July,August, and Now

Well my writing has become scarcer and scarcer, but I'm starting to get back into the rhythm of it to prep for our travels. A quick recap for the months of July, August, and up until now. Work has been going by incredibly fast. Teaching is great. The kids are fun, the work is easy, and the days fly by. Our weekends alternate between Chiang mai and Pai. In Chiang Mai we do our usual Saturday basketball group and occasionally rent motorbikes to check out spots outside of the city, but our real adventures are in Pai. In Pai we rent motorbikes and explore. The nicely paved, non-crowded roads, and beautiful scenery make Pai the ultimate destination for spontaneous adventures. At the end of July my friend Jan came to visit for a week and we were able to take her to Pai. She loved it. We had so much fun. We went a long hike to a beautiful three tiered waterfall. I even rode a motorbike for the first time! It was a little daunting at first, but I got the hang of it, and ended up really enjoying it. After the waterfall we took her to our favorite spot; the land crack. Once again we were greeted by the friendly owner who generously fed us snacks and juice. We were happy to be sitting in his hammocks enjoying our treats at the time we were, because it began to pour down rain. It rained nonstop for over an hour, and I was just happy I wasn't riding the motorbike while it happened. After Jan left Ryan and I did another trip to Pai where we decided to venture out of our normal areas. We rode our motorbike about an hour and a half north to see the lod cave. The cave was amazing. We paid a small fee to get a guide to take us in and show us around, but it was worth it. The stalagmites were huge; some looked like something out of a scifi movie, and others resembled coral. On our ride back from the lod cave we came across a couple of other smaller caves that you could explore on your own. Those were smaller but equally as cool. They didnt have the stalagmites like the other cave, but the formations were just as interesting. The smaller caves were more clay looking, kind of like a Flintstones house. On our more recent trip to Pai Ryan and I went to Boy's property to go fishing. He lives on a very beautiful piece of property with bamboo huts, tipis, a house, and a very large lake for fishing. We spent the afternoon fishing and hanging out with Boy, it was the ultimate thai style relaxation. Aside from our Pai adventures, teaching, and our lazy weekends in Chiang Mai playing basketball and shopping at the night bazaar, not a whole lot has been going on. The reason for this is mostly because we are saving up for our next epic travel adventure. October 3rd is our last day of work, yipee! The few days after will be spend cleaning up our apartment and packing our things, because on the 6th of October we will be flying to Medan Indonesia, where we will spend three weeks exploring the Sumatran jungles, Hiking Volcanoes, and Staying at on an island inside the world's largest volcanic lake. Sounds too good to be true I know, I still pinch myself every time I think about it. After Sumatra we will make our way over to Malaysia where we will spend a little over a week on the Island of Penang, world famous for its street food. From Malaysia we will be flying back to the US, but excitedly enough our travels wont end there. We fly into Honolulu where we will be staying a week with Ryans family. Then just when the tan lines from our sandals become overwhelmingly dark, and our hair is bleached blonde from the sun we will return back home to Santa Rosa. Luckily the transition from vagabond lifestyle to so called "reality" wont be a dissapointment because we have so much to look forward to, like going to the property, seeing family and friends, christmas, snowboarding in Tahoe, and moving to Humboldt. AHHH, so many exciting things happening I dont know where to concentrate my excitement. But then I remeber all the valuable lessons I have learned from the life changing books I have read on our trip, and refocus my excitement on the present. Reality check, we are still living in Chiang Mai Thailand. We are teachers, We are explores, and I  am sharing the most incredible life experience with my soulmate. If there is one piece of wisdom I have learned on this trip it would definitley be the law of attraction. Everything that we are excited for is everything we have manifested through our desires. I could not be more proud of us for making all of dreams come true, and in the process finding peace within ourselves and connecting with each other on a spiritual level I never knew existed. Life is a true adventure, and I am begining to see that through desire, and the law of attraction you can make anything happen. I am so thankful for all of our experiences, Ryan and I have changed in ways I cant even begin to describe, but for that reason, I know the change that has happened is so powerful, because putting words to it would only devalue the authenticiy of the higher perspective, experience, and oneness we have attracted over these past ten months. Life is truly beautiful, and we can not wait to experience more, whether we are traveling, or  back at home in our daily routine ,every experience is a chance to gain wisdom, connect, and love.

