We arrived in Chiang Mai on Christmas Day, about an hour delayed and had to wait another hour for our hotel pick-up. Not quite what we envisioned, but we still got checked in with time to get to a Christmas dinner. Here’s Dec 25-29 with elephants, zip lining, cooking, markets, and adventures of northern Thailand!
Red sweet and sour pork for Patrick and green curry for me. Very festive! All eaten while listening to a recording of Thai children singing mis-pronounced Christmas carols. Adorable.
Our waitstaff were dressed for the occasion and we even saw a few fireworks fly while we ate.
Our first full day we spent at a Thai cooking class (thanks Dale and Carol!). Our guide started by taking our small group to a market and taught us about ingredients, including different types of rice.
The class was on a small organic farm. We got dolled up for a farm tour where we picked herbs and a few veggies to use during the day.
Beth and Patrick ready to cook! We started with grinding our own curry paste. Advice: wear goggles. I got pepper in my eye and had 10 minutes of extreme pain before moving on. Ouch. But tasted great!
Some of our cooking ready to eat. We cooked a few dishes, ate, cooked more, ate more. Delicious and so filling. Everything we made tasted great and I can’t wait to try them at home. I have recipes and am happy to share!
Day 2 we got in a van with another small group headed to the Elephant Nature Park, a reserve for rescued injured or mistreated elephants. The day started with feeding time where we passed bananas and melons right into elephants’s trunks.
One of the injured elephants in the clinic area. She clearly doesn’t like the chain on her foot, but they had to keep her still while they treated her abscess.
This elephant is 76 years old and used to perform. Her human caretaker puts flowers in her old earring hole to dress her up a bit.
We walked the grounds and saw some of the other areas. Here’s a momma and auntie protecting the 4-month old cute baby.
Storage area for lunch. Each elephant eats tons and tons of food every day.
So close to elephants! They wandered past us and we just had to get out of the way. So cool.
We got to splash buckets of water on this lovely lady to help her wash up.
The next elephant over showed off a bit by sitting and rolling around a bit in the water.
After getting clean, they throw dirt right back on themselves. Keeps them cool and comfy.
To top it off – one must-have photo of the baby. We have dozens, but there isn’t space for all of them. 🙂
After some long walks, we made it a rule to not go more than 48 hours without a massage. For just $5-$7/hr, it was a shame not to. Here’s me and Patrick’s legs getting kneaded.
Our little people helped us with local beer and pad thai from an amazing street-side vendor. So fresh and delicious!
Day 3 we spent ziplining through the jungle. After 3 hours of zipping between 38 platforms high in the trees, we hiked to a lovely waterfall. Adrenaline, beautiful views, and hiking!
After ziplining we faced our first con – a man tried to take us to a river cruise we hadn’t reserved. We saw through him and got to our first choice – this traditional scorpion-tailed boat with a guide who told historical stories as we floated down the river.
We did a short walking tour our last day in town, stopping at several temples (and trying to not be too templed-out). This was a cool shrine built in the 700s, with lovely elephants around the edges.
Most of the temple entrances had lovely dragon guards.
We ate a lot of street food, but not this open-air sushi. So many colors and most just 50c per piece.
Some of the best food was at daily festival-type events inside temple grounds. Here are a couple monks in beautiful robes behind the tables.
A temple lunch: banana leaf-wrapped omelette, spring rolls, dim sum, and fresh coconut juice.
Our last night in Chiang Mai we had to change hotels because ours accidentally overbooked. We got upgraded slightly and walked in to find elephant towels on the bed. Cute!
So ends Chiang Mai, half way through the trip. Questions/comments make us super excited, so please leave a note below!
Work starts again tomorrow, so I’ll try to get the other two stops posted within the week.