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After I had passed this Wat every ride to and from Warm Heart for the past two months I finally took the bumpy road off the main road to see what it looked like. It was different than any other Wat I’ve been in,

 less gold, lighter colors, and landscape murals on the ceiling.

I sat and just watched the light hit each part of the temple. 

The light mosaic tiled columns and open air style temple made it my favorite so far.

And then there were puppies that greeted me when I walked in to the temple at first

I was making a veggie stir fry in the communal kitchen at my dorm when I struck up a conversation with a group of Chinese girls who are also studying at Chiang Mai University. They invited me to eat with them so we traded stir fry for Chinese noodles and planned to make dumplings the following week.

They picked up the ingredients from a Chinese stall near the university and we got to work. 

Green onions, cabbage, ginger, and pork were chopped as we traded stories about Thailand and University. 

It was pretty great because not only were we making dumplings by hand but we were communicating in a mix of Thai, English, and Chinese. When they couldn’t speak in English they would speak in Thai and I would understand, props to my Thai teacher.

We chopped,mixed, and then it was time to wrap the dumplings. I will never again complain about the price of dumplings or wontons after how hard of time I had wrapping the dumplings. They all laughed politely but I was really terrible at it.

We cooked them and then feasted.We managed to eat four plates heaped with dumplings while giggling over cute Thai boys cooking in the kitchen next to us. They were a very nice bunch.

Needed a sandwich and a cappuccino while reading about Genghis Khan’s exploits. What better place than the relaxing Dada Kafe inside the old city.

First sandwich I’ve had since Vietnam’s banh mis. 

Good chillaxing.

The morning after my epic dance night I was taught how to make a delicious fried curry by Noina’s mother.

First, Noina and I scootered over to the market for some fresh indedients. Only a few stands I the market were open at 8:30am including the butcher where we bought the pork from. We purchased a fist sized ball of the curry paste for gaaeng pet. Looked a little like red plado.

I cut/shaved the pork for the curry.

Then it was the string beans turn

Time to light up the blaster and heat up the wok

It was a fried curry (pat gaaeng) so we first fried the curry paste in oil.

Then we added some water, sugar, salt and the pork.

Time for some veggies and more water

All set! Delicious with some freshly made rice:)

I showed up Friday morning at Warm Heart and was informed I had the option of going to one of the nearby villages for a New Years celebration the following afternoon. Of course I jumped on the offer having no idea what I was in for. I was in for one heck of a celebration.

We showed up around 1pm to see most of the girls and women of the village is their celebratory costumes. 

We then sat around in a house away from the center eating flavorful mini pineapple sandwich cookies with the other women while the men drank and the food was prepared.

Then it was a feast!

What isn’t in the photo is the Chang beer bottle filled with the village’s homemade whiskey, made yesterday! There were probably forty Chang bottles filled with this liquid. The head of the village came and sat down and poured Hillary, Leslie, and I more whiskey. He also got us the traditional outfits:)

Then the whiskey hit and the dancing started.

Found my new gay best friend. This guy was chatting with me about his boyfriend who played soccer for Manchester United.  🙂 hilarious conversation and lots more whiskey and Chang.

The whiskey consumption  exhibited diminishing marginal returns in terms of dancing abilities. At first it was liquid courage that allowed me to dance with the villagers in the center square and learn the steps then it turned into anti dancing liquid. It was good entertainment for everyone else. I was just trying to focus on my steps not all too well obviously! 😂😂😂💃🏼

Fun celebration.

Solo adventures begin..

I left my family in Cambodia and set off on the first of two 10 + hour bus rides in the next 24 hours. I made a friend on the bus who was headed to a 10 day silent retreat just outside of Chiang Mai. She taught English in Hanoi for 3 months before figuring out that Hanoi’s chaotic scene wasn’t for her. So she started traveling around South East Asia instead. Very cool lady.

Departing Cambodia took two minutes. Departing Thailand took over 2 hours of waiting in line with 400 other tourists while one officer checked passports incredibly slowly.

I arrived in Bangkok and had my first Chilis with a little Thai food thrown in for flavor 😉 at the bus stop While waiting for my overnight bus to take me to Chiang Mai

 

The overnight bus had reclining seats thank goodness but no room in between seats so everyone I turned over my seatmate also had to adjust. The bus driver also stopped five or six times on the middle of the night to have tea, go to the bathroom, chat (I’m convinced) which made the ride a few hours longer than it could have been.

I arrived in Chiang Mai at 6:15am, grabbed a tuk-tuk and headed towards Tha Phae Gate.

Nothing was open but a Starbucks because it was so early. Classic. I come all the way to Chiang Mai and the first thing I do is have a fricken croissant from Starbucks!

I met Randy, the volunteer from Warm Heart, and we quickly got me situated with an international phone, a Thai iced tea, a scooter, and a Japanese encephalitis vaccine. Just a normal to-do list in Thailand.

Off to Warm Heart tomorrow!

I’d never do it again but New Years Eve in Hanoi was the biggest party I’ve ever witnessed. Thousands of people, crowds pressing up against you on every street, and horrible American pop mucus at every bar. That being said, it was epic in terms of scale and party attitude. Georgia and I made the rounds and did some good people watching.

G and I tried Nitrus balloons after hookah and laughed so hard.

Ta Hien – Bar Alley.   G and I took shots of vodka with hookah and sprite to wash the taste away!

Had some of the best pho 🍜 sitting on toddler stools at a street corner stall watching the world zip by on scooters. 

And hallelujah for the spice! Not only did they have the hot red peppers but they had a very spicy hot sauce. Not sriracha but hot hot hot. The first good spicy sauce of the trip. 🙏🙌

Holy shit. I’ve never seen so many people and clothes packed in so tightly. Friday night madness.

We rode the train from Ninh binh and walked from the train station into the heart of Hanoi’s old quarter. Mayhem compared to the countryside. It’s amazing there are no accidents and no road rage. 

We are staying in Hotel Blue Sky and the staff is superbly friendly and informative.  

We stumbled upon a secret garden cafe in the village outside Tam Coc National Park. Good pumpkin soup, lemongrass chicken with chiles, sautéed greens, and cocktails at La Belle Vie.

Ninh Binh, Vietnam

We scootered from Chezbeo Homestay with our gear to The Long Hotel in the small town outside the national park.

The hotel is a cool Victorian style building with lots of balustrades.

Here’s the view from the hotel roof

We rented 4 bikes and set off through town towards who knew what.   We ended up at a pagoda and a cave that I managed to go in a little ways.