The Half Way Point

      Six months already. Before I left, people continued to tell me how fast it would go, but I never thought it would feel this short. A year seems like a long time, but in this life of ours, a year such a quick span of time. Though it's gone fast, I have done many things and seen many places. Not every moment has been perfect, but every moment has been a learning experience and has taught me more about myself than I learned in all of high school and college.

    I realize I was going to continue my last blog with all the places I have gone, and it took me this long to get to it. Life gets busy! But outside of Phrae and Lampang here are some more places throughout Thailand that I have gone to and highly recommend!

Chiang Rai:
       I have now been to Chiang Rai twice, both of which were entirely different experiences. The first time was full of rain and exhaustion from jumping from temple to temple and attempting Phu Chi Fa for sunrise. The attempt was somewhat disheartening when the rain and clouds covered our views of the mountains and sunrise. We went back to town still damp from the rain and went straight to the white temple from there. The next day we also saw the Nine Story Pagoda, the big Buddah, the Blue Temple, and the monkey caves. I used the word "exhausting" earlier, but that was actually quite the understatement.
      The next time in Chiang Rai was mainly meant for the International Hot Air Balloon Festival, which was a fun experience mainly for awing over the balloons and hanging out with good friends. It was also in Singha Park, which is a beautiful park full of animals, flowers, and a green tea plantation. Two of my other friends and I decided we wanted to have a second chance at the sunrise on Phu Chi Fa. We did the short hike in the pitch black of the early morning with no rain this time! We got there early enough to get a good spot and star gaze before the sky lightened. It was a beautiful view and was worth trying for a second time!

Chiang Mai:
      A long weekend in Chiang Mai spent doing all things touristy. I met a few friends I got close with at orientation and we did a Thai cooking class, went and hung out with the elephants, zip lined through the mountains, and lit off some Chinese Lanterns for New Years. On the last day I had the day to myself and just took a walk around the city with my Nikon, I found a couple of temples that were decorated full of lights and ribbons for the holiday. I plan to go back and get to know the city a little better.

Khon Kaen:
         This was a 7 hour bus trip to meet a friend on a regular weekend, so it was pretty quick. But the city (yes, I was surprised to see an actual city after living in Phrae for 4 months) was full of dinosaurs, coffee shops, and temples. I have a pretty fun story about my trip back from Khon Kaen that I will write about in my next blog.

Petchabun:
Of all of the places I have been, Petchabun, surprisingly, rises to the top. It is a small town, with not a ton to do. Many people don't visit this town because it isn't known for anything very famous. The main attraction we went to see was the Mosaic Temple, aka Wat Prathat Phasornkaew. A friend had planned the trip and I went along for the ride not knowing why or really where we were going. And it was well worth it. The mosaic temple was one of the more unique temples I have found in Thailand, where the outside is more lavish and hand crafted with beautiful artwork, while the inside was a simple temple for worship. The rest of the trip was easy going with a random trip to one of the many strawberry fields that overlooked a river and the mountains. It was a trip full of great company and relaxation.

Udon Thani:

       This town was on my list to visit before even leaving for Thailand. I saw amazing pictures of a lake filled to the brim with bright pink lotuses. Two friends and I decided to seek out the lake one weekend and took the 7 hour journey to Udon Thani from Phrae. The bus system only had certain times to get to and from this city though, so we had to decide whether we only wanted to go for one day and take two over night buses in a row, or stay there for a night and get back at 5 am on Monday morning before we all had work. We decided on a hurricane trip for convenience of time, and it was exhausting but worked out pretty perfectly. We got to the lake around 7 am which made for some amazing photos. It was gorgeous and I would highly recommend making the trip for this lake. The rest of our time there was spent wandering around town finding temples, the park with giant rubber ducks, and the luxury of a mall that we don't have in Phrae. Though it was short, this was one of my favorite trips and well worth the 7 hour ride.

Pai:
         On my most recent trip, I made the trek out to Pai, Thailand. This trek for me was a 4 hour bus ride from Phrae to Chiang Mai, and then another 3 hour van ride full of twists and turns through the mountains to Pai. Pai is well-known by many foreign tourists, and though it's a fairly small town it caters well to it's Western company. It is known for being a very relaxed and simple town, which I definitely found it to be. I went there for about 5 days to meet 2 friends at different times. My favorite spot in Pai was Lod Cave, it was enormous and beautiful with a river filled with massive fish that you could take a bamboo boat through. Keep in mind, the trip to the cave was 45 minutes on a motorbike (I believe there are also songtow tours if this is something you are interested in), but both friends wanted to go to this cave, so I did the trip twice. The first one was a success, and it was my first time driving with someone else on the bike. The second time I was not so fortunate. I think I got a bit too cocky about my driving abilities and didn't make one of the pin-needle turns while on an incline. Luckily it was a slow and harmless fall. I walked away pretty scratched and bruised (but fine) and my friend only had one small cut. Besides going to the cave, I also went to Mae Yen Waterfalls, but the river was so low that the falls were more of a trickle. We also took a yoga course in Pai, which we would consider ourselves far from being "yogies", so it was a challenging and sweaty vinyasa class to say the least (but a great experience!). And I ended my trip at Pai Canyon, and maybe I am a bit of a canyon snob, having lived a lot of my life in Arizona, but Pai canyon wasn't quite what I expected. But, it still had beautiful views of the Thai mountains that surround it.