I can never guess where a day here will take me. Only about
1 in 5 days goes how I planned, but almost always in a positive day. Today, for
instance, I planned to do yoga and stay on the property while I detoxed with my
coconuts. Maybe read my books, maybe write, maybe do a little meditation if
possible.
Before yoga began, Mama told me and the other girl who
planned on doing the detox today that the price of coconuts has almost doubled
because today is the Chinese New Year and prices always go up. We both decided
to forego the detoxes and were refunded the money back that we gave Mama to buy
our coconuts. Yoga had several new people today, three from in town who were
just here for yoga, but a new girl who would be staying in the bungalow next to
mine. She is American! Minnesotan, but has been living in Northern California for a few months. She is floating through
Thailand too, not sure of her departure date. Her name is Caroline, and I have to say- how nice to meet someone who isn't in Thailand to party! We have lots in common and I am happy to meet someone to talk to about my journey in a real and positive way.
I met her after I was
given permission to borrow another girl’s scooter for the day to go on a fruit
market run. The girl who loaned me her scooter also suggested I go see the
waterfalls in the area, and after Caroline and I decided to go to the market
together, we also decided that we must use this opportunity and go see the
waterfall. We took the wrong road to the waterfall, going in the direction of a
different waterfall we thought, but that ended up being a blessing in disguise
(hasn’t everything been??). We zipped through the hilly roads and absolutely had
to come to a stop when we saw two elephants. Calm down, they weren’t wild
elephants. They were for tours. But they were open to us to take pictures and
stroke their big hairy noses and feed them bananas and I almost died of
happiness. I was so excited to see elephants when I came here. I have been hesitant
to do a tour, because I have heard endless stories of how the elephants in Asia
are treated very poorly. They are often stolen from the wild, worked until they
are too sick or old to work, and then left to die. I am sure there are happy
elephants in Thailand, I just don’t want to pay money to see them and not know
how they are being treated. So I was quite happy to see these elephants for
free, and feed them some bananas from my backpack.
I can't lie I was a little terrified... |
After we realized our happy mistake (and purchased
ridiculous amounts of fruit and vegetables), we drove to the waterfall. The
drive was one of my most beautiful yet. The waterfall did have tourists (Mostly
kids in their 20s drinking beer on the rocks) but not too bad. After we
marveled at the beautiful waterfall, we jumped in. What a wonderful day.
Tonight we are going to use the kitchen here and indulge in our endless bags of
fruit and cook dinner. Not sure what we are making, but we have all the
essentials for a good meal. I will be leaving Mama’s day after tomorrow, but I
will miss it. The joke about Pai that everyone knows someone who planned to be there for two days and end up staying for two weeks. My little bungalow is so comfortable and relaxing, I wish I could
stay for weeks.
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