12-31-13
Thanksgiving and Christmas passed without too-damaged feelings, but since New Year's Eve and then the LATE New Year's celebration finally came around, my emotions have been going up and down like a roller coaster. But unlike a roller coaster, it hasn't ended and continues to go down. But before that depressing chapter of my life...
We visited more coffee shops, a fish cave, a Shan village, a waterfall, and watched several strange New Year's Eve shows in Mae Hon Song. (We did a day trip.)
We drove past beautiful places like this :)
Ooooo.... aaaaah... :D
It was always sunny, green, and just bright. It made you feel like this
was all that you really needed in life.
One of our stops as we headed to another town in Mae Hon Song was the Fish Cave.
It was in a park which I believe you had to pay to enter.
Beautiful as it is, I'm glad we weren't sure and ended up not paying.
I bet these are the same fish that like eating me! :(
Honestly though, if we had not been rushed for time all day, I would've liked to
stroll on my own and just take pictures of nature.
People bought a lot of food to feed the fish. Wow, they must eat all day!
We entered the actual Fish "Cave" to see what
many sites and many travel guide books say is
a curious phenomenon. For some strange reason,
the fish congregate in one area and just swim
against the current there. They don't have babies there,
find food, or anything... there really is no proven
hypothesis on why they go to that one area.
I thought this was the place because they swam around here,
but then someone threw food, and I understood why lol
We tried to take a selfie over the fish triangle.
They're carp fish.
See, the fish just stayed there and people randomly threw food in there,
but hmmm.... why??? That's an age-old question, maybe not for this
situation, but I feel that it somewhat applies.
They'll eat your things alive!!!
Look at those monsters doing who knows what!!!
Our hypothesis is that there is some mineral deposit in the cave
that the fish discovered and love, but who knows?
This was an area in which to pray within the cave.
Here, I tried not to be awkward by taking more
pictures of fish while some Asian people asked
if they could take pictures with Jess, like she
was a costumed Disney character.
(Yes, it was because she is white-skinned.)
Oh well, at least the view was pretty :)
We continued on our way and found ourself another little coffee shop on the side of the road. These are really my favorite places :)
Guess what I bought this time?!
If you guessed Thai iced tea, you were wrong... for once.
This is an iced green tea. Yeah, definitely not my cup of tea.
Lame pun intended.
People really know how to set up their coffee shops at the perfect
viewpoints and with the perfect-looking shops. :)
It wasn't as pretty as the other view, but still, the mountains looming
behind the fields are gorgeous!
Here, the picture again, this time without the pink umbrella.
And this time with just one of the mountains.
And this time with my layers and me in the way.
I wondered what that number was, but it was not
until later that we figured out what it meant...
After we had coffee and left, I asked Jess if she paid for hers. I paid
for mine and the Thai people behind the counter kept trying to make me
pay for hers. She forgot and said we'd go back to pay them...
We never went back :(
Oh well, waterfall time!
When the camera focused on me...
When it focused on the waterfall...
Because we're adventurous like that (haha), we decided to scale the rocks!
I made it! Only slipped a dozen times!
I climbed over, stepped on some REALLY SLIPPERY ROCK,
and also got my butt all wet because I had to literally crawl
like a crab to get off this area. But still, fun stuff!
Action shot as I made my way back.
After the waterfall, we visited a Shan village. Shan people are believed to be
descendants of people from China, but they are today connected to the Burmese.
You will see a few different cultural influences in the pictures.
The street in this tiny village
I'm always in these "love" places... alone :(
Look at the view across this! Wow!!!
Jess and I stopped in one of these places. The people refused to serve
vegetarian food to her, even though everything sounded like they were
vegetarian to begin with. I tried a tea leaf salad, which was so spicy I started crying.
Felt slightly healthy though lol
We read that there was tea tasting, but you could just taste
tea in any little shop. You just had to ask! I enjoyed quite
a few cups :)
I was too cheap to buy any though :(
Photobomb!
I just thought this looked nice (it was behind the restaurant).
We drove around the village a little. See the Chinese?
Chinatown. Just kidding. That was a little bit of stereotyping on my part.
We also passed by houses that looked like this. The kid was so cute! He waved at me :)
As we left, it was still so gorgeous and the water was so still
that I had to take some more pictures.
Look at that reflection!
We passed by this strange ferris wheel/swing contraption.
I wanted to play with it!!! But then as they tried to
get the guy down, it was probably the scariest
thing I've ever seen. It looked extremely dangerous.
I took another picture as I waited for them to
violently swing the guy down.
And another!
And yet another!
This was about as close I'd get to riding it.
Why do people even create these dangerous things?!
Our drive :D
We passed through another recommended village. It's
a project village, supported by the king. They encourage
people to visit to make sure the people don't die out.
However, it was too commercialized and it
sold a lot of stuff we had already seen, so
to our dismay, we were not very excited to
explore it. Because I hadn't gone to the bathroom
since right after I had all that tea, I needed to
go desperately. Jess went behind a bush.
This old guy kept walking around, so I felt
very uncomfortable... I decided to hold it in...
Doggies!!!
They were so cute! Then, a kid came out
and took them back in. He was probably afraid
we'd steal them lol
At least they're safe inside!
Village on the mountain... this was something we saw
as we were driving to our next destination.
Just in case you were curious, I was able to
relieve my bladder as soon as we reached
our next guesthouse, so yeah, don't worry.
(Because I'm sure you were very worried about that.)
We reached Mae Hon Song again, FINALLY!!!
We did a buffet thing at Salween Restaurant.
We explored the night market again. This guy was making
pancakes(?) in different shapes.
1864. Alright, I'll explain as best as I can! So the number means
the magnificent, luscious, and full ;) curves of the mountain route
from Mae Hon Song to the Golden Triangle in Chiang Rai.
We didn't hit them all, but we definitely traveled part of that
amazing journey :)
Kids playing for charity
Look at their hats!
Even though I just wanted to collapse, Jess insisted that we actually
not be boring like we were for Christmas, so we stayed out around the lake.
We watched several Muay Thai matches. It made me want to learn it more!
We also saw goats!
Goats with babies!
Goats roasting!
Just kidding!
Goats staying warm by the fire :)
More Muay Thai!
More goats!
A weird performance that went on and on and on...
Almost midnight and they were still presenting different cultures' clothing.
We tried to wait patiently, but as it first struck midnight...
then 12:10... then 12:15, we were very ANGRY.
Plus, people shot random fireworks. I probably only heard
them shoot 3 and the lake was foggy, like THIS:
WHAT ON EARTH?!
LOOK AT THIS.
THREE FIREWORKS WAS ALL IT TOOK.
NO EXAGGERATION.
Still waiting...
Someone nicely gave me a balloon to release. When the performers
finally put on a "Happy New Year" song, we literally couldn't see
anything. (My phone died, so this was the last photo I took.)
I heard fireworks whizzing past me and I was honestly scared for
my life. It was also 12:17. Thanks a lot, Thailand.
Better late than never, I guess, right? :(
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