interesting; I’ve never had that happen to me before while I’ve been here in Thailand. Other than being sick, I had a great time in Chiang Mai. It was sad to have to leave and go back to reality in Bangplama. Especially after an almost full week of travelling and fun!