Songkran Festival

Songran Festival or also known as a water festival. It is a huge water fight (probably the biggest water fight in the world actually), people are everywhere with water guns and buckets that are going to dump water on you. We couldn't walk anywhere without getting drenched in water. This festival is from April 13th-15th and continues a couple days before and after the festival. We participated in a couple days of the water festival. 

We were in Chiang Mai for the water festival, there were a lot of foreigners and a lot of thai people that were involved in the water festival. In Chiang Mai there is a square around the main part of the city that has a north, east, south, and west gate. The areas by the gate had the most people and the parties like the picture below.

Near the gates they also had a parade, mostly for the Thai people. The Thai people were dumping flower water on the people in the parade to wash there misfortunes away.

This is just one street we started walking down and the crowd of people and the getting soaked with water begins.

HAPPY THAI NEW YEAR! Or how they say it is Sawasdee Pee Mai!

Tiger Kingdom & Orchid Garden

Smallest Tigers!

Today we went to see the tigers, rawr! The smallest tigers actually made a combination of a meow and a roar. The tigers we saw were six months old and three months old. They were so tiny and so cute, I want to take one home with me!

These are the 3 month old tigers. At first they were calm, but then they started playing with each other! They are sooo cute!

This is a 6 month old tiger! They were pretty calm and played around when we were leaving.

This is a 3 month old tiger when he started playing around!

Right when we went to the younger tigers (3 months old) I sat down and the tiger came right over and started playing on my lap. It was so soft and it was like a dog that is a puppy, but a bigger puppy. He started to bite my shirt and my arm a little bit because we think he was teething.

 Right after tigers we went to the orchid garden in Chiang Mai. It was really pretty and really calming, I never knew plants can grow like that.

A row of the orchid garden.

 Multiple rows of the orchid garden.

Right after our main activities for the day we went to the city and took a part in the Songkran festival (water festival).

Ziplining & Bungee Jumping

Today we were doing a high ropes course or also known as zip lining. This is my favorite thing ever! I love ziplining so much! We went with a company that was called Eagle Track Zipline. We did a bronze package, that means we were able to do 15 different platforms. I wish I was able to do a lot more, but the rest of my group wanted to do the cheapest option.

This is one of the ziplines, in my left hand I hold onto the rope  connected to the wire and with my right hand I hold onto a bamboo stick which is the brake. The bamboo stick is bent so it fits perfectly around the wire to put the bamboo stick on and hold it tight to brake.

 These were a couple obstacles in the course, these couple look easy (which they were, more then other ones I have done anyways). Except only after 15 platforms everyone was worn out, I could have kept going because I was enjoying it so much! Especially when we were doing activities after ziplining. We were going bungee jumping, having a really good American restaurant and going to the night markets.

One of the obstacles in it was they dropped you down to go to another platform and we were all kind of nervous for it, but it ended up being almost the best one!

This was our group that did the bronze package. One thai women and four of us americans! It has a lot more gear then the other ziplining I have done. In my left hand is the bamboo stick. Also underneath the helmet we needed to wear this hairnet looking thing that covers your hair. It was kind of weird, but I enjoyed being with this group.

Near the end of our trip of ziplining while we were waiting for a ride back down the canyon we stopped by the waterfall right next to the lunch area. Thailand is so pretty especially in the mountain area and pretty much everywhere!

Thailand has three different seasons: dry season, hot season, and rainy season. While we are here we are in the dry season and partly the hot season. I'm guessing if we were here during the rainy season that waterfall would be a lot bigger because in the rainy season I heard it pours everyday nonstop.

Next on our list for the day was bungee jumping. When we got there I wasn't that nervous, but once they put the wraps and rope around my feet I was getting really nervous. They made sure everything was tight and then I needed to hop over to the area they brought you up to fall off of.

The whole way up the crane he was explaining what he was going to tell me when I fall off and the rules of bungee jumping and when he said 3.2.1 bungee I fall off. When he started to count down I don't quite remember him saying bungee and I fell off then I don't really remember in between that time until the rope caught me again. When I fell off I thought, yep I am really doing this, and there is nothing holding me for awhile. It is a lot more then a trust fall!

When I was waiting to come down I kept twisting while hanging upside down, I kind of got dizzy. When I did get untied I noticed that I hit my toe on the way down and my toe bruised and swelled a little bit (I don't exactly know how).

Overall it was a good adrenaline rush and I am really glad I did it, just a bit frightening...haha

Four Island Boat Tour in Krabi

Time for the four island tour! We were all excited until we were waiting one to two hours for the boat tour to start. The tour picked us up about an hour late and we ended up waiting at the office for about an hour while our boat driver was on coffee brake... We were all disappointed that he was sitting right next to us the whole time we were waiting.

Once the tour started it ended up being a really good tour. We also got back an hour later because they started an hour later in the morning. The good thing is, is that I didn't get sick on the long boat!

