Thursday, October 10, 2013

Birthday Adventures and Beyond

Hello everyone! Right now is a crazy busy time but I am taking a minute to give you an update because I have a lot to report!

First things first: Happy day after your birthday to my lovely roommate! She is just an adventure-loving, passionate spirit and I was more than happy to accompany her on her birthday activities. Our friend's birthday was on Monday so we have basically been celebrating all week. She opted for a low-key dinner out at a Middle Eastern restaurant called Sahara. I ate an obscene amount of hummus and it was wonderful. Then we planned a birthday surprise Tuesday night, which is to say we bought a whole bunch of ice cream from 7/11 and ate it at one of the tables in the Uniloft parking lot. It was actually quite the hoot and a half. My job was to get my roommate downstairs, which went a little something like this:

Me: I'm going to 7/11 for snacks. Want to come with me?
My roommate: No, but thank you. I just got back from teaching my English class.
Me (with a horrible poker face): Are you sure?  You should come with me, I'm . . . scared of the dark.

Anyway, the next morning the festivities continued with a real American breakfast at a place on Suthep Road, the main road where the Soi (lane) leading up to Uniloft is. I ate French toast and it was awesome (reasonably priced too, especially for Western food - definitely warrants going back!). Then my roommate wanted to go swimming at this old rock quarry (now filled with water) about half and hour outside of town.


Most people come to this quarry to jump off the man-made cliffs into the extremely deep water - a little on the wild side but very fun. My roommate did the big cliff twice but that was a little too high for my first time. I opted to take baby steps and do some of the mini-cliffs first - about a typical house-story up. 


That splash is from me jumping off the mini-cliff on the right. The water was so warm, like a bath, but still refreshing on a hot, hot day. The quarry was huge, and I feel like a got a decent workout just swimming across and back.


I really didn't feel like I needed to jump off the big cliff that day, but I know a lot of our friends wanted to come but couldn't (everyone's schedules makes it hard to coordinate) so there is definitely potential to go back! I did not let the whole day go by without being brave though, because the final birthday activity was karaoke at the Loco Elvis bar and restaurant. After a large veggie burrito and a pina colada margarita (hey, it was Happy Hour) I felt I had to do my birthday-friend duty and give in to my roommate's plea to sing a song. She and another friend sang first, plus the only other people there were a Spanish-speaking family, a handful of disinterested European backpackers, and the two elderly chaps who were trading off singing country songs. Inspired by the events of the day, I channeled my Deep Blue Something and busted out some Breakfast at Tiffany's.

In other news, I am leaving the day after tomorrow for my fall break trip to Hong Kong and Cambodia! Two of my friends and I will be staying with a cousin on my mom's side in Hong Kong for three full days before flying into Bangkok to take a bus to Siem Reap for a couple days and then venturing down to the capital of Phnom Penh for a couple more days. Cambodia is experiencing some pretty heavy flooding due to rainy season, so keep your fingers crossed that our travel plans aren't too affected. Finally, we split ways as my friends move on to Vietnam while I head back to Chiang Mai for a three day meditation retreat at Wat Phrathet Doi Suthep.

It's quite the exciting itinerary, if I do say so myself, and I will be sure to come back with some fabulous new tales for you (though not all technically from Thailand). I get some downtime in Chiang Mai in about a week and a half so I will probably do a new post then. For now, sawat dii kha and enjoy your weekend!

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