For the first time in my life, I took a girls vacation with 9 of my Beijing friends for one last hurrah before some of them move on to the next journey in their lives. We chartered a plane super early on a Friday morning and through the graces of God (and our abundant travel miles) we flew business class to and from Thailand.
We had so much fun in the hot and humid, mountainous jungles of Chang Mai. There were regular trips to amazing coffee shops, shopping, spas (for traditional Thai massages), hiking, swimming, tennis and some of the most amazing food you have ever tasted. It was all about relaxing and enjoying a few days of being able to use the bathroom without interruption, not having to cook or do dishes, not having to be a referee to fighting kids, not hearing "mom" screamed at least 100 times a day. I would almost use the word "peaceful" to describe it, but at night when it was time for bed I would start to miss my 4 children (Julia, Ella, Tucker and Kelly). They must have missed me too because I would get random texts and calls. On Sunday night before I came home I received a lovely text from them with a picture attached. The picture was of my kitchen counters stacked sky high with dirty dishes. I am pretty sure that there wasn't a clean plate or fork left in the house. The message attached to it said, "We are waiting for for you." I guess that is my pay back for leaving them for a few days! Next time, I will remember to stock the house with paper plates and plastic forks. Sigh!
It was an absolutely fabulous weekend, spent with some amazing women. The friendships that have cultivated here in Beijing will be ones that I hold dear to my heart always. We are each others support system in this unique expat way of life and I cherish every moment spent with them knowing that it is only for a short period of time.
Good times, great memories and amazing friends! Cheers!
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| Jess, Yvette and I checking out the view over Chang Mai. |
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| The poisonous 2 step snake that my dear friend Yvette touched the tail of. It is called the 2 step snake because if you get bitten by it you will get 2 steps and then die straight away! Yikes! |
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| Two Buddhist monks enjoying a peaceful moment at one of the temples we visited. |
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| This monk wanted his picture with us!?!? Go figure! |
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| Yvette and I. We had to rent long sarongs and scarves to cover our shoulders and legs before we entered the temple. |
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| It was already hot in Chang Mai but all of the heat coming off of the gold in the temple was smoking hot! |
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| We went hiking at some of the waterfalls. We of course had to pave our own trail with the thrill seekers I am friends with. |
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| I am filling my water bottle with some of the water from the falls. |
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| I've never really played tennis before and I am not sure I ever should again, but it was really fun playing with these ladies who are all super competitive. Me and Serena Williams have a few things in common: we both have brown eyes and really big curly hair. (And that is were the similarities end!) |
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| The amazing spa! |
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| The house that we stayed at, complete with pool, driver and chef. |
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| The most amazing barista I have ever seen (and that would be very few). This man owned this coffee shop and has won world wide awards for his amazing coffee and his artwork that he does with the cream. I think I want to apprentice under him and open my own shop on a beach front somewhere! |
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| My beautiful Latte. |
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| I believe that this lady put all of us Crossfit ladies to shame! |
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| Getting ready for take off to head home. I reclined all the way back to make it a bed and dreamed of all the fun I was going to have doing the dishes when I got home. |
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| This was the picture that was texted to me. It got a lot worse after this though! |
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