June

Well it's been a few months since I have last written, and a lot has happened. The month of June was jam packed with family visiting. We had Willie and Aileen visiting for one week, Evie, Dave, Sue, and Katie for three weeks, and Heather and Rob for two and a half. Unfortunately we had to work while they were here, but that didnt stop us from making the most of our time with them. From 3:30pm when we clocked out to about midnight every night, we were busy showing them around Chiang Mai, and having lots of wolf pack adventures. Some highlights were; our trips to Pai, river rafting, secret waterfall exploring, playing with elephants, cooking class, getting wolf pack tattoos, and our spontaneous waterfall excursions outside of Chiang Mai. I will elaborate on my favorite experiences, since going into detail about it all would take way too long. I'll start with our trips to Pai. Ryan and I are in love with Pai, and we love taking people there too, because they also fall in love with it. The small hippy town lays in a valley, surrounded by jungle mountains, and has the most friendly people on earth. In the town itself there isnt much to do; bars, restaurants, and bamboo bungalows with hammocks line the river that run through the town. But a short ten minute ride on a scooter will get you to the outskirts of the town where there is so much to see. Our first time in Pai was with Willie and Aileen and because we were novices to the whole Pai scene we mistakenly paid way too much for a tour to drive us around to the attractions. The tour was 600 baht per person, when you can rent a motorbike for 100 baht (50 baht per person). Rookie mistake, but we still had fun. On the tour we went to a hot spring, that was so beautiful and relaxing. There were six different pools, and they all varied slightly in temperature, ranging from really hot, too really flippin hot. We then made our way to the Pai Grand Canyon, where we had an incredible view of the valley and all of the farms. The canyon had a very narrow path to walk on. Some of it involved steep rock climbing, and careful balance, but in the end it was worth it. The Canyon was a firey orange red, and the colors of the canyon wall looked majestic against the lush green jungle background. It was definitely one of the prettiest sights in Pai. After sweating bullets in the blistering sun on top of the canyon, we made our way to our first waterfall. It was a three tiered waterfall that had a swimming pond at the bottom. There were many tourists and locals there. The locals were jumping off the rocks into the water, and sliding down the slick walls of the waterfall and into the pond. Ryan, Willie, and I decided to join in. At first it was intimidating because the rocks were so slippery, and if you went down the wrong way you could hurt yourself, but we did it anyway, and it was a blast. After exploring the beautiful scenery in the day, we would retreat back to our bungalows and get ready for the night. The town of Pai comes to life at night. There is one main street in Pai that is lite up by the quaint wooden restaurants and outdoor bars. This street also has the best food vendors. We discovered our favorite one; a vegetarian Indian vendor. The food is delicious, the people working are so friendly, and the prices are great. Along this road are many souvenir shops selling all kids of goodies. Many of the clothes you find at the night bizarre can be found here, but there are also lots of handmade crafts, like moccasins, jewelry, hammocks, fun magnets, and t-shirts. The bars in pai are awesome. Our first time in Pai we found the Spirit Bar. This bar is a small little outdoor bar with a fun relaxed hippie vibe. Psychedelic paintings, firepit, wooden stumps with cushions, a handmade jewelry shop, bamboo walls , lanterns, and hippie bartenders really give the place a burningmanesque ambiance. Our first time at the Spirit Bar was with Willie and Aileen, and we wanted to smoke hooka. So I walked up to a guy at the bar and asked if he knew anywhere that we could get hooka. He was white and his English was good, but his heavy accent, and lack of recognition of the term hooka led to a comical misunderstanding.He looked at me with a puzzled expression and said "Hooka, You want a hook?".  Me- "Yes do you know where I can find some". Him- "Um, I dont know let me ask". He looks at the bartender, "Hey do you know where to get a hooker, this girl wants one?". My eyes popped, " no a hooka to smoke..... you know shesha".   "Oh shesha. Ok. I was gonna say, you don't look like the type to want a hooker."  
And that incident led us to a great friendship with the owner of the bar; Boy. The white guy that I asked a hooka for was a traveler from Poland, and we ended up making good friends with him. He asked Boy; the owner of the bar if he knew where we could get shesha, and Boy said he had one of his own that he would let us smoke. So Willie, Aileen, Ryan, the Polish man, and the Thai bar owner Boy, all sat down and smoked his hooka. We couldnt believe his generosity. Boy became our first friend in Pai, and we made sure to visit him every time we were there.
Our second time in Pai was with the wolfpack. We had a blast. Boy, his brother, and two of his friends took us on an incredible hike to a secret waterfall. The drive to the waterfall was a little sketchy since it has just rained. The dirt roads turned to mud, and there were trenches in some parts. Katie fell over  on the motorbike three times, the first time Sue was on it with her.The hike itself was breathtaking. It was the prettiest jungle I had ever seen. There were the most beautiful wild flowers and crazy insects. There is one type of beetle that makes this loud car alarm sound. If you were to hear the sound without seeing the bug, you would think that there were hundreds of them, but then you spot one on a tree and see its body vibrate and realize the obnoxious loud sound was coming from one tiny bug, it was incredible. There is also another bug that makes a sound like an electric saw, the first time I heard it I was convinced someone was in the jungle sawing wood, but Boy told us it was another type of bug. The jungle environment seemed so foreign to me at first, with all of its scary insects, and creepy sounds. But now that we have done many hikes in Pai, the jungle sounds are comforting and make me feel at home. The rest of our hike was long. It took about two hours to reach the waterfall. The waterfall was about 30 ft high, with two smaller tiers off to the right. The water was cold, but bearable. We all hopped in and swam. The pressure from the waterfall was outrageous! It almost hurt too much to put my hand under it, if you were to put your head, you would for sure get knocked out.