Pookies in Malaysia

My good high school friend, Erica (who was part of our "pookie" clan), is doing a semester at sea program where they travel the world in a ship, docking at different ports. This past weekend, she docked in Penang, Malaysia and I flew down there to meet up with her. I flew down Thursday afternoon, after spending about 4 hours in the airport (thank you AirAsia for delaying your flight!)....the good part is there was this one lady in the airport who was giving chocolate samples so I just walked by her every 20 minutes :)

Once I arrived in Penang, Erica and I hopped a bus to Little India, which is pretty much my haven as I LOVE Indian food and am consistenly thrilled and amused by Indian accents. We wandered around Little India for a couple hours, trying all the Indian sweets ever created (yum), and then got a cab to meet her friends from the ship. We went to their hotel and then proceeded to eat a delicious chocolate cake to celebrate one of her friend's 21st birthdays. Afterwards, we headed to Slippery Senioritas, one of the many fun clubs in a posh little club district close to where their ship was docked. When we got to Slipper Senioritas, there wasn't a single person on the dance floor, but we soon changed that! We tore that place up with our crazy dancing, I don't think they know what hit them! They even asked us girls to get on the top balcony to dance in front of their entire club. The music was the best part-- a combination of 80's style (think Michael Jackson's "Beat it") pop and hottest hits of the last 6 months. After a couple hours there, we head to another club, except it doesn't seem to be a club. Rather, there was some kind of beauty contest going on. I spent 15 minutes trying to figure out if the beauty contestants were male or female. I came to the conclusion they were male, perhaps Thai ladyboys?? Then, we head to another club, where we once again tear up the dance floor. Perhaps a little too much. One of the boys we came with literally got picked up by the bouncer and thrown out for provacative dancing. Haha, I guess we forgot we were in a muslim country.

Then, we mossey around for a little longer, meet a fellow El Pasoean, reminisce about good 'ol times (we knew the same people from middle school!), and head home to sleep for a few hours.

Wake up the next morning at about 9 am, spend far too long being indecisive about what Erica and I should do for the weekend, and finally decide to go to Lankawi Geopark for some jungle-trekking action. By the time we've figured all this out, its about noon, and Erica and I are hot, hungry and ready to get to a beach! Too bad we missed the 8:30 am ferry to Lankawi. Alternative? Take a ferry to the mainland, get on a bus to Alto Setar, grab a taxi to the ferry, and then take another ferry to Lankawi. Needless to say, the day was spend in transportation and we arrived in Lankawi barely in time for dinner. Oh wait, we first walked around for 3 hours trying to find accommdation we could afford. Naturally, Erica and I picked a national holiday (Deepavali festival) to go to an island, where all the Malaysians were vacationing for the weekend. On the bright side, we eventually found the most amazing place ever, the Rainbow Lodge. It was located pretty far off the beaten path (as evident by our 3 hour journey to find it), but it was SO worth it. Clean, bright, and big (the room even had a vanity!!), Erica and I slept like rocks, even as it was monsooning outside. We wake up to a bright, sunny day (of course, how else would the weather be after 7 hours of monsooning?) and head out to pay for our room and find an activity/tour to do. Oh wait, we can't because you have to book tours a day in advance and Erica has to leave tonight to make it back to her ship in time for a meeting. So, we decide to eat our losses and relax/have a photoshoot on the beach. After less than an hour of this, we randomly bump into her roommate from the ship. Funny story: I asked Erica what her roommate was doing this weekend, and she told me she was going to Lankawi, but had no way to contact her, as neither of them had cell phones. So every white person we passed, I'd ask "Is that your roommate?" Oddly enough, she knew almost all those white people from the ship!

Anyway, one of the times I asked "Is that your roommate?", the answer was yes! So, her roommate tells us about how she went to the 7 wells, which is a hike up to some really nice waterfalls, jungle trekking, nature, etc. As soon as I heard that, I decided we must go! But first, we need to get our ferry tickets back to Penang, as Erica's roommate told us they may be almost sold out. So Erica and I find a travel agency, try to get a ticket, and are told the tickets are 70 ringet! Yikes! So, we go to another travel agency to compare prices, and this one is even more expensive! Okay, we go back to the first travel agency and are told we have to wait 30 minutes (which we cant because we have to go to 7 wells, which is 45 minutes away and come back within 3 hours). So then we go back to the other travel agency to see if we can do it quicker, but are told to come back the next morning. Huh?!? Then, we finally get it all sorted out by calling the ferry, realizing there are plenty of tickets left, and we don't need to buy any. So, we leave to 7 wells, without purchasing any tickets. Effective use of an hour. Lol....one thing I've learned from traveling through SE Asia is to just have patience and not let frustration get in the way of how you communicate with people. This is a big lesson for me. Hooray for learning things :)

