Chiang Mai, more than elephants

I am behind! But it's so hard, there is so much going on it's tough to write about it all. Plus, when you get home from a trip you are too exhausted to do anything...Anyway, Chiang Mai was Amazing. I know I say that about basically everywhere I have been so far, but I mean it this time. Having been in India for 3+ weeks it was nice to have a bit of a change of pace/culture/environment, oh, and FOOD.

I don't think I've ever appreciated Thai food more. Thing is, in India, they love their spice, they love it so much that they dump all of it in every dish. Seriously, it's all spicey, it all kind of tastes similar (sorry if this makes me sound like i have a very unrefined palate, but it's true, ask anyone not from India). In Thailand, they like their spice, but every dish is a little different. They also can put spice and flavor into things without making it so heavy you need a nap after you eat it.



That said, Thailand was the first place I got tummy sick--but we'll leave that story for later.

So we arrived Saturday morning, after a 3 hour redeye, three hours in the Bangkok Airport where we fell asleep at the table of the cafe at 5am, and a quick 50 min flight to Chiang Mai--keep in mind, we were fed meals on each flight. Hindu meals nonetheless--someone at Carlson Wagonlit was having fun with us.

My met us at the airport and we headed to our tranquil guest house--CM Blue House.

Our rooms weren't quite ready yet, but we needed to arrange our driver Gary for the next day. He couldn't hear Jason on the phone, so he just came over. The same happened with Dr. Pimpant, the coordinator for my friend Andrew's Orphans Against Aids scholarship program in Chiang Mai. We were excited not only to be tourists this weekend, but visit the school and meet the kids he is helping support. Andrew was happy because we could do some scouting work for him to see if he should divert more funds to the kids in Fang Village.

Once we organized our day for Sunday, we organized our Saturday afternoon--Elephants! We'd meet Gary in a few hours, and visit the Mesa Elephant Camp. From there see some long neck tribes, and whatever other touristy stuff he could come up with.

Apparently, we needed to add meal number 3 before 2pm, so before heading to see Elephants, we went to get coffee and more food. Tom Yum Soup is yum. Just enough spice, good warm broth to fix the cold I was nursing, and wide rice noodles. Went perfectly with the ice cream/coffee drink.

After lunch we piled into the fancy SUV Gary brought us and headed north. I was tired and as usual fell asleep in the car. Thanks Mom for putting me in my carseat and driving me around as a baby to put me to sleep, seriously, I'm in moving vehicle for more than 10 min and I pass out...


Jason and My had the back seat, they stayed awake.

So we arrived at the Elephant camp, and after a quick confusion about how many elephants to get and who was paying for what elephant (bet you've never argued with anyone over how many elephants you needed) we entered the camp, bought some bananas to feed to our friendly packaderms and watched them bathing!



Of course, there wasn't just watching, there was riding too--but you already saw that picture. Fun times, although it wasn't so fun when Priz and I got our feet snotted on by an elephant trunk that had just been sniffing his friend's bum--aaah animals. The most amazing part was how well trained our Elephant was. His trainer talked to him and he did what he said! (well, presumably, I don't speak Thai, but apparently elephants do). When the trainer hopped off to take our picture the elephant followed him! Then he said what must have been stay, and he stopped, then the trainer joked with us that he wasn't getting back on and just told the elephant to come, and we were riding solo...

After elephants Gary wanted to take us to a tribal village, but they wanted to charge us 500 Baht, and it was a fake village! We weren't in to that. So we headed instead to Wat Doi Suthep a crazy ornate temple on a hill overlooking the city. Lots of steps to the top, and then a biiiig golden temple. It was nice, but super crowded since it's a big tourist attraction.


Long first day! Time for cocktails. To the riverfront we went, the Good View Restaurant (such an original name, right next to the River Front restuarant) where the girls (and Brian) got a fruity cocktail served in a carved out pineapple, lots of spring rolls, and more great Thai food.


After driving around in a fancy SUV all day, we needed to come down to earth, so we decided to take a tuk-tuk. Just one. For five of us. Awesome.

Looks cozy, doesn't it?

Ok, this is taking far longer than i thought, and tomorrow is a non-holiday monday (in the States they are celebrating George Washington's birthday...I will write about the rest of the trip soon, I promise.