Day 104! We’re quickly speeding through the month of April! Soon enough, my cousins will be here exploring this amazing country with me. But for now, I’m still exploring with my friends I’ve made in Laos. Today was another slow day that turned into a fun adventure outside of the city.

Songkran has been proving to be a lot of fun… but also full of late nights. So after sleeping in (again) I woke up at 10am and got ready for my day!

None of my friends were up yet, so I ventured out solo to find some breakfast.

While I was walking around in the heat, my friend Dan woke up and came to join me! Since it’s Songkran, a lot of restaurants were closed for the day. We ended up finding decently priced food… but it was unfortunately not one of the best meals I have had.

I tried a new dish, fried chicken salad with rice. It sounded really good, but their chef must’ve been more focused on the Songkran celebration. Oh well! It happens.

We then hurried back to my hostel because it was time to say see you later to our friend Henry. He was heading to Bangkok to catch a flight back home to England. It’s always sad watching people leave, but this group has been together for quite some time. Over the next couple of days, we’ll see more and more of them peel off to do their own things or, in most of their cases, head back home.

We hung out for a bit before it was time to go find some lunch! Dan had been told about the “best fried chicken ever” that allegedly was in Chiang Mai. So we ventured out on a long walk in the heat to find out if this was a true statement.

Unfortunately… it was closed. But we did end up stumbling into a cheap soup restaurant, where I decided to try Tom Yum soup for the first time since the last time I was in Thailand (I had Tom Yum in Bangkok and it was so ungodly spicy that I never tried it again).

This one was fantastic though! It very much made up for our sub par meal this morning. It had fish wantons in it along with a sweet and spicy broth. It made us sweat buckets on the hot day, but it was totally worth it.

We went back to the hostel and found our friends where we had left them. We started chatting about what we wanted to do today since our morning had been very slow.

Ultimately, we decided to go to the Grand Canyon Water Park! Yep! We’re flying back to Arizona/Utah!

Just kidding, we’re taking a RodDaeng (a red truck Tuk Tuk) 30 minutes outside of the city.

We arrived at, what looked like, a giant quarry that had been filled with water… but on top of the water was a mega inflatable water park!

I didn’t bring my phone down with me, but eventually I’ll get the GoPro pictures and videos from my friend Abi.

We had a freaking blast! Running around like little kids, slipping and falling, and definitely banging ourselves up a bit. I’ve never really been to a waterpark like this, but I’ve always wanted to! It very much lived up to the expectations I had for it.

There were a few slides that shot you out like a cannonball, zip lines to glide across the quarry (or jump into the water with), and even the inflatable tube that when sat on, someone can launch you by jumping on the other end.

I did unfortunately get a few cuts and bruises and I’ll be sore for sure tomorrow. I also sadly slipped into a crack of two of the inflatables (which was pretty funny), but when I got out my toe ring was no where to be seen! It got swallowed up by the lake which was disappointing, but I’m sure I’ll get a new one soon enough (and can make another hand made one at some point too)!

After a couple hours of exhausting fun, we made our way back to Chiang Mai’s old city. But not without getting super soaked by motorbikes driving by. This actually brings up an interesting and sad point… I had been thinking, “this is freaking crazy… why are they doing this holiday on motorbikes. How dangerous is that?!” And in fact, 116 road deaths occurred during the three days of Songkran and over 1,000 injuries as well. Just another reminder that it’s a blast and a half to be out here but to always remain vigilant, smart, and safe.

We got back to our hostel and I immediately hopped into the shower and got ready for the night!

Dan and I walked 30 minutes across town, outside of the old city wall, to the night bazaar! I went to this one last year, so I knew there would be plenty of new toe rings to choose from and also good, cheap street food!

On our walk, we passed by live music and DJs going on for songkran. We also somehow avoided getting absolutely soaked somehow, which was nice!

We also snagged smoothies to make the walk go faster and our friends Elise and Celine joined us as well!

I ended up finding a new ring from a very nice Thai lady. I’m sure a picture of it will pop up at some point on the blog! After finishing up at the night bazaar, we went to 7-eleven to get water… but this is when disaster stuck!

Out of nowhere, my dinner decided it was time to digest. But unlucky for me… there was no bathroom in sight! So I walked as fast as I could down the street asking every shop owner if they had a bathroom. Funnily enough, the one that said yes was a massage parlor. It was very kind of them to let me use their restroom without getting a massage, but it’s good to know for the future that they might be good to ask in case of an emergency!

After averting this crises, we hopped in a grab to the jazz bar we went to a couple days ago! It was my friend Abi’s birthday, so we went to surprise her with a small (but thoughtful) 7-eleven birthday cake.

We of course embarrassed her by singing happy birthday, in front of everyone, at the top of our lungs! And it was a perfect way to end the night.

Even though today started slow, the rest of the day was fantastic. I had a blast hanging out with my friends and continuing checking off my bucket list item of releasing my inner child more.

Tomorrow I’m hoping to see my first Muay Thai fight of the trip and potentially doing some more exploring of parts of the city limits that I haven’t seen yet!

– Elie