Okay, we get to 7 wells, and begin the trek of 380 stairs to the top. Oy! First, we take a side trip to a waterfall and quickly (remember, we only have 90 minutes!) take some photos and jump in the cold, refreshing water. Well, more like fell in for me. Afterwards, we keep hiking up nature's version of a stairmaster until we finally reach the top, where a gorgeous view and very fun waterfall await us. A word about the waterfall: its formed in a way that a natural waterslide has been formed. The rocks have smoothed themselves over in such a way that if you sit at the top, the water will gush over you and carry you down the waterfall until it spits you up into the air for a second, before you fall into a 5 or 6 foot deep area of water. SO much fun. Slightly painful though. Still, SO fun. Just have to be careful to stop yourself before you go over the edge, 380 steps worth straight down. Eeek.

Since we still have 47.8 minute left (haha), Erica and I find a trail and begin to trek through the jungle, my favorite thing ever! Sadly, we reach a crossroads after about 20 minutes, and don't have time to go much further. We head back down (after pulling the leeches off us), get in a taxi back to the ferry and then sit at the ferry for 1.5 hours, because it is delayed. Of course!! Well, at least we got tickets. The ferry ride back is so beautiful, 3 hours of speeding through the water, watching the sunset and just enjoying the moment.

Once we arrive back in Penang, Erica and I see a few of her friends, and we all proceed down to the night market. Oh, about 3 hours prior to this, I really had to pee, but didn't because the ferry restroom was so horrible. I've seen some pretty bad stuff while traveling through SE Asia, but this was just horrible. So, by this point, I have to pee really badly. Nothing really funny happened as a result, just thought you'd like to know I had to pee. Okay, when we get to the market, Erica and I make a beeline for a restaurant and guess what we find? An amazing Indian restaurant, that truly finds us. We're looking for a bathroom, and this random restaurant pops out of nowhere. As we're eating Indian food (yuuuumm), 2 Australian guys walk past us, and we begin talking to them. We end up hanging out with them until midnight, when the night market closes. Then, we part ways with them to make it back to the ferry by 1 am, when the last boat out to Erica's ship leaves. We make it by 1 am, but the ship people won't let me on the ship since I'm not a family member. Therefore, Erica and I are left without a place to sleep for the night and the first bus out to Kuala Lumpur leaves at 6am. That gives us 5 hours. What's our obvious solution? Stay up all night partying, of course. We actually end up overhearing that some of Erica's friends are staying in a hotel close to Slippery Senioritas, so we make our way over there, find out what room they are in, and are about to knock on the door when we hear 2 voices. 2 voices of a couple. Uh-oh, we decide to let them be alone. We head back towards Slippery Senioritas, then devise a plan to go back to the hotel, and ask her friend's if we can leave our backpacks there so we can party and not look like a ragged backpacker. We head back to their room, knock on the door, and Erica's friend answers, after obviously being in bed. We end up talking to them for a little while about our weekends and then instead of changing and going back out, we just crash on the floor for a few hours. In the morning, Erica and I take off; her for her ship, and me to catch a bus to Kuala Lumpur to meet up with my friend from Austin, Monica's, family (even though Monica is currently studying abroad in Vienna, Austria).

