On the Road Again

After five months in Lampang, we are once again living from our bags. We haven’t been very good bloggers lately. That’s partly because we’ve been keeping busy with many things, but it’s also because we’re coming home so soon.

After we moved out of our apartment and said our goodbyes to our dear landlords, we only got as far as the Thai Elephant Conservation Center where we participated in the Homestay program. It was a two day, one night program where you “learned how to be a mahout.” We didn’t think we’d enjoy it much. I feel guilty riding elephants. I’d much rather help them from afar, but we actually had a great time. We had lovely elephants – Wanalee (12) and JoJo (17). They are both brilliant elephants and are the stars of the show. We have a video of us and the elephants, so be looking forward to that :)

After the TECC we went to Chiang Mai just in time for Songkran (Thai New Year). Can I just say…crazy…absolutely crazy. Three days were spent either on the moat or next to a facet where we filled up buckets of water and threw them on ANYONE that went by. Everyone else returned the favor. Songkran originally was a much less intense holiday –you would go around gently blessing people will drops of water on their arm. Now, instead of drops of water, it’s entire buckets of water. Often containing ice…Not only were you soaking wet from head to toe the whole time, but everyone around you was drinking, dancing, and laughing. Crazy I tell you! Crazy! (But fun).

After Songkran we needed a little recovery time so we went on a road trip with our good friend Josh to Nan. Nan is a smaller town that’s very relaxed. The first day we got there we were just driving around the town and we saw that many people were going into a temple so we decided to join them. This ended up being an amazing experience and they were sooo incredibly happy to have “farang” (foreigners) in there.

The next day we went to a national park that was far up into the mountains. The air was so much cooler and cleaner up there. There were some stunning views.

After Nan Monte and I got on a night train and went to the ancient capital of Siam, Ayutthaya. Many people say that if you can’t make it to Angkor Wat, then you should at least go to Ayutthaya. It was too bad that the Burmese came through long ago and destroyed much of these temples, but what is left is stunning. We met up with our friend Millie who lives at an elephant camp just outside the city. She took us all around to see the sites, both by road and by boat. What a great city!


Then we took a short train ride to Bangkok and had some down time before our next night train down south. We went to visit the biggest reclining Buddha in Thailand. Absolutely beautiful. We saw no signs of protesters whatsoever. In fact, had we not read the news, we wouldn’t even know anything had happened.


Next stop, Koh Tao Island to get our open water diver certificates! We fell in love with diving and can’t wait to continue! Now we are on Koh Phangan and are having a great time relaxing on a beach that has spectacular swimming. Today we rented a motorbike and explored the island which turned into an adventure after getting a flat tire in the middle of nowhere…good times.

Tomorrow our plan is to head out of the gulf of Thailand and onto the other side to a national marine park. Then, to Malaysia! We will be there until May 18th and can’t wait to explore one last country before our return to reality.