Yo Hello Hurray

After being in the "land of smiles" for four months and taking about four pictures in that time and sufficiently annoying my parents by sending the shortest e-mails in electronic mail history, I've decided to  embrace my inner Farang and create a blog that both friends and family can read to keep tabs on me to make sure I'm not in a second cast and typing these entries with my feet.

Anyway.

So, Natalie and I had to book it to the airport last week to make our plane to Chiang Mai. In between not falling asleep in the cab ride and eying the clock, we both noticed that we were in severe danger of not making it on time. Couple this with the fact that Chiang Mai was already our Plan B, since we (we = Natalie) could not leave Thailand yet to go to Plan A: Cambodia. About 2 km from the airport, our cab hit a truck. Great, there we were in the third row of about ten lanes of moving traffic and we were certain that we would be 0/2 in trying to go on vacation this weekend. Luckily for us, our cab driver was a douchebag and commited a hit and run as the other driver was getting out of his vehicle to swap information with us.

Long story short, we got to the airport at 8PM to make our 8:30 flight after re-inacting scenes from Home Alone and running through the airport and I was able to enjoy a ham and carrot sandwich and brownie courtesy of Bangkok Airlines.

We made it to Chiang Mai for the night. We walked in our room at Libra Guesthouse, turned on the light and were politely greeted by a giant cockroach on our bed. So after about a 15 minute marathon of  moving heavy wooden beds to find it, I introduced our friend to my flip flop. One dead cockroach later, we were thirsty and decided to see the nightlife in Chiang Mai.

We decided to stop by the Jack Daniels van (which is what it sounds like) for a quick drink and I ordered a drink called an "Around the World" in homage to St. James drinking techniques. Since I was already going to get it based on its name alone, I was curious as to what I just ordered. After our server told me what was in it (actually she shrugged, laughed and walked away) I was brought a lime green glass. This time, I asked the bartender what was in it, and she answered, "gin, vodka, rum, whiskey and  green Bols".  While the taste was "same same" as drinking cleaning products, I was a fair bit less concerned of dying.

Anyway, we later ended up drinking with 12 Thai engineers in a bar that was the equivalent of Cheers, and where we were the only white people. It was awesome. We all got on quite well while sharing big Leo's, Sangsom and soda water. While many of them spoke fluent English, we also taught them some English words and in return learned Thai words which we have since forgotten.

We woke up the next morning, and outside of having to buy some Tylenol, we felt great. We stopped at a great place for breakfast where I ordered a Mexican breakfast of scrambled eggs, Mexican rice, salsa and refried beans. Honestly, the both of us were all smiles and I can't remember the time that food made me so happy. A few hours later, I was not so happy.

We borded our taxi-van to head over to the small town of Pai, which is about 3 hours and 762 turns through the mountains away. On turn 344, I was not feeling so well. On turn 638, I had my window open thinking how embarrassing it would be to vomit in a van of 10 strangers. Luckily, I made it. Kind of. We got to Pai where I cut everyone getting off the van when it stopped and started a bee-line for.... anywhere that wasn't the middle of the street. A random wall and bucket filled with water was my final destination and I proceeded to make my re-fried beans were now re-re-fried beans as I threw up in this random bucket.  I'm sure this is what you want to be reading.

Our place at Rim Pai cottage was nice, and other than our outdoor shower that didn't have hot water, it was pretty awesome. I love Pai, both the scenery and the people. Everyone should go if you get the opportunity. I was disappointed to be in this cast as it is limiting the things I can do, but grateful that I get to get a removable cast in 3 weeks. So is my arm, as I won't have to shower wearing a bag on it.

In more recent news (if anyone is curious),  in order to celebrate Ellen Sarah's birthday, I'm going to drink an unnecessary amount of gin, hope to not fracture my other wrist, play some beer pong, cab to RCA for a night of dancing and hope not to be piss-tested. Wish me luck.