I get on the bus and 6 hours later, at about 2pm I'm finally in KL! 24 hours later, I'm back in Bangkok. haha, but in those 24 hours, here is what I did:
-Made my way to an internet cafe, where I called Monica's dad and arranged to meet him 20 minutes later at the Petronas Twin Towers
- Got in a cab to the Twin Towers, and wondered around lost, with no idea which brown man was Monica's dad.
- Go to pay phone, call Monica's dad and arrange a new meeting spot
- Meet M. Jam's dad!! Who is seriously one of the nicest people I've ever met. Oh my goodness, I am in love with the Jamaluddin family.
-Monica's dad takes me to his family's apartment and I am immediately created by about 20 people dressed in traditional Muslim attire, having brunch. Woa, culture shock! I head to my room for the night, and take the most amazing shower of my life. First off, Monica's place is BEAUTIFUL. If it was a hotel, it would be 5 star. And I haven't had a warm shower since I left the States. Needless to say, I take a nice, long, hot shower and then get changed. Monica's step sister knocks on my door, asking if I am hungry. Of course! She fixes me a plate of rice, with a pumpkin dish and a stew which I mix together and devour, along with about 6 crumpets. Then I have some coffee, chat with the family, and leave the apartment to take a stroll around the neighborhood before we leave for dinner in 1-2 hours. I end up at this beautiful park behind the Petronas Twin Towers, and am having a great time exploring the park and people-watching. I catch the eye of one man and he immediately comes over and introduces himself. Frank. Frank from South Africa. Oh goodness, Frank. He's very nice, and we walk around the park, playing on the playground, and taking photos ("Let's take a snap", as he says) After about 5 minutes, he declares that he loves me and wants to marry me and "make me very happy". I go with it for a few minutes, until he starts making plans for me to come to South Africa in Decemeber and then he tries to take off his ring and give it to me. The ring which "means the most to him" as he says. Oh no! I quickly persuade him to keep his ring, and he instead gives me his bracelet. A very sweet gesture, but I think Frank went slightly overboard. He probably should've waited 30 minutes before declaring his love. That would have been more appropriate :)

After leaving Frank (barely was able to do that!), I arrive back at M.Jam's house and her step sister and step mom immediately begin dressing me in traditional Bangladeshi attire. So awesome, I even had the tip (the red dot on your forehead), dangling earrings and 20 bracelets on my arm (which I broke about 3 trying to put them on myself, and even made myself bleed...thankfully, M.Jam's stepmom came to my rescue). Then, we all left for dinner, which was about an hour's drive away; we went so far because M.Jam's dad knows the chef, who is from Bangladesh and can therefore make authentic Bangladeshi cuisine. We met up with about 30 other of their friends and had a giant feast! It was SO much fun, plates of food, good conversation with Monica's stepsister's friends and an all around good time. So good we didn't even get home till nearly 1am.

After arriving home, I slept SO well, and woke up at 7 am to take advantage of the amazing full-size olympic pool outside and the park nearby. Or so that was the plan. I ended up getting sidetracked by the gym (oh my gosh, weights, I haven't seen those things in 3 months!), and just working out in there for the next hour. I never even made it for a swim. Guess I'll have to go back to KL!

After the workout, I jump in the shower, have breakfast with Monica's dad (crumpets soaked in sweetened milk and syrup, SO delish!), and then he drops me off at the train station, which will take me to the airport. But not before Monica's stepmom gives me a beautiful traditional Bangladeshi top, which I love and wore all day and will definitely wear a lot in the future.

Monica's dad is so amazing; he is one of the nicest people I have ever met. I seriously am going to try to get a ticket back to KL just to hang out with them. They were so gracious and welcoming of me, I couldn't believe it. The Jamaluddin family really takes care of me (Monica with her chocolate cake and salmon and her family with everything else!) I wish Monica could have been there, it would have been even more fun!

Overall, an incredible trip to Malaysia, and I am SO sad its over. I wanted to stay there all week....darn school getting in the way of everything ;)

Back to real life, at least for the next 3 days.

Gnite!

