update from the black b

Hi folks-from the blackberry so forgive any egregious typos or grammatical errors!
Jess is not that into writing (as many of yall know) so I will be the designated blogger in order to share our amazing experiences with ya'll!
The rest of bangkok was busy! We were able to squeeze a lot into one weekend.
One of our delta sisters, Meg Bender from Pensacola FL works in financial consulting in Bangkok and we got to meet her for dinner. It was great to catch up and she took us to a delicious restaurant called "Basil.". The basil spice here is a little different flavor/smelling than what we are used to in the states!
After dinner, Meg took us back to Patpong and shared some of her hilarious experiences. She also showed us how to use the sky train, whihc is like a monorail and New Orleans should definitely invest in one!
Our last day in Bangkok, we finally had our first Thai massages which cost about 8 usd in a really fancy spa. They made us put on these really funny pink get-ups.
We also went to the famous tea at the Oriental hotel. It was so beautiful and delicious and it was interesting to read about the history of the hotelwhich included some Upenn connections (!!)
In our night out in Patpong(the red light esque area) Jess wore her pink elephant surong which she purchased at the floating market for about 200 baht or 6 usd. I wore jeans and a long sleeved shirt to fight off mosquitos. Apparently these uber conservative getups made us look like teachers, which everyone shouted to us and told us at the restaurant where we had delicious Pad thai and Penang (red curry).
Sidebar about the food: I'm loving the spicy food! It clears your sinuses and tastes amazing. Leopold Sher and Jess kimmel/tits/other non-spicy food issue friends, you would not do well with it.
Another sidebar, thai peopel are obsessed with malls. 7 or 8 story ridiculous malls. Great fancy food courts where you can eat at clean, nice, dirt cheap local cuisine type restaurants. Jess also found a great purse and some sandals. I have yet to buy any Thai goodies with the exception of these hilarious elephant pants that I bought for around four dollars to protect my legs from the hairy and spiky elephant's head!

On tuesday we flew to Chiang Mai in the north. We are staying at the cutest little guest house that is run by nice and helpful people and has a really good breakfast in the morning including fresh pineapple juice which I have never had anything like before!

When we got here, we took a tuk-tuk (little motorcycle truck which we dodnt take in Bangkok because its scary but here it is such a small city there aren't many other options) to walk around in some of the famous areas of the Old City.
Tuesday night we got to eat dinner with Jen gindin and Cara Manket. We ate at a restaurant called"the House" and they all called me crazy for eating salad but I didn't get sick! (Sidebar, guidebooks warn you not to eat uncooked food that may have been washed with unclean water)
It was great to catch up with penn friends. They left for cambodia/vietnam the next day but gave us great tips for a trek.
Thursday our hotel got us a car to rent for the day to drive us around (for the discount price of about 3 usd an hour) so we didn't spend our day arguing with tuk-tuk drivers. We went to the tiger kingdom where we got to hold baby tigers, the monkey training school which was cute but sort of sad and weird because the monkeys were trained to ride bicycles, shoot baskets, do math, peel coconuts and etc). We also went to an Orchid farm and a beautiful lake in the mountains. For lunch, the car drove us to the chiang mai four seasons (which we decided we would come back to one day when we have jobs to stay at) and we got a tour of the hotel. Then we got to walk around the rice patties (which are on the propety!) And pet the resident water buffalo-which was reallllly cool.
Today, we went on a one-day trek where we got to ride elephants (sort of scary), see the Karen (not prounounced like Karen Sher) hill tribe, hiked to a waterfall, visited the Maong tribe, eat a local lunch of rice and curry, and our favorite part-bamboo rafting. We met reallllly interesting people on our trip from Spain, New Zealand, Canada and a family that now livs in Florida but is part Malaysian and part Saigon(ese??). The hill tribes are extremely primitive and don't speak Thai. They were friendly and very talented in making beautiful crafts. I think the children here are so cute and jess and I want to take them home with us!
The bamboo raft was basically a bunch of bamboo shafts tied together with a rope. We shouldve been concerned when our tour guide, who was named Apple and completely hilarious, told us she was not rafting and would meet us at the end. It was so so much fun and would never happen sans life-vests and regulations in the US!
jess and I are heading to dinner in ridiculous elephant pants.
Miss and love to all of yall!