Making our way through the land of smiles

Our first week in Thailand has been a whirlwind of wonderful experiences. We started off exploring the pulsating streets of Bangkok, taking in the juxtaposition of fast paced city life and peaceful ancient temples. After visiting the reclining Buddha, taking water taxis, seeing silk entrepreneur John Thompson's expansive home and dining at one of Bangkok's many malls, we were ready to embark on the next part of our month long journey.

Early in the morning, the group set out on a long day of travel to Sukhothai, a UNESCO world heritage site nestled in the sweeping mountains of northern Thailand. After a particularly bumpy train ride and some tumultuous experiences with squat toilets, we made it to our scenic guest house. The next day, we toured the park on bicycles before piling back into our vans to drive to Chiang Mai.

Since arriving in Chiang Mai, our lives have been nothing short of exciting and exhausting! We left the city in the early morning to begin our climbing, caving and rappelling adventure in Crazy Horse Buttress. After a long day scaling mountains and free falling into vast and stunning caves, we were certainly ready for a comfortable nights sleep at our campsite. We set up tents and enjoyed toasted sticky rice by the campfire, and picked up some Thai language skills along the way!

The next day, we warmed up with a tree lined hike up to the entrance of the incredible cave we spent our day exploring. After a series of climbs and a long rapel, we found ourselves at the bottom of an enormous, dark cave, with only headlamps to lead the way. We observed the various rock formations and cave creatures as we treaded carefully on the muddy cave floors. Finally, we were ready to climb our way out of the cave, zip line across, and finally rapel down to the ground for a grand finale to our mountainous expedition.

Back in Chiang Mai, muscles still sore from our crazy horse adventure, we woke up with a relaxing yet stimulating session of morning yoga and meditation. Next, we embarked on an Amazing Race around Chiang Mai, seeing new sights in the city and enjoying some heated competition. Though many of us got lost, we took some great pictures with police men and ate some delicious Khao Soi! To finish off the day, we were lucky enough to sit down with monks at their temple to ask them questions about their Buddhist practices and to prepare for our exciting meditation retreat tomorrow! We can't believe a week is already gone, but we can't wait to keep exploring this awe-inspiring country.

Stella & Marina