Everything Is South Of Us

    After sleeping in and taking my sweet time packing, I was off on Friday evening. Off to Mae Sai, the town lying on Thailand's border with Myanmar. I carried a bag of popcorn, my jacket, and my good ol' Rotary backpack into the double decker bus. That bus sure faired well after carrying thirty odd Rotarians on a 16-hour cross-country ride.

     I will skip the part where I gripe about the bad combination of karaoke and Thai comedy with someone trying to get some sleep.

     Two days was all I got to explore Mae Sai (NOT enough time), so the famous Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai will wait until later. Mae Sai is a charming town with a relaxing feel, it's cool weather alone making me instantly pleased. The markets sell many products, from cloth and baskets to Chinese products and Northern Thai souvenirs.

     Our gang of friends got the delicious idea to climb the large hill to the top of Mae Sai, and we were rewarded with a fascinating cityscape....and the oddest temple I've seen yet.

     The students from District 3360 (Northern Thailand) were with us as well, but I met only a few for a short time. It was good to see a fellow Oregonian. A very nice bunch of individuals that I'd love to spend some more time with if given the chance.

     The ride back to Chanthaburi was.....memorable. First, I ..... well, let's say there was a mountain without bathrooms and I feel quite manly now :D Not long after, it started getting dark. At this time, we saw a yellowish dog dart into the road and I knew we couldn't avoid it. A "thunk" was heard, and then an odd sound like we were....dragging something underneath the tires, before another loud "thunk" shook the van. We were all shocked and upon pulling over, it sunk in. We just ran over a dog! A few hours later we almost killed another dog, also yellow in color!! The whole ride, the Rotarians put the AC on FULL blast, to a point where the air was acutely cold and dry. As in, come on, it's already cool outside we're travelling in the night WHAT is making you think this is comfortable for us! >:( Long story short, me and my three friends who were in that van are all suffering from a fatigue and a head cold.

     During this trip, I learned that the food that looks like tofu but is dark brown in color is actually pig's blood. Yum yum.

     If you shoot me an e-mail, I'll give you the link to the wonderful photos of our trip. :)