Hola!
School was canceled for three days because of flooding in Chiang Mai. Our school was under 3 feet of water. The Ping River in Chiang Mai was nearly 5 meters above normal. According to the news, about 20,000 people were affected by the flooding. After 3 days the water had receded to a level that didn't affect the city, although people are still dealing with a lot of the water damage. Our apartment was not affected, but getting around the city was quite difficult. Bangkok is currently having the worst flooding it's had in 60 years. Many shops and stores in Chiang Mai are not able to keep things stocked because they are shipped in from Bangkok.
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| Sandbags along the Ping River. |
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| Riverside Restaurant. We ate here with Karen and Teancum, and Andrew and Jen. |
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| How high the water was above normal. |
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| In the background is a news crew with the governor of Chiang Mai |
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| It was hard to drive around the city and stay dry. |
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| The Ping River. |
We had a three-week vacation in October. We went to an island near the border of Malaysia called Ko Lipe. It was beautiful. We snorkeled, kayaked, and relaxed there for just over a week. It was the low tourist season, so everything was empty and very cheap. Only problem was there was only one small boat that went there per day, and everyone and everything got soaking wet on the way there and on the way back.
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| The first place we stayed. Right near da beach, BOY! |
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| There were many other islands surrounding Ko Lipe. |
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| View from our bungalow. |
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| Weather was off and on, but it was beautiful to watch the clouds and rain. |
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| Dead krait (sea snake). One of the most poisonous snakes in the world. |
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| Awesome snorkeling. |
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| View from the balcony of the second place we stayed on Ko Lipe. |
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| Green mango salad, vegetable tempura, and sticky rice. Once we found this restaurant we ate here at least once a day. |
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| Our balcony. The island in the background is Ko Adang. |
Loi Krathong festival is coming up. We went to an event last Saturday where they released 5,000 lanterns simultaneously. For an hour before, there was a meditation where the monks chanted. It was an amazing event. Unfortunately about 90% of our photos were too blurry because it was dark, but we were still able to get a few good ones.
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| Lighting a paper lantern. |
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| !!! |
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| Our friend Emma. |
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| Fireworks. |
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| Some of the lanterns got stuck in the trees. |
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| Thousands of people trying to leave at the same time. Very claustrophobic. |
