Tuesday...while you were sleeping...

    I got two calls from the states today! The Christians have a Vontage phone in there home and it is able to call the states/receive calls for free. Talked to "The Mill" and Dad and Luke before heading out the door to a BIG day.

   While you were sleeping...

 I hopped in a van with two girls from Argentina, Hannah from the UK and others from the states. We drove for an hour or so outside of Chiang Mai into the mountains. The landscape was beautiful. Thailand has two seasons: wet and dry (down south in the islands it is known as hot and hotter). Well, right now, Chiang Mai is in their 'wet season'. With all the rain, the mountains were beautiful and lush with all shades of green. 

     We got to spend a lot of time with the elephants, which I particularly enjoyed. Hannah and I rode an elephant whose name I cannot pronounce. She did a great job going up and down some steep hills and maneuvering through some windy paths. We fed her a whole bag of bananas--she would reach back with her trunk while we were still riding her back and blow air in our faces when she wanted another banana!

     We bought the bananas from this banana lady:

  she knew how to get our attention for the feeding:

  that is one big foot:

  family of three- like james, connie, and sam :) -cute little baby:

   Anyway, I loved getting to spend some extra time with a mommy elephant. It was so calming standing next to her and petting her.

      After this they had to pull me kicking and screaming away from these amazing animals.

    On to our next adventure! We hiked to the Karen people's village. The Karen people migrated from Burma to Thailand 200 years ago. They are a village that lead a sustainable lifestyle-they use and eat their own crops and do not sell them. Mostly they grow rice, corn, tobacco, and soy beans. Here is one of the village leaders making scarves to sell: 

   With our guide, Net, we walked through rice fields, stopping to observe the crops, and learn about the bugs in this area:

     It was so cool hiking through 'the jungle' to the waterfall. Again, I couldn't get over the beautiful vegetation in this area. 

at one point we had to use bamboo poles to get down a really muddy part. it was so slippery!

    Next on our hike we came up on the Hmong people. They migrated from China 125 years ago. They used to grow opium until the current King of Thailand used his own personal money to start a project to teach the people how to grow different crops like strawberries, avocados, artichokes, etc.

After visiting this village, we went to the edge of a river where we got on rafts made of 6 bamboo poles stuck together with a guide on the front and back. It was a crazy ride down the river, because with it being rainy season, the river was up very high and flowing very quickly. 

  I was pretty worried about this 'raft ride' when we were getting on, but it turned out to be really fun. Don't let this calm water picture fool you--the rapids were big, we all screamed, and we got totally soaked. There was one guide on the front and one on the back. No paddles. All they had were skinnier bamboo sticks that they would use to push of the trees on the banks of the river if we got too close to the edge.

   What a day! Back in town, Judy took me to the 'thai drive thru' where this lady made Som Tom for us. It is a raw papaya salad that was so delicious!