Internet I'm back

Met up with Maline on Monday April 11^th at noon. Of course we made sure I got a massage at our favourite place in Chiang Mai before meeting up. It was a 5 hour drive to Maline’s hometown, Nan (it’s really small). We had dinner with her cousin, cousin’s husband and their son, Nice. Dinner was at a riverside restaurant which they only go to very occasionally for special events. They are so nice and made us feel like family. Had a little tour of Nan city at night to see shops and stands.

Maline’s cousin wasn’t able to host us at her house because they’re doing renovations/expanding their house. Their house is big and very nice. Lots of woodwork and huge teak wood trunks. It’s really cool because the ground floor is open and that’s where we eat and the second floor is enclosed and on huge teak wood trunks.

So they helped book us a room at the hotel 2 minutes from their house. I was quite surprised with the hotel. It was actually really nice minus the huge cockroach that was in the bathroom. Yikes! Only saw it that one time and it never made another appearance while we stayed there. Made sure I had no food out, zippers always closed on my bags and put my bag on the table.

The next day, April 12^th, we went white water rafting. It was a fun day out. It was a bit more like floating down the river though. We all ended up jumping into the river for a swim halfway into the rafting. Played in the sand a bit. Packed sand balls to compete with one another by rolling it into a hole and whoever’s sand ball didn’t break won. Yay! I won! In the evening we went out around town to look for our festive outfits for the next day. Susan and I had bought a pack of cards, but we never used it until this night. Nice wanted to hang out in our hotel room because he’s never seen a hotel room before. The four of us, Susan, Maline, Nice and myself ended up playing cards in our room until midnight. It was so fun. We taught them slapjack and I learned to count in thai.

April 13^th is Songkran which is Thai New Year also known as the water festival. It’s a really big celebration in Thailand. I got up the next day and was ready to celebrate the Thai way…haha…had my festive shirt on and my water gun loaded and ready!

Had breakfast at Maline’s cousin house again. She makes delicious food. Went into the city centre of Nan to see the festivities which means huge water fights. They like to put food colouring In the water so I ended up with some green and some orange on me. After, we headed to Maline’s village where she grew up. It’s called “Tong Chang” which is means elephant field (no elephants here though). I had my overnight bag packed. We’re staying in her village for the night. I was actually very nervous about meeting all of Maline’s family and urrr….village?! yikes…I’m thinking really dirty and lots of bugs.

I was so wrong once again. It was not that bad. There were bugs, but not a lot. A few here and there, but definitely do-able for me. The washroom was a lot better than I would’ve expected too. Typical squat style. The hardest thing to do was walking into the washroom barefoot. It’s always wet in the washroom because it’s an open shower concept (that’s the norm here). We basically spent all day sitting outside on a big mat with Maline’s family to eat, chat, eat, drink thai brandy and eat some more. I ate ant eggs!! I can’t say no when they offer food. It’s kinda rude so I tried it a few times. Tasted like a cold salsa with crunchy bits of ant eggs and ants (I tried not to look at it too long). Also, walked down to the river with Maline to see the spot where she used to play in when she was young. It’s a beautiful place.

Maline didn’t want to leave her village yet so we ended up driving back to Nan to checkout of our hotel so that we could spend another night in her village. In Nan we did some shopping at Tesco and had KFC for lunch before heading back to Maline’s village. On the way back we saw a parade with lots of traditional Thai dancing.

It was almost time for dinner by the time we got back. I helped Maline’s cousin with making dinner. We had minced pork with sweet basil (we picked this from their neighbour’s yard). It tasted so good. I wonder if I could replicate this when I get home. After dinner we played card games with the kids. It was really fun. Next we joined the adults (half of them were drunk) and older kids outside for karoke and dancing. I hate dancing, but I was dragged in. Turned out to be hilarious. Dancing = moving here. I can march in one spot and that’s dancing as long as my hands keep moving….haha…I was churning butter, flapping like a chicken, picking apples and putting it in the basket, swimming, drowning…haha..good times!

It’s April 15^th today. Took about 6 hours to get back to Chiang Mai today. Our flight to Bangkok was at 10pm tonight. Arrived in our hotel at 1am. It's an awesome hotel. Pictures to be posted soon.