Chiang Mai Round 2

My second trip to Chiang Mai was equally as great as when I went for Loy Krathong. On our first day in the city my mom and I got the chance to go ziplining at the national park! It was so much fun to be jumping and flying through the rain forest. On Sunday we went to Baan Chang Elephant Park and helped take care of their rescued elephants for the day. It was so much fun!! The rest of the time in Chiang Mai we checked out night markets, visited wats, and went on a river boat dinner cruise.

Getting ready for ziplining at The Flight of the Gibbon.

At the end they lowered you down on a rope next to a huge 90 foot tall tree. 

We saw monks chanting at Wat Phra Singh,

There were so many awesome night markets!

Me and my girls getting excited for our day at the elephant park.

One of the baby elephants could give kisses. I had NO idea what was going on at first and even tried to stop this cutie from doing her thing!

We did a 1 hour trek on the back of our elephant through the countryside. 

Dinner at The Riverside Bar and Restaurant. 

River boat dinner cruise celebrating our completed algae research project! Woo!

Mom in BKK!

My mom arrived in Thailand on December 4th and we spent 4 days in Bangkok before heading up north to Chiang Mai (I loved it so much that I wanted my mom to be able to see it too!). While she was in Bangkok we went to the Grand Palace, Wat Pho, Wat Arun, did a canal tour, and a cooking class. It was packed full

of activities, but we had a lot of fun. 

Mom at the Grand Palace..

We had a wonderful tour guide at the palace and I learned a lot about Thai culture from the perspective of the older generation. 

Outside the Grand Palace Throne Hall that incorporates the architecture styles of both traditional Buddhist wats and French colonial buildings.

Me in front of the reclining Buddha at Wat Pho. There is a massage school on site and we were both treated to the best Thai massages in town.

The next day we did a canal tour with the best tour guide in Bangkok, Sunny.

Mom and Sunny.

Mk, my mom, Emily, and I all took a Thai cooking class and made so many delicious dishes! YUMMM

Tom yum soup with shrimp.

Chicken and cashew nut sir fry.

Green curry with chicken!

Mango with sticky rice...most delicious dessert in Thailand!

Loy Krathong

A few weeks ago I went on an amazing trip to Chiang Mai, Thailand with 9 other UNC students and our TA Tom! One of Tom's old friends from high school lives there and she took us under her wing for the week. The main reason we went up to Chiang Mai was because Tom told us the Loy Krathong festival is very big there. The poing of the festival is to pay homage to the river goddess and make floats out of banana leaves and flowers and float them in rivers as an offering and to "say sorry" for using and polluting the water all year. We did some site seeing while we were there, made our own krathongs, and participated in the lantern festival. It was an unforgettable week and I'm so glad I got to go with all my friends here.

On the first day we all went to Wat Prathat on Doi Suthep, a very famous mountain temple.

Group picture at Wat Prathat!

The air was about 15 degrees cooler than in Bangkok and it felt amazing.

Group picture at the highest point in Thailand.

After that we made our krathongs with help from Tom and Sugar!

I was very proud of mine :)

First night of the lantern festival.

Sparklers, fireworks, and lanterns...what more could you ask for?

Getting ready to set our lantern free! You make a wish before letting it go and hope your wish will come true in the next year.

There were so many lanterns and fireworks! It was one of the most magical  things I've ever seen.

My friends and I around a lantern!