Ko Samet

After a long 3 weeks of midterms, I felt I well deserved a beach vacation. Okay, deserved it or not, I was off to the beach! My friend Aaron and I took off for our sandy getaway Friday morning and arrived at Ko Samet ( a beautiful island only a few hours from Bangkok) Friday evening. We took a truck taxi to Ao Nuan, one of the more secluded beaches farther south on Ko Samet. Then we walked around for about 30 minutes, through jungle and brush, totally off the beaten path. Too bad we didn't find any treasures. All the guesthouses were quite expensive on the secluded beaches, so we ended up walking all the way back to where we started and staying at Ao Phai, where we had both stayed when we previously came to Ko Samet (my first weekend trip after arriving in Thailand). Not only did we stay at the same beach, we also stayed at the same guesthouse! Oh well, we tried.
After we find a place to stay, we go to a restaurant on the beach (the water was literally hitting our feet as we ate) and had a dinner of grilled mussels, pad see yu, and noodles. After eating, we stroll along the beach for a while, catch a Fire show, and head back to our guesthouse to grab some drinks and hit up the beach for a midnight swim. After swaying in the ocean for most of the night, we polish off our drinks and head out to see what kind of nightlife scene is going on. We stroll into a bar in our bathing suits (why bother putting on a shirt when you dont have to?), hang out for a few minutes and then Aaron decides he wants to challenge me in a game of pool (bad idea buddy!). We find a pool table and Aaron and I play for about 5 minutes before he beats me (but I was SO close to hitting a ball in, really). Then we begin the walk home. At one point, we get to a rock obstacle and as we're walking/climbing across it, I feel myself falling. I catch myself. Then I feel myself falling again. Catch myself again. 3rd time is not such a charm though....this time I feel myself falling and I go down. Straight into a tide pool. On the bright side, I saved the bottle in my left hand! Wish I could say the same about my head....
After falling in some nasty tide pool water, I take a shower and pass out for the night (it's maybe 30 minutes past midnight...what a partyer I am).

6:30 am, rise and shine for the sunrise! I drag Aaron along with me and we head to the only restaurant I can find open at the hour. I get a few tastes of egg with my butter (ew) and Aaron gets a few tastes of omelette with his ketchup....what a weird meal. I wonder if the Thais cook this, thinking its an American breakfast we will like, even though they think it is gross? Or, do they think drowning everything in butter/ketchup is good? Either way....weird meal. Afterwards, Aaron and I walk down south to the more secluded beach and proceed to park ourselves in front of the water for the rest of the morning. Read for 30 minutes, swim for 15 minutes, nap for 30 minutes, read for another 30 minutes, swim for 15 minutes, nap for 45 minutes.... hard life, but someone's gotta do it :) Oh, I broke the routine up with a banana shake break and an hour massage. Niiicce. After we've had enough of the sun, we head back to civilization, book a snorkeling tour for the next day and sit down to enjoy a bloody mary and ice cream (separately). Then, some more beach reading/napping, followed by a movie at our guesthouse and dinner, a shower, and some hardcore partying (arriving home, ready for bed by 11pm haha). Highlight of the night: I made 5 pool shots in one pool game! That beats my life time record of 4 pool balls knocked in ;) AND, I beat Aaron at a game of darts. Unprecedented. After the victory, I'm more than ready to call it a night. Quit while I'm ahead, right? So we head to bed, to be woken up a few hours later by a ridiculous monsoon. Insane lightening lighting up the entire bungalow, following by thunder loud enough to scare off the terrential rain. Wake up at 8:30 am to a beautifully sunny day. Brilliant. Get up, have a normal breakfast (NO ketchup, please!), and head to town for our snorkeling tour, which ended up being a snorkelling/ fishing/ visiting a fish farm tour. Not to mention there wasn't a word of english spoken the entire trip; Thai only! Love it. The first snorkeling spot wasn't the greatest,as my mask didn't work and I therefore didn't see a whole lot....but after lunch we hit up another snorkeling spot, where I quickly grabbed a better mask and was able to see a whole lot of colorful fish (sadly, unable to catch any of them). I was however able to stab myself in the foot on a coral reef. Yay. After we get back on the boat, the captain begins handing out water bottles with string on them. At the end of the string is a hook with a piece of squid attached to it. Huh? Is this like, fishing? Yes it is. What you do is unroll the string, and sit on the edge of the boat, yanking on the string every few seconds until you felt a pull. Simple, but it works. Not for me though... I got bored after about 50,000 seconds and peaced out to read my book on the upper deck. Aaron, however, stuck it out for the next hour and caught a good sized fish, which we later grilled up and had for lunch # 2! Delish. No ketchup, please. At the end of the tour, we stop by a fish farm and see enormous fish floating around! One of the tanks even had a shark in it! A shark, with a tortoise, in the same tank. I wonder if they are related?? ANYWAY, after the tour of fun, we get dropped off at the ferry and proceed back to BKK.

Good weekend... I am thoroughly relaxed and ready for Malaysia next weekend!

On a side note, I've been having recurring nightmares about having to return to the States. I can't believe I've already been here for almost 3 months... I just want to freeze time so I can stay for as long as possible. It's going to be so hard to say goodbye to all my new friends and the country I've called home for the past few months. Mai ben rai, I'll worry about that when the time comes!

