Okay so maybe not so much madness, but needed a catchy post. I spent this past weekend in the beautiful city of Chiang Mai! My first home in Thailand. I spent a few weeks there while doing the TEFL course and then stayed a few days after, quick trip to Laos, back to CM then off to Chiang Rai to my new home. Can't believe how quickly time is flying here. I was last in CM back in October for the Li Peng Northern Lantern Festival. What a beautiful festival, over 10,000 lanterns being released into the sky...it was beautiful! Okay so back to Friday. My really good friend Kate is done with teaching and is now traveling for a month before heading back to England so we decided what better way to spend our last weekend together than to be in Chiang Mai together since she's off to Pai after. So we booked the bus tickets together and survived the three hour bus ride without killing each other. Once the bus was getting closer to the city I started to actually get excited about the weekend. Highways were becoming familiar and once I realized where we were (by Central Plaza) I couldn't stop smiling. We get a song tao (sp?) and head to our hostel. Deejai Backpackers. HELLO BACKPACKER CENTRAL! It had been awhile since I stayed in an actual hostel. So many backpackers just out and about, sharing their stories and tips/advice on countries. We check in and immediately go on the prowl for some food. We had decided on this Burmese restaurant and it was called The Swan. AMAZING. The food was to die for, I definitely recommend anyone go there if you're in Chiang Mai. It's just a few minutes north of Thapae Gate by El Diablos. Okay so once we were stuffed we decided to go out on the town. It was around 11pm by now and one of our friends wanted to go to Zoe's. Now Zoe's is notorious for their loud music, buckets galore, crazy light shows, and lots of dancing. Some of us were pretty tired and just wanted a chill night, but the live music place was karaoke so that wasn't going to happen so we just decide to suck it up and head there. There are other bars in this bar garden so we settled on a reggae bar where we tried not to laugh too much at the drunk girls and decided we should catch up a bit and got some girly drinks. Daquiri's and margaritas - things you just can't get in Chiang Rai. So we enjoy the reggae music and then it started to close so we decide to just chill at the tables by Zoe's and get a drink and figure out what to do. As we are sitting there this is a tall guy standing by himself on his phone and my friend told me to go talk to him. I declined at first, but then figured hey why not so I sauntered up to him and said hello and asked him where he's from. SAN DIEGO! Woohoo! So we talked a bit and he sat down with my friends and I and we couldn't stop talking about SD. Always fun to talk about things from home. Well he's out here living in CM - business owner and new to the area. My friend didn't believe me that he was from California (I am known to attract Dutchies and this American guy threw my friends a curve ball) so my friends asked him what is his heritage. Low and behold: half German half Dutch. Seriously, I just can't deal with myself sometimes. just kiddin :) okay well he was a nice addition to our group so we invited him to head to the next bar with us and he offered to drive his bike and extended an invitation. I was about to accept when two of the girls in our group jump on the bike and he turns around and was surprised to see them and then looked around for me haha. I had a good laugh and told them I would see them at the bar and walked with my friends. I'm not one to fight over a guy so just pai pen rai the whole situation and enjoyed the walk. My friends told me that he was looking around for me so that made me smile a bit. Anyhow we get to the place and one of my friends is talking his ear off. I saunter around them to grab a drink and setup camp with the group. He manages to get away from her and finds me and we have a really good chat. He's a super nice guy and glad to have made a new friend in the city. Wasn't in a dancing mood so we just had drinks and stayed out until around 4am. Most of my friends left so it was just us and my friend and her bf. I would attempt to name names, but there's a huge group of us so you just get to know some of them as friends haha.
28/2
Rise and shine sunshine! As my friends and I peel ourselves out of bed and into showers and clean clothes, I decide to message my friend that I did the TEFL with and see if she wanted to meet for brunch. She said YUP and suggested MEXICAN and I was GAME. The thought of Mexican food...omg...salivating. I love Thai food and all, but omg...I miss Mexican soooooo much! And Tapatio...*hint hint to anyone coming to Thailand, please bring me some. I promise to give hugs in exchange* So my friends and I walk to town and I meet up with my friend Lucy. Ah so much fun seeing her! We lived in the resort together and had so much fun, so many laughs together. Her room was right across from mine. Lots of late nights of practice teaching and making mystery boxes.So we caught up and laughed about our kids and ate delicious food. I'm pretty sure I put on about 10lbs this weekend, so worth it. We head to the Irish pub where the rest of the gang is to have a diet coke and relax a bit. It was sooooooo freakin' hot that we were just trying to escape the heat. can't believe it's only getting warmer! hit the high 30s (triple digits in Fahrenheit). We decided that we would go home and hit the pool at the hostel. BEST IDEA EVER. Laying poolside within the next hour and enjoying some water and some much needed relaxation. Last night took a lot out of us and a chill day was perfect. Kate was determined to get Mexican food for dinner and then to just come back to the pool bar and call it a night from there. PERFECT!
Since when have any of our plans ever work out? So we head to rooftop bar to watch the sunset and then go and get some much needed Mexican. I was still somewhat full from earlier so I just got some rice and beans and of course tortilla chips. Heaven in my mouth. After we roll out of the restaurant we head back to the hostel to go to the chill bar. End up meeting up with everyone and had a really fun night laughing and catching up with friends :)
1/3
Apparently it's March now and we had a slow morning to get brunch because saying so long to a friend is terrible. SO we got some delicious brunch (I basically just ate all weekend) and we split up so some of us went to the bus station and Alice, JJ, Kate, and I went back to the hostel to grab Kate's bags and then we collapse on the bean bag chairs. After what felt like an eternity we peel ourselves out of our glass box of emotion and head to the bus station together. We get some yummy pizza and then had to say good-bye to Miss Kate. ahhh sooo sad! Did my best and kept my tears back for the most part. I plan on seeing her in Bangkok, but didn't make it any easier! I'm basically going to be a wreck for the next couple weeks. So once she left to go to Pai, Alice, JJ, and I head to Eco Resort to get some pool time in and to see the old stomping grounds. I spent 3 weeks there when I first got to Thailand. So after a nice refreshing pool and shower (I don't have hot water at my place in Mae Chan so the shower felt perfect) we head back to the bus station to meet up with the others. Got to Chiang Rai around 8pm and had to hire a taxi (blue truck) to take us to our home so finally was in my room around 9pm on Sunday. So much for getting anything done :) OH well, perfect last weekend with good friends
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