Okay, I KINDA don’t know where to begin! But maybe I’ll start at the beginning. On Thursday evening, I hopped on a bus and went to Chiangmai for the weekend. Last year when I was in Thailand with the DRIME team, we went to Chiangmai and I fell in love with the city and the people and the friends we made! So, because I am living in Thailand, I felt like I could not live so close to Chiangmai and not come up to visit at least once. And with not many weeks left here in Thailand, I was getting nervous that I might not be able to visit them. But with some encouragement from my teammate and some help from my friends Poy, Nid and A (telling me what bus to take, booking me a place to stay) I hopped on a bus and was on my way to a wonderful weekend. Eleven hours later, I was in Chiangmai, Thailand! Did I have a plan of what I was going to do when I got there? Nope. But I’m sure glad God did – because he filled my weekend so it was just packed enough but also refreshing and a bit relaxing too ;) haha. Such a great balance!
My bus was a little late arriving to the station – okay a lot late – two hours late. I found out from the lady sitting next to me, in her broken English, that it was because we had to go around 4 cities with flooding. I was so grateful for how flexible and patient P’Rew was at picking me up! He brought me to the TCCC guesthouse where I was staying, made sure I had everything I needed and was on his way. I was on my way to a great weekend! Before he left, P’Rew asked me what my plans were for the weekend… I said “I don’t really have a plan, just hope I can visit with my friends”. Very weird for me not to have a plan! After I showered, I headed over to the pool to sit in the sun and read for a bit… I figured since it was Friday all the staff would be busy preparing for L.T.I camp the next week in Pai (the city) so I would just wait to see them until lunch or some other time. But I got near the office and Poy calls my name, “Samantha!” she greeted me, and brought me into the office to show me around. There, I found some more of my friends busily working away. I asked what they were working on and from that I found myself helping prepare for LTI camp… lol. Not exactly what I expected but it was certainly fun to be able to hang out with them even if I was just drawing lines on a piece of paper… I was contributing AND I was spending time with them J! Poy asked if I was hungry and I was, so we went just across from the office to a little place for lunch. It was A’Roi! After lunch I decided I was actually going to read by the pool. But I think I had gotten a couple pages in my book when I got a phone call from Yokie. (no joke) She was going to the market and wondered if I wanted to join her. “I would love to come!” I said, “Okay, my friend will pick you up on her motorbike at the office and bring you to my home so we can go together…” Uh… Motorbike? Oh. Okay. I was a little nervous but it was actually good. And by the time we came back I was riding on a motorbike WITH buckets and stuff we bought at the market in hand. (Only one hand to hang on with!) By the end of the weekend it was actually really fun riding on the motorbikes with my friends: feels Thailand-y. haha. On our way home from the market, I was asking Yokie if she knew P’Ae and Joy… Some friends working with AIA (Athletes in Action) who Janna and I had met in Bangkok. Joy is also “farung” and working in Chiangmai on a 7 month missions trip with AIA. Just as soon as I asked about them, I saw Joy washing her shoes in the front entrance of her home. I was like HEY!!! We chatted a bit. “I didn’t know you were coming up here this weekend” she said, “Neither did I; I just hopped on a bus and here I am!” “Cool, I was going to go for a swim… wanna join me?” she asked. A swim sounded good because unlike in Bangkok where it rains everyday – I actually saw the sun in Chiangmai!!! I also have to mention that there was absolutely NO flooding in the village in Chiangmai that I was staying in… It was completely dry – the river was low and the sun was out! So great! Anyways so I changed into my bathing suit and met up with Joy and we talked and swam a bit too. I met her friend Anne (who is also her Thai teacher) and Joy told me how they had been learning about Thai time… and how neung toom is 7pm and song toom is 8pm etc. It still kinda baffles me. Anyways, Ae suggested going out for dinner after swimming. So Ae, Anne, Joy, a couple more of their friends and I went out for dinner. I got to eat Italian! I haven’t found any Italian shops since being here. I had fetticini alfredo! Mmm so good! I mean A’Roi Mak! So, after dinner, Ae says, “So, we could go home OR we could go to a concert?” Jing la?! (Seriously?) Obviously we want to go to a CONCERT!!! Haha. Even with my lack of sleep and my 6:30am wake up call on the bus (not a wake up call I just couldn’t fall back asleep) I was totally up for it! It ended up being some sort of concert that was raising money for the floods in Thailand. So they were auctioning off things and they had different bands playing music. It was fun! J It’s funny because at the concert, we met this girl from YWAM named Suzanna. She was telling us how she was a missionary here in Thailand and then we were like, well, so are we! (She’s with YWAM, Joy’s with AIA and I’m with DRIME – oh the acronyms! haha) So anyways we had a good long conversation with her; she raves about the DTS program with YWAM. All in all it was a very packed, random and spontaneous Friday, filled to the max!