This was our first island we went to, it had very pretty clear blue water and a thin beach area with a lot of boats around the island because it is a tour island. I don't remember the name of this island though.

Our second island we went to was named chicken island! We snorkeled near this one, it was really interesting to see everything a little different with snorkel gear not scuba gear!

The snorkel gear we used.

This was our third island, we had a good Thai lunch for an hour at this island with a good relaxation at the beach afterwards.

This is more of Poda Island.

Inside the long boat, they fit a lot of people in there. A long boat also needs to be balanced so they kept telling people to sit on the front or to sit on the other side to balance the boat.

Our last island was called Railay Island, we were at the other side of this island the day before! This island was very busy and the most popular for people to go on there own, not just with a tour. There were nice hotels on the side, food boats, and a nice beach.

Railay Beach

Our second day in Krabi we went to Railay Beach, it is one of the most popular beaches in the Krabi area. It is popular for climbing, hikes, and just some relaxation. Mostly for the rocks though! :)

This is the beach area at Railay Beach, it is a bay so you can walk out forever and the water is still not past your waist. I was walking out into the water hoping for it to get deep soon, but it never did. The shallow water goes far, there are also other islands close so it stays shallow. The water was also such a clear blue/greenish color (like in the picture). It is the clearest and warmest ocean water I have been in!

Long boat on the shore in Railay Beach, Krabi. I really like this photo of this long boat!

Long boats that are on the shore, they put a specific area for long boats for park, so a parking lot for boats! :) These boats don't make me motion sick too, yay! So I like these boats for that, there looks, etc. 

This was my first climb I did for the day! It was a 5.8. Parts of it was really easy, but the beginning you needed to lift yourself over a ledge and then there was slick rock in a couple spots. My next climb was harder then this one. I want to try one day to get to a lot harder climbs!

There are such advanced climbing spots here and so much climbing areas here, I wish I was a lot better climber then I am so I could have climbed more! I climbed a 5.8 and a 5.9. 

We were all exhausted after a good climbing! It was Megan's first time and Jess and I have climbed a little bit like this before. The beginning part of the wall is behind us, we needed to climb up the little arch on the wall, the first walls were surprisingly easy!

After a long day it was such a pretty sunset! We were on the boat at the start of the sunset and then we got off right on time to pick up sea shells and watch the sunset at the same time. There were so many seashells on the beach, I loved being at the beach, it is so calming and wonderful!

Night Kayaking in Krabi

Our first day in Krabi we went night kayaking! It was actually sunset kayaking, but they called it night kayaking. I love kayaking, it is a good arm workout. We needed to share a kayak with someone else, so Lindsley and I shared a kayak that didn't cover your legs. 

We started in this area. There were so many kayaks around and it was such a beautiful area!

All six of us went kayaking and then there was a couple people from China and one person from Italy in our group. It was fun getting to know them during this trip!

Right when we went inside some trees there were monkeys everywhere. We paused to look at them for a minute and they were surrounding us. They were climbing everywhere, they climbed on the trees over the kayaks and they even got so close to our kayak that they almost climbed on it. Monkeys are everywhere in Thailand!

Me Kayaking!

We were kayaking around these cliffs. Someone told me that those two cliffs in the picture look like they are talking to each other! Haha.

When we were kayaking in the trees the water was really low. He told us that the water will be higher when it is a full moon or new moon. The alignments are different between the two, full moon alignment is moon, earth and then sun, and then new moon alignment is earth, moon, and then sun. New moon is stronger at pulling the tides in then full moon is because of its gravitational force. In some areas the tide can increase by fifty feet,. I found this fact he told us really interesting!

Scuba Diving in Koh Phi Phi

The second day in Koh Phi Phi we went scuba diving! Checked another thing off my bucket list. In Thailand you don't have to be certified and in America you do. It also only costs 100 dollars or 3400 baht compared to 500 dollars in America.

Since it was our first dive we learned the basics of scuba diving and we went nine meters below the surface. We did two dives during this trip in two different areas close to Koh Phi Phi.
We had a lot of gear on us and it was really heavy, but in water it feels like there is barely any weight. We were in a wet suit, we had a weight belt on, our scuba diving vest, an oxygen tank and the cords connected to it, our goggles and snorkeling gear, and our flippers, but they are all essential for scuba diving.

We took a speedboat out into the water, it was a little bit smaller then the one below.

The order of us in the picture below is Tessa (our instructor), Talina, Hannah, then Jess and Megan.

During this scuba diving trip we saw a sea turtle, sharks, starfish, clownfish, a TON of different fish, and we saw how the ocean floor was. We were so close to it that we saw all the details of the ocean floor. Everything that we saw reminded me of the movie Finding Nemo (especially when we saw the clownfish and they were in an anemone).

This was sooo fun!!! I loved it so much! I want to do it again! It was hard at first and once we were officially under the water the breathing was easy and all the technics were easier under water. It was such a good experience!