Chiang Mai - Northern Thailand

Monday 24th Feb.

Our flight to Chiang Mai was at 12pm, only 50 min. in the air.
We had a hard time finding a decent place to stay in Chiang Mai. A lot of budget hotels, but hard to find availbility on the more expensive once (Helle & Jan payed for our accomodation, so we were looking for hot showers and air-con rooms... ;-) Not our normal standards, but well apprciated!).
A few hours went by with finding the right place, and then we all went for a nap. Booked train tickets back to Bangkok, for monday the following week (531 bath per ticket).The night went by with checking out the city and enjoying some nice and spicy food.

Tuesday 25th Feb.

We did a city walk around some of the most famous temples in Chiang Mai (Wat Chedi Luang and Wat Pra Singh). We booked two different tours through a travel agency. First day a sightseeing tour, in a 4x4 truck with private driver, and second day a whole day in an elephant park.
Helle really wanted to try the fish spa (40 bath per person for 15 min), so we all went there and got our dirty feets cleaned by the fishes. It's almost unbearable and tickles like crazy, but it feels nice afterwards. We really had some easy going days, so we were looking forward to do something productive the following days.

Wat Pra Singh

Boring day..?

Young monks enjoying snacks

Wat Chedi Luang

Fish spa, and me telling stories.....

Wednesday 26th Feb.

Finally Erik got over his fever, and it was easy to tell, cause now he started picking on me again... So yeah, he was definitely feeling a lot better!
We got picked up by our driver at 8.30am and started driving up hill, up to Doi Suthep Temple.
On good days it has a very nice view over the city, but every village is burning their gabbage, so there goes the visibility. We got blessed by a monk, and got a bracelet for good luck, which lasts for 3 days. Went to see Mae Sa waterfall, sadly we weren't allowed to swim there, but we had a little walk in the burning sun. After that we went to a monkey show, which was quite impressing actually, so despite that their living conditions weren't the best in the world, it was an okay experience. It was lunch time, and what's better than Pha Thai, with chicken and tofu.
Helle & Jan went to a snake show. We didn't bother seeing another, we saw one in Bangkok last time we were there. The last thing on the schedule were to watch a crocodile show. We got to feed some of them with rare chicken. Not all of them were hungry, that's in some way is a good sign. Then a crazy thai guy was playing around with the crocodiles, teasing them and dragging them around their enclosure, in and out of the water. We couldn't help laughing at him, he was seriously out of his mind. Normally we are very skeptical about things where animals is envolved, but these places looked alright from the outside, and on the other hand, it's Thailand and that's how it is here, we can't change that only the 2 of us. For this whole day we payed 1287 bath per person, for driver and all entrances.
All though we didn't do much exercise, we were all lazy in the afternoon. Just went out to grap some mexican dinner and then we were off to bed.

Doi Suthep temple

Doi Suthep temple, and Helle & Jan

Poor monkey

Poor crocodile

Even more poor crocodile

Monkey School

Croc show

 

Thursday 27th Feb.

I'm sure that we were all pretty excited about this day. We got picked up at our hotel 6.30am, and got transferred to Baan Chang Elephant park. Here we would learn how to be a Mahout (elephant caretaker). There's 36 elephants in the park, they eat 250-300 kg of food everyday, they're all rescued from logging, and from people mistreathing them. For obvious reasons they're kept in chains in the park, but they get on the walking tours several times a day and get 3 showers everyday aswell. First we got some usefull information about the thai elephants, then we got to feed them with sugarcanes and bananas. We walked around the big animals, and tried to get use to them. They were really greedy so if we walked by some with bananas in our hands, that big trunk came out and tried to grap them. I really tested my limits with walking in between these big creatures, and i think Helle did as well.
The next part was practising getting up on the elephants neck, guiding them and being comfortable with the whole situation. Terrifying to begin with, and even worse when they began walking.
Helle barely got up the elephant, before it rised up. She got a bit concerned that next time, when we were going on the real trek, she wouldn't get up proberly, and then might fall... The guide was kind and gave Helle and Jan (We were 2 persons with one elephant) their "limosine" elephant, so she shouldn't worry about it anymore. She sat on the elephants back, which was more comfortable. So off we went on the elephant trek. Erik & I switched place half way, i dunno which place I prefer, on the back the elephants thick hair scratches your legs and on the neck it's really lively, specially walking up and down hill.
We took the elephants to the river and got some skills in bathing and washing the them. Then it was time to say goodbye to this incredible huge animal. This was such an unreal experience, and they seem unbelieveable big when you stand right next to them (watch me being a chicken in the video). We all had a amazing time with the elephants, and it's definitely a day that we will never forget, and always look back at with a big smile on our faces. This whole experience was only 2400 bath per person. We were all exhausted when we got back to the hotel, so we had a little relaxing time.
At night we went out to watch Muay Thai boxing. Something that you HAVE to see, while in Thailand, and it's great fun. The funniest thing was the surprise round, where 6 guys got in the ring, blindfolded, and then started fighting against each other. The most stupid thing we've ever seen.. And still we couldn't stop laughing of them. They really used all their power and hit each other in some serious dangeous places.. Oh my buddha it was as scary and funny as it gets.
Went straight to bed after a perfect day with lots of excitement and lots of fun.

Guess an animal....

Enjoying the cold river

Baan Chang Elephant Park

Muay Thai Boxing