The last few days have been some of my favorites. Then again, every day is basically the coolest day of my small 20 years of existence.
Before we took a plane to Chiang Mai, we visited Salakpra Wildife Sanctuary! It was about 800 square kilometers, containing over 300 species of reptiles, mammals, birds, insects, and fish. We stood on the bed of a truck and drove through the rainforest for a few hours. We saw some crazy looking cervids and fresh wild elephant tracks! Apparently over 250 wild elephants reside in the sanctuary's borders. The sanctuary deals with a lot of unfortunate problems, such as poaching and encroachment, and they don't have enough money or manpower to protect the entire area. They definitley put forth their best effort.
Off to Chiang Mai!
The flight was great - all 13 of us on at one time (7 Thais and 6 Americans). Now we're adding more Thai friends - they just show up. It's the best. We drove straight from the airport to Marndadee, a very nice resort that was a special treat for us for one night. It had an infinity pool and my fluffy pillows smelled like lavender. We drove to the Royal Park at Krajapruek and then had dinner on the river with our own 3 liter tap of Asahi beer. Nan fed us all whiskey and it eventually turned into a late night pool party, which is a little blurry now trying to remember.. I do remember teaching Nan and Minju the "slap the booty" dance. At first Nan goes, "What [is] booty?" That was a fun conversation. I don't know who enjoyed it more. Yesterday morning we went to Bhubing Palace (pronounce as you wish), which is the winter home of the royal family. There we walked through Suan Suwaree, a rose garden planted according to the instruction of her Majesty the Queen. In the past two days, my jaw has dropped so many times at all the beautiful flowers and plants that I've never seen before. They have a flowering plant called 'Midnight Roberta' that has one red, one orange, and one yellow petal. Its like a fire rainbow.
Next thing we know, we get in the car and P Sue says that we will be sleeping on top of a mountain... what? We drove for two hours up a steep mountain in an ancient stick shift minibus. A couple of us puked. One of them was me. We had about ten minutes left until our arrival, when we rounded a steep corner and had to immediately hit the brakes. Twenty cows were trudging down the mountain and surrounded all sides of the van. It was a pretty sweet moment. Although we were tired and carsick, we finally arrived at Doi Angkhang and ran in circles outside on the mountain in the beautiful gardens. I fell in love with a statue of Mother Nature in the gardens. She had a look of pure bliss on her lovely face, with grass spewing out of her head as hair. I bought a replica of her, which is now my oversized, 8 pound carry-on. Today we started at 6:30 AM because we had a long drive to Doi Tung, which is a home of the Princess Mother, aka the King's mother. This is also on the mountain, and honestly, I'm speechless at
to the view. Pictures and words don't do it justice.
I'm definitely proud to be an American today! Thanks to the Supreme Court, I am beyond happy for all people that are now able to express their love to each other through marriage. On a similar note, I was very happily surprised to learn that Thailand is extremely advanced in matters of sexuality and gender equality. Thailand is full of people that value spirituality and morality. However, gender identity and sexuality does not coincide with politics here, as it does in the U.S. Gender identity and same-sex marriage is completely separate from law. It is an internal, individual characteristic. Male, female, transgender, etc., are all viewed as equal, as it should be. Buddhist teachings do not have a stance on same-sex relationships. Buddhist practices focus on the individual's path, and LGBT people are welcomed and respected just as every other person. I think our country could learn a lot from this, especially from the Dalai Lama himself.
We only have four full days left. I'm trying not to think about it.
Thanks for reading!!
