Day 53 (Apr 27, 2013): Chiang Mai, Thailand Part III: Baan Chang Elephant Park

The Quick Facts:

* Spent the day at the Baan Chang Elephant Park, a rescue organization that buys elephants who are either being mistreated/abused or worked in the logging trade on the Thailand/Myanmar border (for which it is illegal to use elephants)
* During the day, we got to feed the elephants, ride them (bareback!), and then bathe them

The Good:

* The whole day!  We had an excellent time and the elephants are really sweet animals.

The Bad:

* Nothing.  Although the hairs on the elephants are quite rough (Carrie says they need some conditioner), so they don’t feel that great.  But, not a huge deal in the grand scheme of the experience.

Another “thing to do” while in Chiang Mai is to go to an elephant sanctuary to learn about and interact with elephants.  There are many companies that do this, so it was important to find one that a) rescues elephants, b) provides them with a good home, and c) designed a program that does not exploit the elephants in any way.  Carrie did a great job in hitting all three categories!

 

When you get there, they give you a uniform for the day.  It also gives us a glimpse into what Carrie would like if she ever goes to prison one day….

 

First you feed the elephants, who are vegetarians and really like bananas and sugar cane.  Check out all those bananas!

 

And here are some elephants and us feeding them….

 

Next on the agenda was teaching us all how to ride the elephants.  Here I am…a natural!

 

And here are a few pictures from our actual ride.  I started out sitting behind Carrie (as instructed by the elephant people)…

 

…and now I’m driving the bus!

 

Finally, we took the elephants down to the lake for their bath, which they really enjoyed.  The elephant that Carrie and I rode just went into the lake, laid down on her side, and waited for us to come with our brushes and buckets.  We had a lot of fun!

 

 

 

 

And that was our day.  Here are a couple other elephant pics.  This is the house they stay in:

 

 The working end of an elephant, oh my!

 

Scratch scratch scratch

 

Check out those tusks (well, just the one tusk but you get the idea)!

 

And finally, before we got to the park, we stopped at this business that makes paper out of…you guessed it, elephant poop!  I’m adding that to my list of “things to make out of my own poop when I get back to the US”.  Now you can have your coffee and read the morning paper, all courtesy of Andy Donaldson’s dinner last night.

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Day 52 (Apr 26, 2013): Chiang Mai, Thailand Part II: Thai Massage and Cooking Class

The Quick Facts:

* Our rest day, which meant not setting the alarm (yes, I know, a thousand small violins are all starting to play for us from our friends reading this at their desks at work), getting a Thai massage (hey, when in Rome, err, Thailand), and then doing a cooking class to learn how to make Thai food
* The cooking class was with Siam Rice Thai Cookery school, a great outfit – they pick you up at your hotel, take you to a local market and explain what’s going on, then guide you through preparing your own dishes (which you select from a “menu”); the chef who worked with us spoke great English and helped us make some amazing Thai food (if I do say so myself!)

The Good:

* The cooking class, the “thing to do” while in Chiang Mai, was a lot of fun

The Bad:

* Still not a fan of massages

Today was our rest day, which meant not setting our alarm (yeah yeah, people groaning as they view this blog with their bosses yelling at them), and heading out for a traditional Thai massage.  Shops for this are ubiquitous in Chiang Mai, but we settled on this one:

“Deep Relax”.  I can confirm there was nothing “deep” nor “relaxing” about my experience.  This is not the scene of the crime, rather a chair in the lobby.  Obviously we couldn’t take pictures of the event.  It had ben roughly five years since my last (and only) Thai massage, so this experience was able to confirm a few things for me: a) there are some mean old Thai woman out there, and they all seem to be Thai masseuses; there’s something not right with them, they like putting people in pain (like dentists), b) if you get a Thai massage you are basically paying someone to beat the living daylights out of you, and somehow this is supposed to be enjoyable and therefore the basis for a very large and lucrative industry, c) my body does not twist or bend in a lot of directions that it is apparently supposed to, as my Thai crazy lady masseuse repeatedly (and audibly) chuckled to herself when I couldn’t do something she wanted me to, and d) I still don’t like to be touched by strangers; Carrie says this makes me like Bob from that Bill Murray movie “What About Bob?”  So be it.

 

Night time was way more fun.  We hooked up with Siam Rice Thai Cookery School for an evening class that included four dishes: a soup of our choosing, a noodle dish of our choosing, a curry of our choosing, and a stir fry of our choosing.  First, we started with a trip to a Thai market:

At the school, they set you up with a cutting board, a huge knife (careful!), and an apron with an elephant on it.

 

Then, you get to work chopping and then cooking your first two dishes.  I made a Chicken Coconut soup (which was amazing if I do say so myself, my favorite of the whole night) and Pad Thai.

 

 

 

Carrie was put in charge of preparing the Turkey….

 

Just kidding.  After eating our first two dishes, we set out making our own curry paste, which involves a mortar pestle to grind all of these ingredients into a fine paste:

 

And those are all the pictures I have because in my food coma I forgot to take some of our last two dishes.  Woops.  But here’s our group, which included two nice people from Sweden and one girl from Switzerland.  Thai dinner at my place when I get back to the States for whoever wants it!

 

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Day 51 (Apr 25, 2013): Chiang Mai, Thailand Part I: City Sites and Muay Thai Boxing

The Quick Facts:

* Took the overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai
* Spent our first day touring the Chiang Mai city sites, including Wat Phra Singh and Doi Suthep
* Went to a Muay Thai boxing match, which was very entertaining
* Stayed at Baan Klang Vieng, a lovely hostel in the old city (great location!) run by a great husband and wife team with two extremely adorable kids, I would highly recommend if you’re ever in the area!

The Good:

* Chiang Mai is a wonderful city – big enough where there is a lot going on, but also laid back and not nearly as nutty as the other Asian cities we’ve been to

The Bad:

* Nothing, truly.  This city should be on everyone's travel list.

Our trip to Chiang Mai began in Bangkok on the overnight train.  Here are some pictures of our train and our sleeping berth (which we shared with another couple from England, Al and Alice, who are extremely nice and that we hope to see again in England (somehow I managed not to get a picture of them on my camera…Carrie’s got one though, and yes I’m too lazy to get it from her):

Finally, we arrived in Chiang Mai!

 

After settling into our hotel, Carrie and I set about the town, first stop was Wat Phra Singh, supposedly the best Wat in the city.  It was beautiful, but I think I’m “watted out” at this point.  Anyhoo, here are some pictures:

 

 

 

 

 (These garden gnomes were in the Wat...not sure what they add to the religious experience, although they did star in my nightmares for a few days...)

We then headed up into the mountains to check out Doi Suthep, which is the mountain that rises from Chiang Mai and contains Wat Phra That Doi Suthep.  This was worth the trip: the Wat is beautiful, provide a way for people to interact with the monks, and the views of the city below are great.

 

Note: this is called a songthaew, it's a shared taxi that looks like a fire engine.

 

(The long set of stairs leading up to the temple and the good views)

 

 

 

 

After dinner, we went with our new friends Al and Alice to a Muay Thai boxing match.  Highly entertaining.  The first fight was between 10 year olds, which made me really scared I was funding some sort of child exploitation operation, but their Moms were both there and they were having fun.  We have little league right?  Anyway, here are some pics of the adults, including a woman’s match with a Canadian who kicked butt, go Canada eh? (NB I do have a video of this that I will try to upload when I have a better internet connection -- my attempts to date have failed.)

 

 

 

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