Three Weekends, Three Adventures

After a long, tiring (yet rewarding) first semester of classwork, it has been excellent to vacate for the better half of a month from the toils of academia and soak in the rays of semester break. During the weekdays I stayed in Chiang Mai, filling my days with reading, hanging out with friends, catching up with online socializing, and watching one and a half seasons worth of Dexter episodes. Sometimes it was a strain to come up with things to do to pass the time away! The last three weekends were spent out of town, and each trip was well worth it!

Weekend 1: Hmong Village in Tak Province

This is the first time I had made it back to the village in about 15 months, but the trip there made me feel a bit like I had never even left Thailand in the first place. I had the opportunity to teach English for the children's program at the church there, as well as reconnect with some great friends.

Weekend 2: Sukhothai

A friend and I hopped on a bus one Friday morning and spent the night in the quiet town of Sukhothai. This place serves as a nice stone's throw away from the bigger city of Chiang Mai and boasts a World Heritage site on the outskirts of the town. We rented bicycles on Saturday morning and explored the "old city" ruins. Unfortunately I forgot to recharge my battery before the trip, so I have only a limited set of pictures -- a good excuse to find my way back there sometime in the future.

Weekend 3: Doi Khuntan National Park

Khuntan is a treasured place for some of my Chiang Mai ex-pat friends, and I think it's becoming something similar for me as well. This was my third venture to the park, not much more than an hour away from Chiang Mai. A group of 11 of us hiked up the mountain, spending two nights enjoying the cabins, the views, and the friendly company. There was plenty of time to take an additional hike to a waterfall, beautiful at this time of the year while the rains are still frequent.

These past three weekends have been no less than awesome. It's great to know that it doesn't take a large budget or overly-detailed planning to get out of town and experience some beautiful places with friends. I feel recharged to begin my second semester of classes later this week, and I know three extraordinary places to help recharge the battery should it get low in the course of this semester.

Peace,

Eric