Old Friends and Elephant Dung Paper

I wanted to start with an explanation of my last post and why The Ant Wars was so traumatic to me, I hate no insect more than ants. Long story short, I grew up with an ant infested house when I was younger and was thus traumatized. I was just thinking about it and thought people might think I'm a finicky girly girl reading my post about ants, but I assure you for the most part I'm not. It's just those damn ants.

Anyways, I'm in Chiang Mai and have had an amazing time seeing my old friend from college here and meeting her man, Boon! We enjoyed some drinks, food and shopping at a night market last night where I got some amazing items for dirt cheap, just the way I like it. Later this week she's going to be taking me to get real salt water pearls for dirt cheap, I'm very excited! Today we went to a temple and an elephant show! Apparently the best elephant show in Thailand with elephants who have broke a Guinness Book World Record of the biggest painting painted by elephants... bet you didn't know that was a category did ya? It's a really amazing picture actually and the elephant show was so much fun, we even got to see a four month old elephant that was so freaking cute I almost wanted to take the little guy home with me. When I was feeding him bananas he looked like a little kid trying to eat chocolate cake and even proceeded to rub his face in the mashed up banana when he was done trying to eat it! My favorite item in the gift shop at the elephant show? Elephant dung paper. Recycling's great!

Tomorrow we plan on trekking through the rain forest, stopping in local villages for sleep. Just another day here in Thailand where elephants walking down the side of the road and trekking through rain forests are daily occurrences. As always, the experience of being in a place with people who live here is more rich than just visiting purely as a tourist, and we get the really great deals on stuff too! :) I've learned so much about Thai culture such as every Thai person has English nick names since many of their Thai names are too long or difficult to pronounce. Some of the nicknames? How about Guitar, Bong, Beer, Peach and Hamburger? You can't help but crack a smile, and nobody minds here with their laid back and accepting culture! I've also learned a lot about the non-profit community here and the issues that Thailand faces socially, which is great research for my future career as an International Social Worker!

I'll try to blog after our trekking adventure where I will actually get to ride an elephant! Wahoo!

P.S. There's a bar around the corner from where we're staying for sale for about $11,000 American dollars, Hubby and I are very tempted...