Finale.

       This will probably be my last post as I leave in two days to head home. I am still in Pai and have been loving every minute of it. I have not explored much of Thailand so it is not a very accredited statement, but Pai is my favorite place so far. I wish I could put pictures up right now, but a brief explanation will have to do. I rented a motorbike on Friday and went to find Mae Yen waterfall. I wasn't sure I was going the right way, but I asked a local and she said yes so I went on. I got to the end of the road and started hiking on the trail. The falls were supposed to be about an hour and a half walk. My hiking went on for two hours before I called it quits and turned around. It was a beautiful hike, but not the right way to Mae Yen waterfall. I rode my motorbike through the rain to the nearby hot springs, hottest hot springs ever. There were different levels, but still so hot. I stayed here for about 3 hours and met some cool people then headed back into Pai. No one has been out doing much at night as it was Buddha day or something for the 2 and 3 so there is no selling alcohol so everyone was nestled up in their rooms or something. Yesterday (Friday) I went to go check out another waterfall. This time, however, I decided to take a pedal bike. When it came to the big decision of road bike or mountain bike, I chose the cheaper road bike. By cheaper I mean 20 baht cheaper which is less than a dollar... If you are ever in a foreign country and have such a predicament- go with the mountain bike. Mae Paeng waterfall is about 7 K out of Pai. I started off on my wonderful bike and ran into nothing but uphill the entire way. Some of the hills were so steep that it was actually impossible for the road bike to go up. On my way, 3 foreign boys rode past on their motorbikes and mooned me. So funny. Even better was I then saw them once I got to the falls and we all just laughed. The falls were great. My favorite spot. It was a two-tiered waterfall and you could slide down the rocks on the first tier like a slide! So much fun. The climb up after sliding down was the tricky part. I got some good God time in on top of the falls and then a guy from Israel showed up so began talking to him. Soon after, three more guys from Israel showed up. Apparently everyone from Israel goes to Thailand because it is cheap. We slid down the rocks a few more times and after about 3 hours of being there I went for the ride back down. So much easier and quicker than the ride up. Last night everyone was back out on the town and I went down to watch a live band play. They were good and very entertaining. I think I may take some dance classes from the lead singer. The bass guitarist was pretty sweet too as he sat there playing while smoking a joint. Pai is like the Boulder of Colorado. Today I rented another motorbike and took a loop that goes through the mountains and back. This loop includes Pai Canyon and Pembok waterfall. First I went to Pembok. It was very pretty and also very fun. I got there and hiked up around on the trails until they ended then went back down and ate my mango for lunch. I again got to have some time with God and then I went to take a dip under the falls. A guy from England had just gotten there so we both swam up to under the fall. After that, I left and went to Pai Canyon. It is really not much of a canyon, more like a ridge... I guess the canyon is beneath the ridge, but the ridge is the big attraction. It is a pretty red dirt ridge about 3 feet wide that goes on and you can walk all across. It is very cool and crazy because it just drops off on either side. After the canyon I headed to the Chinese village and view point near there. I was not all to impressed with either so I didn't stay long. I am not sure what I will do tomorrow. I think I will try to go to the other two waterfalls nearby and then I catch the bus back to Chiang Mai around 4 p.m. I don't know what to do on Tuesday. Chiang Mai has little to offer that I would spend money on so maybe this will be a rest day. That is the nice thing about Pai, everything I have done (other than renting bikes and hot springs) is free so it is much cheaper than excursions that cost $100. I fly out that night at 11:50 p.m and take forever to get home. I have like 7 hour layovers in both Seoul and L.A.. Bummer.
          I was unsure about this solo travel thing and not sure I would enjoy it, but I have. God knew just what I needed and has given me a lot of time in the past few days to enjoy His presence and His creation. He has brought in several cool people to fulfill my need to socialize and interact with others while also giving me a lot of time with Him I did not know I so badly desired to have. He has given me the perfect amount of adventure and exploring and also rest. Praise God that He knows my needs and desires far better than myself. I will post a few pictures up in my next post when I am at home!

K

Program finished.

Well, my program ended a little early due to scheduling and whatnot so I am now left with a week to travel around. We did lessons in the school near COSA last week on Wednesday and Thursday which was great. We were only supposed to teach 8 classes overall, but ended up doing 14! Then we had some more time with the staff, volunteers and girls at COSA for a few days. We went to Batman with all the volunteers and staff at COSA and on Saturday said our goodbyes. Everyone there was incredible and hard to leave. I might try to swing by there before I head out of Thailand since I now have extra time. Then the best week came. Sunday we packed our bags and headed up to Maetamann a village about an hour from Chiang Mai. Here, we did a brief session, changed clothes, grabbed some bananas and jumped on some large grey animal called an elephant- yep, we rode elephants. For about 4-5 hours we rode our own elephants bareback through the mountains of Thailand, gave them mud baths and washed them off in the river. My elephant's name was Wan and my guide's name was Dee. I got to sit on Wan's trunk and she picked me up, so cool. After elephants, we met our homestays. Mike, Jaxie and Ellie stayed with P-Phon at her house and Bre and I stayed with P-Oh at her house. We walked to the market with P-Oh to get stuff for dinner where we met the wonderful Jojo. Jojo is a 15 year old lady boy who is so nice and hilarious and speaks pretty good english. Jojo escorted us to see a bunch of elephants at a shelter where P-Oh works while P-Oh went to the market. On the way into the elephant park my Chaco broke. Bummer, eh? They were already duct-taped but it finally gave out. So I have now super glued them. We got back to the house and helped cook dinner which was so fun. We went to bed and met up with everyone in the morning to head to Karen hilltribe villages. Karen is the tribe that wears the rings around their necks... except these ones don't ha. We took a 2 hour ride in the back of a pickup on crazy muddy and fun roads and then a 40 minute trek to get to the village. We saw about 80 people this day doing various measurements like height, weight and blood pressure and the doctors that were with us were giving vaccinations and taking blood samples for malaria testing. The next day we took the 40 minute trek back and a short car ride to the next village. We visited two villages in that area doing some of the same check-ups but far less people came to these clinics. That night, we got played frisbee with the kids and got Thai massages from the women in the village- life is rough. The next morning we visited the school to give them some medical kits and then headed back to Chiang Mai. Last night we went out to dinner and checked out with Brynn who is on the ProWorld staff. Then, we all split and had to say our goodbyes- tough thing to do when you haven't had a single break from each other for weeks. Jaxie left last night to go down south. Me, Mike and Ellie left this morning at 5:30 a.m. to go to the bus station. They took off for the south and I headed out for a 3 hour drive into the mountains to the small town of Pai. I found a guest house with a bed and fan in a room for 150 baht (about $4.50) a night. And you're all caught up! That's where I am. Today has been a day to sort of rest and check out Pai by foot. Tomorrow I am going to rent a motorbike and go to the hot springs and waterfalls nearby. Don't worry, I will wear a helmet and be very careful and everything. Also, Pai is a small town of about 3000 people (plus tourists) so not like the big city of Chiang Mai. I am unsure how long I will stay here at the moment, we will see how it goes. Not going to lie, being on my own today made me miss people at home. Don't get me wrong, I still love Thailand and am excited for the rest of the time here; but I am also looking forward to seeing those I love back home!

K