Today, I thought it would be fun to write up the most interesting snippets of our third trip to Thailand—the things that made my blood rush on this trip.

Speaking of blood, my first experience….

Congealed blood as food.

Eeew, right?

Well, in Southeast Asia blood isn’t actually something to write home about. Sometimes called ‘blood tofu’, congealed blood cake can be found in dishes all over, including green curry.

When I raised the spoon to my mouth, I was expecting a BLAST of irony blood, like I had just been shot in the mouth, but no. All I could taste was green curry!

The blood cake is the strange cubes of purply composition. This is Thai green curry,

If you’re feeling woozy after eating your blood maybe it’s time to move on to dessert. (Not ‘your blood’ like your blood ‘your blood’… we’re good now? Great.)

Today we have four options. However, if you need to hear the menu in Thai, I’m afraid we don’t have any options. Come back after I’m semi-fluent please.

If you dig soft, not-too-sweet, and sometimes-slimy delicacies, Thailand is your dessert dream destination. Book your flight now.

The mango and hot sticky rice, all doused with sweetened coconut milk (top left), was my personal favorite.

Dragon statues.

Sometimes, Thailand can be a fantasy realm, no imagination needed. There’s a reason I’m always plotting books while on the go.

Travel rips your chest open, takes out your heart, and replaces it with a cluster of good ideas.

(Man. I wanted to save that line for another email.)

From what I can understand, those dragons above are temple guardians, protecting the places sacred to Buddhists.

And I have no idea what this set-in-the-middle-of-the-jungle scene represents, but I can witness to the fact that it was HUGE.

I looked all over the rugged jungle terrain around that 9-headed dragon, wondering how I’d get out of the danger zone if it came to life. I came up with nothing. Not even a way to get a character out of that scenario.

We also saw the dragon-building process. The craftsmen have concrete scales and then cement them in on top of each other over the smooth-skinned concrete bodies. It was pretty awesome.

River-boating.

Another fun thing we did!

I got into the wobbly kayak, the green river beneath me. I took a deep breath and sat down in the seat.

I promise I didn’t mean to fall in.

Which is probably why I didn’t.

My brother and I explored the Chiang Mai riverside via kayak—it was awesome! You can rent a kayak, life jacket, and paddle, all day, for 50 baht, which is about $1.40!

Coming home.in another way.

On our Sundays, we were always back at our church. It was amazing to be back after so many months! As always, the expat church was welcoming and it was good to be in fellowship with fellow believers.

The smoky season.

Now this was interesting. I’ve heard about the burning season for years, but this was my first time to experience it.

In Thailand and the surrounding countries from February to May, farmers clear their fields with fire. Billows of smog hang in the atmosphere, bleaching the sky white.

It reminded me of smog—-bad smog. But hey, at least it’s temporary?

When we left, I was almost starved to see a blue sky. But I refueled after we left and landed where we are now.

I’ll be sharing stories from this country soon, but I’m not gonna tell you which one we’re in—not yet! But I’m willing to part with some good hints so that you can take a guess…. The country I’m in:

1. Has no snakes.
2. Is surrounded by water.
3. Is populated by the world’s BIGGEST bug.

Got a guess? Good! Stay tuned!

Indy.

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