Day 1: Well my adventure up North began on October 22nd when my host mom told me over dinner that I would be leaving in about an hour to go to Chiang Mai. I was very excited but very hungry so I quickly gobbled up as much as my cheeks could carry and headed home to pack. When I got home my host dad said the car was here so the pressure was on. I went upstairs and just ended throwing alot of stuff into my bag. My host mom would come in ever minute or so just to suggest things to bring. I dont think I have ever packed that fast in my life. I didn't know much about where we were going, who we were going with, all I knew was that I was going somewhere which I have had my sights on for a while now. 
I soon found out that it would be Indira's (Mexican) host family taking all 5 of us to the North. We slept in Udon that night and without getting much sleep awoke at 4:00 to hear Indira host grandmother banging at the door. Before we knew it we were in the van heading to our new location. The drive was beautiful and in between naps, and watching movies we got out to see some of it. We stopped at one beautiful national park where I was seriously considering leaving the group and just going hiking in the nearby hills but having received only 3 hours of sleep I thought sleep was pretty important right now. We arrived in Chiang Rai at around 7:00pm after a 10 hour drive and everyone was beat. We stayed in a nice hotel for the night and I slept like a baby.
Day 2:The next morning we spent alot of our time in the van. We drove the Northest part of Thailand which I now believe was apart of the golden triangle. The city was called Mae Sai and it was beautiful. Our driver brought us up a small hill and we climbed a large set of stairs to see the surrounding scenery. The air was so fresh up there. I loved it. My friend Lauren from the States were picking out which house we would live in. Would we chose the Thailand side or the Burma (Myanmar) side? I was excited to be out of the car again and took the advantage to stretch my legs. I deicided to run down the large staircase to the bottom of the hill. Running down them kind of lost the desired effect but was still nice to breathe in the fresh breeze. We walkeda round the market for a while and then piled into the car for one more topsy tourny journey. We stopped at a beautiful resort on our way up the mountain. There was a lovely garden which overlooked what seemed like 9 valleys. You could see small hilltribe communities and it was an amazing spot. We ate lunch here and enjoyed enjoyed the view. That night we arrived in Chiang Mai late but still went to the "night market" where we all did some looking around. Amazing how many foreigners there are! I counted 30 just in one area. Popular place I guess. Our driver brought us back to our hotel and I had picked up a map of Chiang Mai just to get a feel for things. I saw an advetisement for a climbing place in town. It immediatly caught my eye and I called then almost immediatly. The man who answered was an American and he was fleunt in both Thai and English. I asked him if climbing was popular around here and he said because this is such a touristy place a lot of people come here to climb. I wanted to go to their shop because they have a small bouldering wall but the next day their ended up to be no time. Instead I just got his email address and whenever I am in the area I can give him a shout. Rock climbing is something I have been missing while being away for sure!
Day 3: Everybody woke at 6:00 and we ate at the hotel at around 7:00. At 8:00 we headed out to see a monkey school where they train monkeys. It was closed but they did have a little monkey outside on a leash wearing makeup and a tutu to draw tourists in. I had a hard time watching him just because it seemed so wrong. I was glad when we left soon after getting there. After not seeing the monkeys I guess it was only "right" to go see an elephant camp. It was interesting to see where they lived and what they ate but still had that inner voice inside telling me to set to them free. They are such smart animals. Much smarter than humans and why are they not allowed to roam free anymore? I thought I would lighten my mood with a nice cappucino from the nearby cafe and try not to think about those poor animals.
Next stop was a hill tribe. Now this is something I have been wanting to go to the North for. Hearing so much about them makes me really excited. Going there I was feeling extremely car sick because the roads are crazy windy. Indira's host mother gave me some medicine but I had to move to front in order for it to work. The hill tribe was not what I expected because it was so modern. There were alot of tourists and very little hill people. I asked the driver this and he said that most of the hill tribes today have integrated themselves with the modern world so some do not wear their tradiational clothes anymore. I spoke to a few of the children in the village. 3 of the girls I spoke with were selling tickets to a museum. The tickets were 10baht so I purchased one. The museum ended up to be free so I chuckled to myself looking down at the ticket I just bought. I actually ended up seperating myself from thr group because they went to go rent hill tribe dresses and get pictures taken. This is something I am seeing more and more in Thai culture. Pictures, pictures and more pictures. I snuck away and enjoyed a nice adventure thru the village with myself. While I was walking around one little boy dressed in hill tirbe costume approached me and asked if I wanted a picture with him? Sure, I said with much enthusism. 5 baht he said. So i got a good picture with a nice Hill tribe boy for 5 baht!
On our way back from the hill tribe we stopped at the Chiang Mai zoo. This was the home of the famous Mee Panda. It was awesome to see a panda for the first time. I would have loved to hug the guy though. So it was about 5:30 when we were done there and I finally found out that we were heading back to Udon tonight! So our drivers stopped at 7/11 before we started and stalked up on cafeine filled drinks. I couldn't imagine driving for 10 hours into the night. After a roughride in the car and many stops along the way we finally made it back to Udon. I was walking in the door as my brother was walking out to school and decided it might be best if I caught up on some sleep. Overall it was a good trip. I think it was a good taste of what I would like to see more of!
Happy Halloween!
October 31st was an exciting day. I got to sleep in and at 4:00 went to a halloween party that an english school in toen was putting on. The teachers running the school were from Britain, and America so tried to make it as close as they could. There was pumpkin carving, apple dunking, lots of candy, scary movies, great costumes! I just brought my housecoat and said I was sleepy. I ended up leaving the festivities early and went to my friend Deb's house where she had invited some of her friends over and made pasta and bread. I was already stuffed of candy but miraculously made room for more and enjoyed every bite of her homemade bread and delicious pasta. There were two girls from the states there who were 22, and 19. They were hillarious and I will definantly be in touch with them while I am in Udon.
Loigratong festival!
Now this has got to be the coolest festival I have ever been too. They make little rafts out of banana leaves and put candles on them. This is a symbol of fogiveness to the water to apologize for the way we treat it, they do it to honor and thank the Goddess of Water, Phra Mae Khongkha. We got to make one and send it out into the water. Making a wish as it floats away. There were also a different design of grotong. 
You could buy something that looks similar to a lantern and then light the bottom of it of fire. This them allows the white fabric to fill with hot air and rise similar as a hot air balloon. It was so beautiful to see them all! There must have been hundreds in the sky.
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