So, as Kathi has already mentioned: I was traveling around Thailand for one month, most of the time with my friend A. After we spent a few days in Bangkok together, we took a night train to Chiang Mai, which is located in the North of Thailand. Oh, how much I love Chiang Mai! A and I went on a three day-trekking tour where we got to bathe elephants, jump off waterfalls, sleep in the middle of the jungle and eat delicious Thai food. It was magical. And dirty.

pure nature

As you can imagine, we were kind of exhausted after three days of hardcore trekking - I swear, there were moments where only the anticipation of Mango Sticky Rice kept us going - so, A thought it would be a great idea to get a Thai Massage afterwards. 

You know how people tell you that Thai Massages really hurt and you don't believe them because you think they are just overreacting little babies? Well, you better believe them, before you actually get one and end up scarred for life. 

After my barely-survival of the Thai Massage, A and I decided to visit the Grand Canyon of Chiang Mai, which is an old quarry filled with water. It is almost as exciting as the "real" Grand Canyon in the States, but you can cliff jump and swim in there, so, it is basically the Grand Canyon in cool. We went there by scooter and for the first time in my life I felt confident driving, well, anything, to be honest, and I think, also for the very first time someone actually felt safe while I was driving. Anyway, we spent the day there jumping off 15 meter-high rocks, which led to heavy bruises on A's thighs and arms, because she was paying too much attention to overcoming her fear of heights and too little to the whereabouts of her limbs.

Grand Canyon, Chiang Mai

I am not sure whether it was the search for a certain association that did not want to be found or one too many cigarettes smoked by a certain someone that led to a certain scenario where we were racing through Chiang Mai trying to get ourselves and our backpacks to the train station in time and the scooter back before the rental place was closing. Classic race against the time. Long story short: We lost. 

I tried to cry several times during this hell of a ride, but my body just did not let me. Can you believe it?! You must be thinking: She cannot even get this tiny bit of satisfaction during dark times like these?! I know, I was just as upset about the absence of my tears then as you are now. But hey, life is unfair. 

In the end, I got my passport back - even though the rental store was already closed - and I made it to the train station safely. We missed the train anyway, because it was seriously ON TIME  - for the first time ever in Thailand. Our only chance to catch that train was to pay one lucky taxi driver enough money for him to feed his children for the next two months to chase our train down to the next scheduled stop. During my most expensive taxi ride ever, I started feeling very unwell and thought I might throw up, but my body knew very well that I couldn't afford to clean that taxi, so it waited until we arrived - but only right until we entered the building and tried to figure out if we missed the train. (Of course, we did not. It was late, duh!) The next toilet was out of sight, so a trash can had to do it. Apparently, me throwing up into a trash can with a huge backpack on has been an amusing sight as A had a good laugh over it and even considered taking a picture of this weak moment of mine. At least one of us thought it was funny. 

Good news: We made it onto the train and our beds were - surprisingly - comfortable. Bad news: I did not sleep. At all. I am going to spare you the details, but I can tell you this much: the toilet and I became quite good friends that night. 

xx Lena

Photos taken in: Chiang Mai, Thailand