adventures | loveliness.

Tag: adventures

thai life

Posted at 12:14 pm by jasminedesirees, on June 10, 2014

I’ve only been here one day, but here’s what I’ve learned about Thailand so far.

The people are nice. Like really nice. I thought people in South Africa were nice (they were) but we’ve met so many wonderful people already, including a street vendor who was so excited for us to be on this trip that he was almost crying (so was I) and a Thai businessman in the temple of the smiling Buddha that told us all about his life, gave us tons of tips and information, and taught us how to say a prayer to Buddha for a safe travels.

It’s hot. Like don’t bother putting on clothes hot. We once rented a house in Zihuatanejo, Mexico that was at the top of about 500 stairs, and we stayed there when it was 100 degrees and so humid that everything was wet all the time. This is like that, but hotter and wetter. It’s basically pointless to shower.

It’s beautiful. So far we’ve just been in Bangkok, which is a big city so lots of concrete, like anywhere (there’s a Starbucks around the corner), but we visited the King’s Palace, and some of the temples today, and it’s just mind-blowingly gorgeous.

We leave for Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand tomorrow, and I’m so excited to see the country away from the big city.

Posted in Thailand, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged adventures, bangkok, exploring, people, Thailand, travel

niagara

Posted at 6:50 pm by jasminedesirees, on March 26, 2014

The first thing we did when we arrived in Toronto, after a feverish race for the nearest Tim Horton’s (they didn’t have Nanaimo bars there, and I was very sad) was rent a car and head for Niagara Falls. We had no idea where we were going, our phones didn’t work, but we were just hoping for the best.

It was a freezing cold, extremely icy day, we’d had to sit on the runway for an hour after landing because it was too cold for the ground crews to come get us off the plane, and as we drove toward the Falls there were vehicles in the ditch left and right.

I was pretty nervous and wasn’t sure if we were being stupid to try to get down there, there is something to be said for seizing the moment and taking advantage of your situation when traveling, but there is probably an argument to be made for not being unnecessarily reckless, which is one I’m still not usually able to win with myself. If I want to do something, I’m usually doing it, regardless of consequences or changes in circumstance, but we made it there without incident.

I had to be back later that night for the bachelorette party, but we had a solid few hours to spend creeping around and checking out the Falls. I imagined us strolling around the walkway and taking in the view from all angles.

Those plans evaporated almost immediately once we set foot outside the vehicle, even though it had been a few hours since our plane landed, and it was very sunny outside, it was still bitterly cold. We raced down to the overlook, took some pictures and enjoyed the gorgeous view for as long as we possibly could, which was all of 10 minutes.

Still it was amazing to see Niagara Falls in person, it was especially neat to see parts of it frozen. I would have been sad if we’d been so close and wouldn’t have made the short journey, even if it was a bit treacherous.