Next stop Chiang Mai

Next stop Chiang Mai…

We left Bangkok, with not a minute to spare. Our taxi driver didn’t seem to understand (or maybe he didn’t care?) we were headed to the airport and took the slowest possible route. It turns out that we were pretty sure he took that route so he could get in his afternoon nap. He fell asleep at all the stop lights. OMgosh!!!

Anyway, back to Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai is North of Bangkok and can best be described as a mountainous jungle. Chiang Mai made it in to the 2012 list of "25 Best Destinations in the World” by Trip Advisor. I would have to agree, it is very beautiful. The highest mountains in the country are here. 

This is a picture taken out of the city where we had dinner one night.

The weather was quite a bit cooler and actually quite pleasant.Chiang Mai is the largest and most culturally significant city in Northern Thailand. The city is along the Ping River. There is a very old wall with a moat built around the original city. Most of the wall has fallen into disarray, but the moat is still full of water.

The moat. You can see two fisherman. One is using a bamboo stick and the other is using line and a hook only.

 I believe the wall and moat were built in 1296. There are rumors that Chiang Mai is a contender for the World Expo 2020.

The only piece of the original wall that we found. This went all the way around the city originally.

On our first day we decided to go zip lining. None of us had done this before. We went with a company called Flight of the Gibbon. So the monkeys we had been hiding from the previous day at the zoo lived in the jungle we were now going to be “flying” through the trees with. Fun! The course was situated in a 1,500-year old rainforest. We flew under the canopy of the trees often and it was very beautiful. Our tour guide named Cash taught us about safety and made the experience really fun.

This is Cash. He was our guide, he was a crack up.

This picture gives you the general idea of the landscape and the long lengths we flew. You can see below Riley to the left is another line we went on too. 

One of the suspension bridges we crossed. SOOO long and cool.

Loved this tree and the platform.

Co-flying!

 We flew through 5 km of ziplines and across 24 different platforms, sky bridges and lowering stations.

 We heard monkeys occasionally, but we never saw any, too bad. After ziplining for hours we went on a small hike up to a local waterfall.

Ta-da, here's the "waterfall". It was pretty.

 And our day ended with a nice meal in the local restaurant with live musicians playing local music for us. Actually our day ended with another crazy driver. This particular driver was from the tour company and he put in a cartoon in the portable DVD player for the “Kids”. He left it plugged in on the front console.  All I could see in the rear view mirror was his smiling eyes. He smiled nearly the entire trip, then I realized it was because he was watching the tv and not the road. He laughed at all the really corny scenes (that were in Thai by the way, so I don’t really think it was for the kids.  Another Omgosh moment!

Second day of Chiang Mai is elephants. This is what Claire has been waiting for, if we just experienced elephants and then went home Claire would have thought it was enough. Turns out it was a highlight for all of us. We decided to go to a place called Baan Chang Elephant sanctuary. We chose this place because we learned that many of the “Tricks” elephants do are not natural for them and could be considered abuse;  this company buys previously abused or sick elephants to save. They have quite a chunk of land for the animals to live. Several baby elephants have been born here and they are allowed to stay with the mother, which I guess isn’t the norm.  Upon arriving at Baan’s sanctuary the first thing I noticed is the connection between the 20 or so elephants and their trainers, mahouts. There seems to be an incredible bond.

The first thing we do is change into our “Uniforms”. They are not very attractive, but they keep our clothes clean and if I understood correctly it also protects us so the elephants aren’t triggered by previous experiences because of the way some one is dressed. 

Baby elephant and our lovely uniforms.

Then our guide tells us about all the elephants, their care and some of their individual stories. We are told to stay away from a couple because of various reasons. One is blind in one eye and we are taught how to safely approach that elephant. Next we are given baskets of sugar cane to feed to the elephants. We walk around with our small group and all independently feed various elephants. The elephants know the drill. They beg, they try to charm you with their eyes, they EAT and eat and eat and eat some more. Turns out elephants basically eat, sleep, exercise and poop all day. That’s it and they are happy. There are two different baby elephants that are very sweet. We really enjoy meeting all the elephants.. Watching the mahouts climb around and interact with their elephants looks so natural, they reminded me of Mowgli from the Jungle book.

