Highlights of my trip:
1) Hiking!
On Saturday we went on a hike to a waterfall. Our starting point for this hike was at a monastery on top of the hill overlooking the house we were staying at. Two monks guided us on a strenuous two-hour uphill climb through the jungle. The waterfall was dry, as it is no longer the rainy season, but the view of the surrounding valley from the top was beautiful. The monks also made a point of showing us some lemon trees that had no lemons on them. I'm not sure why these trees were noteworthy, but I can report that their leaves smelled lovely. There were a few little pools of water around at the top of the waterfall. I dangled my feet in them and had little fish nibble off the dead skin. Refreshing!
Elephant Poop. We also saw a place in the jungle where an elephant had clearly slept the night before. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) we didn't spot any wild elephants (or tigers!).
2) Food and Friends.
We spent most of our trip relaxing in the living room or on the porch of my friend's gorgeous summer house. Most of the people on the trip knew each other at least casually-- I had only met around half. This was a really great opportunity for me to talk to and get to know some new people. Most of my fellow travelers work for NGOs or for the UN, I was happy to learn a little more about the pros and cons of their jobs as I attempt to determine if that path will work for me. All of our meals were phenomenal. Our grocery shopping/meal planning experience could have been a little better organized, but once we made it to the kitchen things ran extremely smoothly. We greeted each day with breakfasts of fresh fruit, yogurt, cereal, pancakes, and eggs, but it was the barbecue on Saturday night that really stole the show. We had steak, burgers, salmon, potatoes, sweet potatoes, salad, asparagus, green beans, sticky rice, chocolate cake, wine... the list goes on. I've gotten pretty used to helping clean up after large groups after years of dinners, parties, and beach houses with the UChicago Ultimate community. This is the first time that there has been a maid around to do that cleaning for me. Life in Thailand is surreal. Another exciting thing about dinner on the porch: at one point, the weather was TOO COLD for us to carry on sitting outside. That is the first time that has happened here.
Our gorgeous retreat
Post-hike Yoga
3)Zorbing!
On Sunday we gathered our things and headed to an adventure park of sorts. I feel like it is a place where people must go on retreats and team building things but it also gets a lot of traffic from vacationers. Each of us chose to do one or two activities at the park. Mine was Zorbing. About half of our group climbed up a big hill and strapped ourselves into enormous inflatable hampster balls. The ride was pretty smooth at first but got rather bumpy towards the bottom of the hill as we slowed down. I think we needed more air.
In more recent news, I spent last weekend getting sunburnt and sore at the Bangkok Hat Tournament. I had a great time playing frisbee with new friends from around Asia. Bizarrely enough, I met not one, but two men who used to captain Junk, the men's frisbee team at my University. The world is small and ultimate makes it even smaller. I actually went and bought tickets to a frisbee tournament in Kuala Lampur this coming May, so I have something else to look forward to this spring.
This weekend will be one of many firsts: first time south of the equator, first time in Indonesia, first time traveling completely solo. Hopefully it will also be my first time surfing! Pictures and details of my Bali trip to come!
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