When you're safe at home you wish you were having an adventure; when you're having an adventure you wish you were safe at home” ~Thornton Wilder

I am back from Thailand! The trip was the perfect blend of sight-seeing and relaxing. I can't wait to tell you all about my adventures in person!

Shopping for our cooking ingredients

Our cooking instructor

One of the dishes I created

The beginning of my flight home

“To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” – Bill Bryson

I have been in Chiang Mai, a city in northern Thailand, for the past few days. It is blissfully cooler here - in the 90s instead of the 100s, as it was in Bangkok. Thailand is currently celebrating the festival Songkran, the Thai New Year. This is the water festival. You can't walk ten feet outside without being soaked by water from passing cars and people from every side of the street.

Yesterday, Tiffany and I took a Thai cooking course. We prepared six delectable courses, and I think I might actually be able to recreate these dishes on my own...we’ll see. Today I did the Flight of the Gibbon zip line course. It was a 2 1/2 hour 5 kilometer course of climbing, zipping, and jumping through the jungle canopy - I actually saw some gibbons (a species of monkey)!

Tiffany and I preparing for the Flight of the Gibbon 

A Canopy View of the Jungle 

I Absolutely Loved Running Across These Bridges 

"Superman-Jumping" or "Flying Jumping"

One of the Rappelling Stations

The End of our Canopy Jungle Tour 

Me Making Spicy Prawn Salad 

A Waterfall that I Visited

“Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” ― Gustave Flaubert

Well, I have arrived in Thailand! Unfortunately, my luggage arrived two days after me. Thankfully, my friend Tiffany and I wear the same size clothes. My first few days in this extraordinary country have been incredible. I visited the Grand Palace, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, and Wat Pho, a temple that is also the premier Thai massage school. I also shopped in the Chatuchak Weekend Market, one of the largest markets in the world. Today, I went on a canal tour of Bangkok and visited the famous Bangkok Flower Market. It was only 102 degrees today (cooler than yesterday), and now I'm ready for an air conditioned nap before Tiffany and I go out again tonight. 

View From a Restaurant I Visited 

Just a Cool Artsy Shot that I liked 

 Exterior of Wat Pho

Wat Pho Temple 

Buddhist Offering at Wat Pho 

Canal Tour 

A Typical Thai Home Along the Canals 

Some Fresh Produce, and the Fruit at the Bottom of the Picture was quite delectable