ChaengMai

Hey there.
I think I mentioned that we were heading to ChaengMai for a few days; we made it! We've been here about two days, and have already had a million adventures. 

First of all: We took an overnight train from Bangkok to ChaengMai- about 13 hours. So we boarded the train at about 6, and headed out. We had 2nd class sleeper tickets, so the four of us (Alan, and the three of us girls) were in two sections, right across from each other. We did a tutorial on the bus, since we had some time to kill, then about 9:30 or 10 they came around and set up the beds for us. Let me just say, here and now: Trains do not provide the comfiest sleeping arrangements in the world. It wasn't awful, and I did sleep a little bit, but I kept waking up. I had a window though, so I had fun looking out the window when we went through villages and stuff. Anyway, we had been stopping and starting the whole night, and about 5:30 A.M. the train stopped again. I quickly fell asleep, and we all slept soundly until about 7:45- the time we were supposed to arrive in ChaengMai. We got dressed really quickly, and when we got back, Alan had gotten some information from the guy in charge of our car. It had been storming really bad throughout the night; thunder and lightning. Apparently the rain had gotten so hard that it got into the electrical components of the engine, and fried the engine. So an engine car came from the next town, and was about to pull us over the mountain. When we got to that town, we would be taken off the track, let all the trains behind us get through, get a new engine, then be on our way again. Alan, however, knew that this would be an extremely long process, so we hopped off the train at that town. We went over to the bus station, where we bought tickets that left for ChaengMai at 9:30, and grabbed some breakfast. The bus took about two hours to get here, and we went right to our hotel room and crashed. Actually, I lied. Alan had some meetings, so he dropped us off. We all took nice long hot showers, ordered pizza, ate, and then crashed. For about 4 or 5 hours. It felt so good. Then we went and met Alan at his meeting, and had dinner with them. We were pretty wired when we got back, so we went out to the main road, and walked around the street vendors for a few hours. 

Today was long, and tons of fun. We went to a pretty big church, where most of the other missionaries go, at least once a month. We had lunch with the church people, and then cake and ice cream for Missionary Mark's birthday, then headed back to change our clothes. We went out to a reservoir, and while Alan and Lauren (another missionary) went for a run, we walked around and took pictures. Then we flew back to our hotel room, showered, changed again, and took off for a really big temple on top of a mountain. It was about sunset, and we drove up this enormous, curvy road. At the peak of the mountain there is a really big Buddhist temple, with a view of the entire city. So we got lots of night shots, good conversations, and big bites. I have tons of pictures to put up, but I'll do it another time, cause I'm getting sleepy .Anyway, to get up to the temple,  there was 390 something stairs. It was super crazy high, but sooooo worth it. Again, pictures are coming. On our way back down, it was kinda creepy, cause all the monks were chanting, and just as we start to walk down, the power went out; it was pitch black. All 5 of us froze, and laughed, then the power switched back on. So we ran back down, and headed out to find some dinner. We ended up at a really tasty Italian place, not very Thai, but good all the same. Then we went to the Sunday Night Market, where I got some super awesome stuff that people are going to love; and spent about $15 . 

All in all; it was a pretty awesome day.
But now I need to sleep. 

Sawati kha!