Day 5; Bugs, waterfalls, and tea!

Guys, I ate bugs today. Like in all those markets that you see on the travel or food channels where they have people just snacking on insects. Yeah....I did that! They were actually really really good, but once was enough for me! It's really hard to get past the texture and the thought of "oh hey...I'm a cricket and that's my leg, or antena, or eye, or wing......." Pok encouraged me to do it and walked me through the whole process. Yes, it was a process. According to him, the small cricket is primary school, the big cricket is middle school, the silk worm is high school, and the bigger beatle thing is extra mathematics! I told him I was terrible at math and that's where I drew the line! But hey, I can go far with a high school diploma right?!

I also promised Dr. Frelinger at work that I'd try durian fruit; durian is really stinky which is why you can't have it in hotels and our bus driver wouldn't let me bring it in either. So I was finally able to find some...unfortunately they wouldn't let me buy just one slice so I had to buy a package of 4. Which I promptly threw out after trying to get others to eat it with me. 

Let me say....it's unpleasantly squishy. It does smell pretty bad. And the flavor, while not actually all that bad, does not have enough redeeming qualities to make up for the stench or texture. I tried it, but again, once was more than enough! Oh...and the outer shell of it is crazy sharp! Like, this fruit will kill you if you happen to be standing under it when it falls from the tree. No joke. Crush your skull right in! But I also got some nice pictures of some dragon fruit, more rombutan, and truffle mushrooms! Yum!

After the market Pok took us to a beautiful park with a short walk to a waterfall that we could swim under. That's really all the explanation that bit needs I think!

Next we grabbed a quick lunch (where Anna made a bold little cat friend) and then ventured to a tea factory to see how tea is made. Unfortunately they were not working today so we just popped in to taste a little and take a look at the factory. Pok of course explained how things worked anyway because he's awesome! I didn't get any pictures of them, but there were these two little boys that showed up. One of them made a dramatic fist motion at me so I made it back thinking he was kidding.... he was not. He then proceeded to punch us all in the kidneys! Pretty hard! Then Pok started playing with him and the kid started kicking too! It was so random. Naughty little thing!

Then back in the bus to head to our hotel in Pai for the weekend. Every place we've stayed has been so beautiful! We leave here Sunday to go to Chiang Mai for class for two weeks! Night market tonight and a free day tomorrow!