Day 8 Thailand

My favorite breakfast: sweet rice with mango, great way to start the day!

We had a 4 hour bus ride North to Thaton where we caught a long tail boat to Chang Rai. The bus ride was hot, but the boat ride was lovely. As we started out though our boat stalled & we had to get a jump start. This was quite humorous on a river in the middle of the jungle. The ride was pretty, however being the end of the dry season the river was low, & we had to get out to walk at one point. Penny pointed out some leeches on a leaf along the river. Not a place we want to swim obviously, however the locals seem to live in the water.   

We saw many water buffalo along the way, as well as flowering trees, fisherman, & people swimming in the river. I was feeling very content & happy to be doing exactly what I've always wanted: exploring & adventure traveling. 

I realized I've been here for a week already when I was excited to see a Western toilet (a raised one instead of a squat toilet-photos to come), then was disappointed to realize it wasn't really, there was no flush, just the typical bucket of water with a pot for you to pour water down as a manual flush. 

I am becoming good pals with Penny, she's a doll & we've been spending most of our time together. I am still rooming with Carly, the Canadian gal I met first, also a nice gal.  The three of us decided on pizza for dinner, Penny had spotted a place advertising authentic wood fired Italian. Learning to use a squat toilet is one thing, but over a week without pizza was getting to be too much for me, so I happily agreed & all is right with the world again. Ha ha.