Sawadhee Ka!

Random Funny Story

I live on the 35 floor of my apartment complex, in a studio (1 bedroom) apartment. Therefore, I tend to walk around without clothes, very often. As in all the time. I pretty much never wear clothes (if you skype with me, you know this as a fact). A few weeks ago, I came out of the shower, had my music blasting, was dancing (sans clothes of course) around my apartment, and then turned around and became face-to-face with 3 Thai men, standing on my balcony. Painters. Oh goodness.

Miss Universe 2007

I met Miss Universe 2007!!

Did I mention this already?? Either way, I met her a few weeks ago when I went to get my hair done at the salon at the bottom of my apartment complex. Turns out she is married to a Thai guy and lives in Bangkok. Pretty exciting things happen in BKK....

I can't read thai!

A few weeks ago I open my mailbox (for the first time), and see a piece of paper written entirely in Thai, with a number, 187, written on it several times. I look at it for a while, realize I cannot read thai, then stick it on my counter, where it remains for 2 more weeks. After 2 weeks, I clean my apartment and throw away the piece of paper. Today, everything in my apartment suddenly turns off. After an hour of sitting in a blazing hot apartment, with no internet, I finally realize that this wasn't a mistake (occasionally the power will shut off), and that piece of paper I threw away was my electricity bill. Oops. Fun times in a foreign country.

Trekking in Chiang Mai

Sawadhee Ka! Hello,

I'm in Chiang Mai, a province about 12 hours north of Bangkok, for the weekend. What an incredible weekend. So, about 3-4 weeks ago, I went to dinner with my Thai friend, Warren, and some other exchange students, to meet up with Warren's friends from California (he spent the summer in Cali). At dinner, I met this girl Melissa who is studying abroad in Singapore and we started chatting about how we like to travel and have crazy adventures, doing physical things such as rock climbing, hiking, etc. Then she mentioned she wants to got to Chiang Mai to do some trekking and I agreed that I've been wanting to do that as well. So, we talk for an hour or two and then she leaves back to Singapore the next day. About a week later I get an email from her about a Chiang Mai trip, and she actually books her plane ticket to BKK, and we are now in Chiang Mai. SO random, things like this never actually happen...people always say they want to do things but never take action to actually do anything. I'm really glad Melissa emailed me, because this trip was one of the best I've had in Thailand...too bad it's during midterms. Mai ben rai.

So, anyway, Melissa gets in late Tuesday night and we stay up till almost 5 am talking about life... even though I've known this girl for about 4 days I feel like I have known her for years! I wake up a few hours later, play squash, skype my mom and head to school for midterm # 1. That was fun. After the midterm, Melissa, myself and about 6 other students from my midterm class head down the river to the most incredible massage street ever. It's BKK's best kept secret...2 hour massages for 140 baht (less than $5 USD); love it. It's my weekly massage, and the best part is there are no other Westerners there...only locals. After that, Melissa and I head to MBK (huge shopping mall) to get our eyebrows waxed (FINALLY!). For all those that have lived with me, they know how obssessed I am with my eyebrows. I literally am obssessed...the first thing I do when I get back from a camping trip (or something similar) is head to the bathroom to do my eyebrows. That is, if I haven't somehow done them while camping. Anyway, we get our eyebrows done after searching MBK for 30 minutes (that place is HUGE)...and then proceed to Chinatown. But not before we spend 45 minutes in MBK marvelling over how cheap everything is, and doing some sunglass shopping. Once we leave MBK, we get to Chinatown and Melissa and I proceed to eat EVERYTHING there. No joke. This past week was a vegeterian festival in BKK, so Chinatown had hundreds of food stalls, full of delicious veggie meals. Melissa and I literally went to a food stall, ordered food, sat down and ate it, then walked for 10 minutes and did it again. Total meals= 2 dinners and 2 desserts. Niccce! We ate this AMAZING (and I don't typically throw that word around) toasted bun with green goo (coconut syrup??) inside it...seriously one of the best things I've ever eaten....it even rivals sticky rice with mango. Yum.

Wow, I just spend a paragraph talking about the delish Thai foods, but they really are incredible (with potential to be gross...watch out). After Chinatown, Melissa and I finally head home and pass out from the exhausting day.

