Dear Charles, #6

alright alright alright, so much to tell you about! i dont even know where i can start. i'll start from friday afternoon at 4:30 pm:
so me and amber got tickets to go to chiang mai for the weekend on this VIP bus. the bus was pretty much better then first class on an airplane. the seats were huge, they reclined, with a foot rest! they had cup holders and the stuartest gave us water and orange juice and a little thaibiscuit thing (that i didnt actually eat cause it smelled sweet but looked like it had ground beef and raisins in it, and i wasnt that hungry) it took us about 3 and a half hours to get there but i just had the sweet vocal serenade of chris thyle from nickel creek put me to sleep.
so we got there, and off the bus to be bombarded by short thai men holding signs for tuk-tuks to take you into town...so we found one guy and told him where we were staying and he got a confused look on his face, which naturally gave us a confused look. so he asked another driver, i can only assume was how to get there...so the two of them talked for a few minutes then finally the driver came over to us and nodded and pointed to his tuk tuk. "i take you der now" so we hopped in the back of his little transportation device and off we went through the streets of chaing mai. luckily he got us to the right place *phew* transportation is so crazy here- but i'll talk more about that later
so me and amber checked in. the lady that owned the place we stayed at was a christian who spoke really good english, she was so cute. we dropped our bags in our little hostile type room, and decided to head down to the night bazaar they have there. so we're walking down these streets to find out that not two blocks over, we're suddenly in the red light district of chaing mai. there are bars, after bars, after bars, and old white men, after old white men, after old white men. you know you hear about that and you read about it but when you actually see it, it is so different. we hurried past that part of the street and kept going on our way to the bazaar. we finally got there and looked around for about an hour, got an american hamburger (amber was so excited, she's been here since september so i obliged when she asked to eat american even though i dont miss it at all yet) and decided we should go back to the room and sleep. we did get a tuk tuk on the way home cause we assumed the bars were probably getting a little routy since it was later.
so saturday morning we wake up to find that our toilet is not working and our shower and faucet will only produce cold water. oh goodie. we did our best to bypass that and get going with our day (that turned into me not actually showering the whole weekend, and finding interesting ways and places to go to the bathroom). amber was really needing to get a coffee maker so we went to a mall there and shopped around for a little while. i was reluctant to do such american stuff but amber really needed the "break from thailand" and i didnt want her to be a grumpy gills. (you were great amber and i was happy to do it)
so after killing an afternoon with looking around little shops and stuff and buying beautiful thaijewelry, we hopped on a song-tow (bigger version of a taxi, smaller version on a city bus) to a different part of chaing mai where we went to a night safari!! it was so great. we got there about an hour before the tours were gonna start so we walked around this huge lake they had and looked at the animals they had there. which was an impressive selection...tigers, hippos, panthers, monkeys. it was pretty much like a zoo, but more wild and...well in thailand which makes it way cooler.
so just before the tour they had this laser light show over the lake which lasted an impressive 8 min. and was shown to a variety of songs from popular movies. haha it was so funny- pirates of the caribbean, lord of the rings, star wars, all playing out to vibrant and neon lights in the forms on eagles and lions. ( it was super cheesy) me and amber decided to get in line before the light show was over and beat all the old asian women with the grandchildren to the front of the line.
so we get on the night safari..safari thing (like a bus with no doors, whats the word im looking for?) and ended up getting sandwiched between a boisterous family from isreal and an obnoxious family from italy behind us. this made for an interesting and annoying journey.
the tour guide asked that no one use their flash on the tour which apparently the two families didnt hear or didnt understand. they were takin flash pictures like crazy and standing up and talking loudly to each other..that mixed with the thick thai accent of the tour guide and the baby that started cryng two rows up made it really hard to concentrate or enjoy to the fullest. however i did still get to see the animals and silently enjoy them and praise God for his amazing creations.
that night i could hardly sleep in anticipation for the next day, because i was going to go play with tigers for the morning. yes i said it...and no i didnt groom them, unfortunately. i did cuddle with them though. i have an album on my facebook of pictures, so until i get some up here if you have facebook then go check it out. the girl's name was pancake and she was wonderful. she was asleep but still wonderful. i got to play with the baby tigers too...im still waiting for the pictures from amber for that one, but they babies were just...oh my heart was melting. they were just romping around and yelling and playing. it was the best ever.
so when i got into the cage with the big ones...guess who was there....the italians. im not kidding. the lady that sat two over from me was wearing a "chiang mai night safari" tshirt and everything. this was a really obnoxious just...oh i was not stoked to see her again. she kept walking right in front of me and being all, italian and stuff. *hrmph*
so after the best morning of my life playing and cuddling with tigers we went back to town and hung around a day market till we had to catch our bus back to chiang mai. i met a really nice couple from ireland that was retired and had been traveling around asia for the last 6 months while amber went to get some american lunch (her last chance before going home) we talked for like 15 min. i just sat and smiled staring like a fool listening to their accents :)
it was a great weekend. there was way to much to do there in the short amount of time i had so i'll definitely be going back. when conner comes and visits me i think i'll take him back there cause there is a place where you can go feed and hang out with some monkeys...obviously thats super cool and he loves monkeys so we'll be doing that for sure. hope your weekend was as exciting if not more exciting then mine! oh wait.... im in thailand and played with tigers, nothing is more exciting then that. maybe next time :)