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  Hue, Vietnam
Tuesday, July 8, 2008

I will return to vietnam but I wanted to go ahead and detail blog about Thailand before I forget the memorable experiances there. Some of this may be repeated because I am going to go into more detail. This will also be rather long because I want to put it all together.

I am beginning with the overnight train to Chaing mai which was surprisingly comfortable. Not at all like the horrors of the overnight train in Vietnam which I will discuss later, but for now i'll just say cockroaches and me are NOT friends YUcK!

I slept well on the train and oke up round 4:30 because the jet lag has my time all messed up. After arriving and checking into serenity hotel we quickly changed for the cooking class. The girls and alexander came with me to the las. The first thing we did was go to the market. the market in asia is very different than he ones in the US. It is outside with open stales of fod siting outside in a rather unsanitary manner. Some of the fod is safe to eat but other things look rotten and have bugs surrounding them. It is a very very very different world here and has opened my eyes alot!

After we got the ingrediants for the cooking class, sarah, claire, alexander and I roamed the open market to find goodies of rare delight. There are so many unique types of fruit in this part of the world that I had never seen before. We each pai about 10 cents to try some of these new fnds. one of my favorites is a fruit that looks simiar to a strawberry but has porkypine spikes and the shell is hard. once you crack it open you find a sweet and rare treat like a grape but sweeter. sarah and I tried the coconuts which they cracked open and put a straw in for us but they were not good at all. We were disapointed but had a good laugh as we walked past a stall selling fried chicken. LITERALLY the WHOLE chicken!!!!

Once we arrived at the class were were tld the 4 tings we would be making. Chicken curry, soup, pad tai and sticky rice with mangoes which is my new favorite dish. We cooked chopped and learned about the different ingredients that go ino each dish. We also tried different ammounts and types of curry and realized the god kick and punch they pack once cooked in the woks. The 1st thing i am buying when I come home is a wok! especialy since i will be getting my own place and since it is in the city i'll be by an asian market! the girls and I kept laughing as we cooked thinking about how lucky we were to have this opportunity and the stories we would have to share. Once we cooked we ate our delectible dishes and bid our farewells and went back to the hotel for a much needed shower.

It is very hot in Asia!! I mean very very very hot!!! and sticky!! and humid!!! That evening Max from australia joined our group and fit in well with the rest of us. We went to the night bazzar which has to be my new favorite place to shope and haggle for prices. It was a lot of fun. We had a good amount of laughs and then alexander, max, sarah, claire and I went out for a few drinks. i had 2 Mai Tais which turned out to be 2 too many considering the lethal amount of alcohol they put in those things. So after a fun filled night and many good times (i wont say more) except to add that hanging off the back of a tuk tuk while drinking to see if you wont fall off is never a good idea! Right guys! The next morning we all awoke perfectly fine to leave for our trek!

Trekking is something I was not aware involved so much work! With a 35 pound rucksack on my back we prepared for a hike up a montain in the ungle. In order to get to the trail or what was the bes path with the hel of a machetti we had an interesting and slippery from the monsoon hike. We had a bumpy drive for two hours in the back of a truck which i did get sick from and stopped at a cool waterfall. i was so sick at the end of the truck ride I lost my tasty lunch breakfast and everything else i'd eaten that week. Yay what a fun way to start a 5 hour hike. The best way to describe the trek is sliper, muddy, and dangerous and a whole lot of fun!!! We had branches cut to make hiking poles to keep us upright. i was lucky to remain upright only with the help of that pole. We walked and walked and were sweaty, muddy wet and very exicted by the amazing nature that surounded us. the view was amazing if not a bit scary at times for one missed step would send you flying off the side of the mountain leading to a very negative outcome.

We saw poisonous snakes and spiders next to us and an occasional carcuss that was being feasted upon. We walked next to wild buffallo and spen ime watcing out for wild elepans. It is a ver different world here but wonderful all the same.

When we arrived at the village i was pleasantly surprised at the welcome we recieved As stated before this is a christian village. It was an awesome opportunity that I can not discuss online.

During our stay at the village we slept on mats on a bamboo floor that had mozzie nets covering them. the mozzies were bad and I had so many bites including spider bites. After leaving that village we went ot another and had to climb what they call mommy and daddy hill. The trek was long and hard and left my knee swollen and the pack was wonderfully heavy from being wet from the rain. However if asked or if I had the opporunity i would do it all over again in a heart beat! I was so glad to have this oportunity and the most amazing was comming at the elephant camp!!!

To be continued....

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