The next day, I go to Finance, spend way too much time trying to figure out Time Value of Money problems, and then get together with Melissa and MJ (another student who came to Chiang Mai with us) and head to Lumpini Park for a midday picnic at the best park in BKK. It was a great time...we just hung out there and met some buff guys working out at the outdoor gym, who convinced us to work out with them. Ya, me working out in my school uniform= quite a sight to see. I'll post those pics soon. Then, we played on the playground and got kicked off the swings by the security guard (what, Thailand has rules??), but were allowed to play on the rest of the equipment, just not the swings. Okkay, sure. Then, we head to the train station to take our overnight, 12 hour sleeper train to Chiang Mai. Yay, my very first train ride! Overall good experience, very nice and cozy. Once we arrive in Chiang Mai, we consult our Lonely Planet travel guide and head to Julie's guesthouse and then book a 2 day/1 night trekking/water rafting tour that leaves in 1 hour! We have breakfast and soon thereafter are off for trekking!

After a few hours of driving and stopping at local markets for snacks, we finally arrive at a small village, where lunch and elephants are awaiting us. We spend an hour elephant trekking through the jungle (my first elephant riding...but slightly overrated, I must say), and then we begin the intense 2.5 hour trek up the jungle to the Loa Hunla (?) village tribe at the top of the mountain. This was exactly what I came for... 2.5 hours of up hill, at times hand over foot, hiking. Definitely did not feel bad about all those Thai sweets after this trek! When we finally arrive at the village at dusk, we shower (in the dark, with no electricity...thank goodness my phone has a flashlight) and have an incredible dinner of bamboo, pad thai, tofu, squash & chicken curry= YUM! We hang out with the tribal women, admire the beautfiul stars (which you can never see in BKK because of the smog and pollution), look for the Big Dipper but only see the Milky Way, and head to bed for one of the best nights sleep I've had in weeks. Until 5am, when the damn roosters start their roosting (crackling? screaming?). Ughh, not pleasant. So, I wake up, head to the bathroom, eat breakfast and have coffee (a rare treat here!), and get ready for more trekking! We trek for about an hour of slipperly-ness (I think I fell about 3 times), until we get to this fantastic waterfall, where we all strip down and run through the way-cold- but-so-refreshing-water, that literally knocked me off my feet and took off half my bathing suit...that is one powerful waterfall!

After playing in the waterfall, we trek for another hour to the river where we begin white water rafting! Woo, what a great time! We raft for about 30 minutes, and then hop on a bamboo raft, which is just as it sounds. A huge, 8 person raft made of bamboo, where the front person steers with this enormous 10 foot stick. Ting, the Chinese guy in our group, was originially steering, but I soon changed that :) After he "slipped" off the raft, I jumped up ahead and took over the steering. We arrived at our lunch spot, starving, and ate a meal of pad thai and pineapple.
Oh, AND, grasshoppers. Yup, I ate a grasshopper. Me, the person most scared of bugs I've ever met in my life. I wasn't going to do it, but I told one of the Danish girls on our trip I'd do it if she would, thinking she'd decline. She accepted my challenge and then I had to do it. We pulled off the heads, popped the body, complete with legs and wings, in our mouth, and chewed away! It was actually quite good...I probably wouldn't order it at a restuarant, but not so bad. Good protein :)

Then we head home to shower and hit up Chiang Mai nightlife. Well, not quite. More like hit up the walking market, where we spent 2 hours shopping, eating, and walking around, until we were too exhausted to move. While shopping, I hang out with the 2 Danes (I cannot handle Melissa and MJ while shopping...such girls) and we proceed to try every Thai sweet being sold on the street. Haha, it was great. And, they also taught me some Danish (did you know Filt means fat & cool? So, I can say "Tu er Filt" meaning "you are cool/fat". Hmmm.....) which was interesting. After a couple hours of this, the 2 Danes head home, as they had an early morning adventure awaiting them. Then Ting (poor guy spent 2 hours shopping with MJ and Melissa), Mj, Melissa and myself head back to Julie's guesthouse, where we meet some fellow travelers and talk with them for a couple hours. I met a Chilean financial analyst who takes off 1 month every year to travel the world. She's been trekking to the base camp of Mount Everest, trekking in Chiang Mai, and hanging out in India, among other things. What a cool lady!

Oops, gotta run, check out at our guesthouse is in a few minutes! More on the rest of Chiang Mai later.

Ciao!