Today Aaron and I sat down and hashed out some specifics of when and where we are going after our Thai massage training in Chiang Mai. We wanted to leave a good deal of our time unplanned, with some vague ideas of what we might like to do, but not have everything set in stone. I am reminded of an open-planned road trip some time back through the American Southwest. We were sitting at a cafe having breakfast and I happened to overhear a woman at the next table talking about the opening day of the Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon festival early the next morning. We had originally planned to head out that day to other environs, but of course decided to stay on an extra day. We got up super early the next morning and watched balloons of all shapes and colors floating hypnotically over the cold early-morning high desert valley. I love allowing ourselves the ability to travel while learning about what a place truly has to offer. I have no doubt that this trip will give us a multitude of opportunities to fully experience our true passions, namely, just being/experiencing/interacting/being wherever we are.
So far, then, our plans do include:
Travel from Seattle to Bangkok. Stay in Bangkok for four days: get massages at Wat Po, take cooking class from Cooking With Poo (!!), explore Bangkok.
Train travel (Train #13 on Halloween!!!) from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, in the north part of Thailand. We have a couple days to settle in and explore the area before we start 2 weeks of training in Thai massage at the Sunshine Massage School. During this two-week period, we will have the opportunity to experience the beauty of the Loy Krathong festival, for which we specifically timed this trip.
http://www.chiangmai-alacarte.com/loy-krathong-festival-november-5-6-and-7-2014-0
We will have a few days after our training to further explore Chiang Mai and surrounds, perhaps going further north near the Myanmar or Laotian borders for a couple of days.
We will take a train back to Bangkok and fly to Siem Reap, Cambodia, where we will stay for 11 days. We plan to tour Angkor Wat and perhaps kayak down the Mekong or Tonle Sap lake.
http://sacredsites.com/asia/cambodia/angkor_wat.html
Then we will fly back to Bangkok, and back home.
What adventures can we pack into this time?! What time can we take to just enjoy?? I can't wait to find out how this chapter goes.
Dina
