Birthday weekend kickoff. Monkeys included.

 7.20.12

Our second visa run to Burma happened to fall on my birthday. Which initially made me super mad but when I realized I would have a stamp in my passport with my birthdate, I was actually really excited for it. The trip to the border takes a lot of time and would have stunk to do on the morning of a birthday, but fate stepped in last time and gave us an adorable Taiwanese friend who offered to arrange a room for us at a guesthouse near the bordertown of Mae Sai for dirt cheap, so it worked out perfectly to head there the night before!

Waiting for the bus with our fried rice and pad thai to go!

Outside the guesthouse. It had been my dream the WHOLE TIME we were in Thailand to ride bikes and tour around somewhere, and not 5 minutes after settling in we were given bikes and told to ride around the Taiwanese village. Heavenly!

We rode around in the direction we had been instructed by our friend Ting Ting. We weren't sure we had arrived at the so-called monkey temple, until all of the sudden we realized a big monkey was walking through the entrance to greet us. And for the next half hour we were so overwhelmed and confused at what was going on. REAL MONKEYS roaming the temple grounds. What??

Monkey creeping at me. They are scarier than I ever thought!

This is the closest we got to one. Too close for comfort!

I can't really explain what happened next. We were handed bamboo poles and told to head up the mountain by a monk, but then got stopped on the steps by a monkey sliding down the handrail towards us, when these presumably intoxicated people showed up in a car, bought fish food, gave us one of the bowls, and posed in pictures with us. Yep..I'm just as confused as you are.

Cannot describe the confusion we felt. Maybe this facial expression will help convey it?

So. Many. Monkeys.

Annnnd at this point the monkeys started attacking the drunk lady and scratching her legs trying to get food from her, at which point the drunk man grabbed Justin's bamboo stick and started chasing them away. That was our cue to leave this crazy place!!

We enjoyed the rest of our evening, monkey-free.

The view from our guesthouse

This whole village was full of Chinese-speakers, which left me feeling happy as can be. I was able to remember enough Chinese to order food and make a little bit of conversation. It was awesome!

Noodles and unidentified fried food from street vendors. We washed it down with a Coke and didn't get sick after..haha

Birthday banana split

Justin and the Confucious statue in the lobby of the guesthouse