Training for our walk through the jungle

Next it is our turn to learn how to ride and train the elephants. We learn how to mount the elephants. We will ride them bare back.

Claire isn't having a good time at all.

Riley and Aiden with their mahouts.

 I am thankful for the uniform long pants since their hairs are quite thick and bristly. After our brief introduction it is time for our hour long ride through the hilly jungle. We are in a group with another family; we are each in groups of two on each elephant. Claire and I ride together, the boys ride together and Jeff has his own elephant. Claire rides on the front by the neck and I ride further on the back. It is amazing! The elephants are very focused on eating. They stop often to nibble on bamboo. At one point one of the elephants signals to one of the trainers that there is a humming bird. Apparently the trainers like to chase after the humming birds and try to catch them. The trainers all go running off in the woods leaving us with the elephants. The elephants love this because now they can eat and aren’t accountable to the trainers anymore. This moment really did seem like a scene out of a movie about natives. The young men were all running through the jungle, dodging, jumping and yelling with laughter and trying to catch the bird. They didn’t have a chance. I thought it was funny the elephants signaled to the trainer that the bird was there though. Anyway, we continue on, uphill, downhill at a leisurely pace. It turns out it is an incredible amount of work to stay on an elephants back side going downhill. They elephant we had swayed her hips when she went downhill and I nearly was bounced right off several times. The trainer held one of my legs so I didn’t bounce off. Elephants are also quite wide, obviously, but when you are riding one for nearly an hour it can be quite hard on the hips. Half way through we stop for an elephant free break and Claire and I trade positions. She rides on the back with a mahout and I ride in the front by the neck. The elephant we had liked to wrap her ears around your legs and she gets amazingly hot. It’s a sort of cool feeling with her ears around your legs, but wow I was hot.

The final part of our elephant time is spent leading them to a pond for a bath.

Baths for all. This elephant grabbed a big snack before heading to the water. LOL

 Our elephant couldn’t decide which side she wanted to lay on so she kept shifting back and forth; a little scary since she is enormous. By the time we finally can get close enough to brush her and splash her with water Claire and I are completely covered in pond water. Remember what I said elephants do, well this pond is full of the evidence. They seem like this is the place to let it all out. There are floating turds everywhere. It doesn’t smell and we just push the floaters out of the way. Our elephant decides to fill her trunk with water and spray it up in the air. She’s a spunky one with a fun personality. The guide explained that the elephants love their baths and it is a way of thanking them for the jungle trek.

Following this poop bath we are lead to the real showers where we enjoy a cleansing shower and change back into our clean clothes. Next we enjoy a nice traditional Thai meal that they provide. This was an incredible day. I thought it couldn’t get any better than zip lining, but I think this was another one of those once in a lifetime experience days. Two in a row!!

Our final day in Chiang Mai was only a partial day since we had to fly to Phuket next. We decided to explore the village by tuk-tuk. 

This is the Chiang Mai tuk-tuks, they called them Red Tops. There are some regular tuk-tuks, but these were more comfortable for our family of five.

We found a lovely flower market

LOVED the flower market. Beautiful flowers as far as you could see. Claire was in heaven.

One of the many views of the market. Amazing amount of stuff crammed in a very small space. 

 and a local market where we could get hand crafted goods.

 Their specialty were amazing wood sculptures, Buddhist art and statues, furniture, lamps, paintings, carvings, toys, souvenirs, rattan work, candles, soap, silverware and jewelry, fabric and woven products, ceramics, sandstone murals… the list is endless.

I forgot to mention our incredible hotel.

The front of our hotel. Three floors of grandness tucked into a residential area.

 We stayed in a partially enclosed hotel room. The bathroom had a full size Jacuzzi with an open deck overlooking the view.

One of the views from our hotel. Sweet little neighborhood.

This is our bath with an open deck to the swimming pool below. The curtain is the only screen.

  It had the most beautiful furnishing and architecture. We were situated in the middle of a small neighborhood off the beaten path. It seemed like they built it right in a residential area. There were houses all around us. Both of the tours we went on picked us up by van and we rode with families from other hotels. Every time they were in awe of our hotel because it was so beautiful and out of the ordinary. Several got out of the van and came into take a quick tour of our place because it was so amazing looking.