 |
| Suzanna, me and Joy |
Oh and it ended by me finding a LIVE cockroach IN my toilet!!! AH!!! Good thing I know how to flush or else I would have been nervous to sleep with a cockroach in my room! Still kinda was, even though I had flushed him down the toilet!
 |
| baking snickerdoodles |
Saturday morning I got to sleep in, but first I got a phone call from Yokie at 9:30am. She said “Tom a’rie yuu?” And in my very tired state I was STILL able to “kaow-jai” (understand) what she was saying!!! She was phoning because we were maybe going to go ride elephants on Saturday but she thought it would be better to do on Sunday afternoon. She called to tell me times and prices and stuff. Before she hung up she asked me if I was hungry (for breakfast) and I said – I think I am going to go back to sleep. With the lack of sleep on the bus, the 6:30am wakeup call and the packed day on Friday I was SO EXHAUSTED!!! So she said I could meet her for lunch (I love that they are taking care of me in terms of meals and things to do!) So I did sleep some more! I think I could have slept forever but I decided to wake up at 11:30am. I headed over to Yokie’s place for lunch. I didn’t QUITE remember where it was but I kept walking and all of a sudden I heard my name! haha. So I found her house! Poy asked me if I eat “som tom” ummmm I can TRY. (I normally don’t eat it – mai chop ped) So we had Thai style lunch… chicken, rice, som tom, bamboo and some other things that I tried. One of the foods I tried was bitter and one was sour… but I liked the sour one so I got some more and the girls were happy that I liked it haha. After lunch it started to rain so I played guitar for a bit and watched part of a movie that was on tv with Yokie. Then Joy and Ae walked past the girls’ house. They were going to get some eggs so I asked if I could join them for the walk. After we got eggs Joy came over to the guesthouse I was staying in, because they had an oven, and we made snickerdoodles. Yummy. After we made cookies, I went for a quick swim and then I went to the office to check bus times on the internet for the next night. Turned out Yokie was phoning and booking my ticket for me before I even had a chance to see bus times! So great that she was working it all out for me! My friends were taking such good care of me! Suggesting places to go and things to do and making sure my weekend in Chiangmai was wonderful!
 |
| Joy and I at Chiangmai's Walking Street |
Joy and Ae had suggested earlier that we go to the walking market… I didn’t know what that was but it’s basically like a JJ Market in Chiangmai. So we went there! We took a red song tow to the market. We were waiting for one to come and it was taking awhile but then we saw one pull into 7/11 on the other side of the street. SO… Joy, Ae and I (looked for traffic) crossed 4 lanes of the highway to get to the song tow at 7/11!!! I feel like I should make a joke out of this: “Why did Joy, Ae, and Samantha cross 4 lanes of the highway???” Answer: “To get to the song tow parked at the 7/11 on the other side!” lol. Anyways, everything at Chiangmai Walking Street was SO CUTE!!! I wanted to buy the whole market and take it home with me… But I didn’t. haha. But it definitely was a lot of fun! At the walking street, Ae bought some lanterns that we could take home and fly this night. It was SO FUN!!! Think Disney’s Tangled (the movie)… and all the lanterns that just float up in the air… We got to DO THAT!!! So exciting! It was a more relaxing beginning of my Saturday but it still got very packed with lots of fun!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment