Sawat dii!
Greetings!

Before coming to Thailand please promise me two things...you will practice squatting/hovering over a hole, and you will bring a Costco size package of toilet paper with you? If you can answer yes to both of these questions then Thailand awaits you.

But really The Land of Pad Thai....and land of no toliet paper.
.....
...
..
.
We started in Bangkok. Overrated. Moving on.

With two short nights there we scurried on out. The city is large, highly populated, and just simply spoke about a little to highly.

To escape the city we went a few miles outside of Bangkok where we enjoyed playing with kitties. Large 10 month old tigers, that had the hair on my neck standing straight up, but the cats were precious after all, and if you could get past the size of one paw being the size of your head then you were even able to enjoy the furry guys.

After, WHICH was really neat....We boarded our long tail boat aka boat very close to the water and if you are like myself you'd immediately search for life vests. Not to worry. There wasn't one onboard. But hey, the floating market was radical!!!!! Imagine going grocery shopping, you write your list and you get on your long tail and there you go floating down the highly packed river, everyone on boats, selling everything from clothing to local fruits. The sight was fascinating. I was wide-eyed the entire time, just thinking of life/grocery shopping in that way.

Headed up north our next pit-stop, Chiang Mai.Yes I love this place. Yes I want to return. Yes. Yes. Yes.
I was told by one of the moms I sat for that we must go to Chiang Mai, this small, not as busy, slower pace, touristy hub was perfect. The town has this adorable "old city" where we stayed, that is actually a moated area. The small area within the moat is all walkable, very cozy feel, and the area left a smile on our faces. Not to forget here they are known for this noodle coconut soup called Khao Soi. Woowers, wish I could have mailed you people some. Couldn't get enough.
We did a day tour our second day here and we covered it all. Ready.

-Visited the Long Neck Village, which is a refugee area for these women and their families as they escaped Myanmar(Burma), where they are sadly shoot still to this day. These women cannot leave the village and make all income from us tourists. What I saw was hard to believe. One this small village, the schoolhouse the size of an Americans "walk-in" closet. AND Lord have mercy these peoples necks. Was crazy, we bought some goods and I said a lil prayer. This world defines beauty in the most unreal ways. Fun fact they start wearing necks rings at age 4(females) and add a ring every 3 years. SOOO I would have 7 rings, now thats a thought.

-Elephant show, where a baby elephant indeed lifted me up over his head. Strong beebee.

-Rode a large few ton elephant through the jungle terrain. FUN! Especially when our guide insisted singing Justin Beeb the entire time. (what we get for saying we are Americans, oh well)

-Hung with some Cobras, and other killing snakes. Scary and the men putting on the show made us scream more then once. They would say tit okay tit okay si si downnnn miss amurika. Which we clearly translated to "Its okay sit sit down Miss America". But when these fools are kissing King Cobras that can have you dead in 30 minutes it was hard to sit down.

-We rafted down a river. Okay we sat on a bamboo raft and watched the gentleman meander us down the river.

We went back to our room, and since it was my birthday eve we hit the town. Had a lovely time chugging the local beer(Leo/Chang) and danced our night away.

druuuuuummmmroooolllllll

Woke up, and it was indeed the day of Birth. We headed to the countryside of Chiang Mai, to our Treehouse.

On the way we made a stop at the "sticky waterfall". Was pretty cool the waterfall itself had ample amounts of calcium in the water making the waterfall not only beautiful but easier then normal to climb, even when barefoot. Pretty neat.

Back to the Treehouse....Couldn't have picked a more remarkable place. We slept in a treehouse! With a toilet, a shower, lil living room, and a bedroom. As I climbed up into our home for the night we couldn't get over it. We felt like children. IT WAS PERFECT! Had some amazing food, and ended the birthday with a bottle of champagne as we listened to the nature that surrounded us.

Next Pai getting here was well, interesting. Our driver was either wasted, texting, or had a lead foot that would NOT give up. This 4 hour zig zag journey in a mini van with about 12 others, was a ride from Hell. We laughed, and we were shouting in the back, and held on with both hands.
Pai is this small small small hippy town, that was filled with dreadlocks, baggy clothes, and reggae music. We relaxed and tried to stay outta the way, we didn't exactly fit in. We hung for two nights visited the street markets, gallivanted around, and relaxed at a pool. We had the itch to carry on and I must have ate something that the tum didn't like sooo we woke up super early to catch our bus and not to long before the national anthem was blaring over the streets load speakers I lost my marbles, completely. As Im dealing with that I am also crossing my fingers we wouldn't have the same bus driver.

++we didd't, we just had his brother+++

Leaving Pai was equallyy Hell.

Lastly we finally made it to our last stop in Thailand, Chiang Rai here we visited the breathtaking white temple. A man devoted his life making this temple of all white, was quite the sight.

And thennnn we witnessed a Monk (age 54 ish)using a selfie stick. Taking a selfie.

And we left.

Now we just crossed the boarder into Laos, getting adjusted for the evening on our 12 hours bus ride to Luang Prabang, Laos.

Let's do this.

Oh yea the busses are "expected" to break down. Casual.