- Night Market Scorpion
During the first weekend of our Race, me and some of my teammates went out to the night market in Chiang Mai. Coming to Thailand I knew I wanted to try eating a scorpion because why not? In the night market we found a spot that serves scorpions on a skewer and my friends convinced me to pick out the biggest one. The lady serving them took the scorpion I picked and threw it right on the grill. A few moments later I was staring down this giant black scorpion that I was now not sure I was prepared to eat. I decided to take a bite anyways and to my surprise it really wasn’t that bad if you could get over how crunchy it was. I convinced my my friends who were with me to try it too, so Justin, CJ, Tikki, and Landon all ate the scorpion with me. That has definitely been my top food experience of the Race so far because of how bizarre it was and I will never forget that memory!
- Hedgehog Cafe
Another wild experience we had was while we were in Chiang Mai. Me and some of my team decided we were going to the Hedgehog Cafe. I had no clue why I had agreed to go to this place with only a group of guys, but I am actually glad I did. So Landon, Cj, Tikki, and I got thiiere and split what was an amazing waffle topped with ice cream and various fruits and we each got our own drinks. I got a mango smoothie that I would love to have again right now! The main attraction though were the hedgehogs. We were able to play with them, feed them, and get slightly awkward/adorable photos with them. Then we noticed that they also had guinea pigs in this pin so we tried to play with them but they were very skittish. One of the workers eventually came over and herded out all the guinea pigs across this wooden bridge by simply waving some leaves against a tree. One by one the guinea pigs crossed over into another pin where we were able to feed them as well. I may have made a comment or two about how I would eat their cousins when I go to Ecuador since guinea pig is a big thing there. This was such a unique experience that honestly just made us all smile and so happy. If you’re ever in Chiang Mai, I definitely recommend you make a visit to Harizenumi Cafe and play with some hedgehogs and guinea pigs. Overall it cost us roughly $3!
- Texas Chicken
If you’ve read my previous blogs then you may already know how rough Malaysia was for me. One thing that did make me happy about Penang was Texas Chicken. If you aren’t familiar with this restaurant; I’m not surprised. It’s actually just Church’s Chicken, but we were told that they name it Texas Chicken because they couldn’t use the word Church. I don’t know if that’s why, but it was most definitely a Church’s Chicken. If you still aren’t familiar with the restaurant then you’re missing out because they have great fried chicken and even better biscuits! I should also mention that they had sweet tea, which almost brought me to tears the first time I went. With Malaysia being as hard as it was for me, Texas Chicken was one thing that I could look forward to and would make my day just a little bit better. Needless to say, I went to eat there a lot. I believe me and Ben Taylor ate there a solid 25 times during the one month we were there. It was just so nice to have American food, especially when we basically had to eat Indian food the rest of the time. Texas Chicken will forever go down in my heart as a simple joy God gave me to cling to while in Malaysia.
- Beastburger
Beastburger was this amazing burger spot also in Chiang Mai that one of our field mentors Wesley told us about. He hyped it up some but I don’t think he did it justice because it honestly competed with some great burgers back in the States. It was so good that I went back a second time and actually got two burgers that time.
- Chili’s
Another perk to Penang, Malaysia was that they had a Chili’s. I got to eat there twice during our stay and both times were great. The first time was for Cj’s birthday. The second time was at the end of our stay to celebrate the month our team and the two other teams had in Penang. We recreated the “Dundies”, which is from the show The Office, where they had an awards ceremony. So right in the middle of the Chili’s we had our own awards ceremony. We did superlatives and everyone got an award. Mine was “Most Likely to God is On the Move”. Shoutout to my YouTube channel if you haven’t seen it yet. Like and subscribe! It was so funny though because they actually played the song, which is the intro to my videos. All in all it was just a good time to spend with some of our squad and embrace the month we had.
