Checked out and headed out to barter with a taxi to get to the Don Meung Arpt for our 1 hour domestic flight North to Chiang Mai. What started out to be a 600 Bhat ride we managed to get down to 300, toll included. 45 mins to Arpt thru back alleys, and short cuts of all kinds. Thank goodness there is no road rage here or it would get very nasty. The driving by cabs , bikers and tuk tuks is best described as insane! Drivers remain calm and unfazed by the constant cut offs. Kristen in the back seat feeling car sick decided to do a quick seat change with Tracy in the front seat. While stopped at a red light both our doors coming open almost knocked a motorbiker off his bike as he was swerving to go around us. "So sorry"...our cab driver shaking his head, then smiling really not sure what we were doing. Nodding yes to all our questions!
On a side note, really not sure I could get use to this whole spray gun concept in the washroom and the lack of toilet paper in the public washrooms. This combined with the high humidity make in my mind a bad combination.....
Flight smooth and just over an hour. Arrived to a very very hot and humid Chiang Mai. Our hotel is quaint and quiet since it is off season. Unpacked and set out on foot to check out the surrounding area. Rain moved In and after a small shower the humidity rose higher. Lunch at a small cafe down the road from hotel and then headed out for a walk to find a park. Recognizing the park was much further than we thought we took a tuk tuk and lazed around at park for an hour. Back to hotel to research the plans for tomorrow's excursion. Kristen and Chelsey had supper at a Japanese restaurant while Tracy walked down the road for a take out pizza (stomach just needing something familiar). Off to a 7 eleven to get some breakfast food as our excursion departs at 6:30am. This was a day of culture shock, exhaustion, heat overload and just not settling in. A lesson learnt...trying to do too much in an environment we are not yet adjusted too.
April 30
Up by 530 to prepare for our Elephant jungle sanctuary excursion. Departed by 6:30 (try to get moving before the intense heat and we are waking so early anyway). The promised A/C minivan is an open air half ton truck with seats in the back and a roof. The one hour drive to the sanctuary is actually 2 hours one way of which our friendly driver promises only 20% will be rough while the other 60% smooth??....okay it is Thailand. We pick up 4 others and begin the journey.
Arriving to our destination off the beaten path we were excited to find 5 tame and friendly female elephants of which 1 is a baby. After a brief lesson on elephants -the differences between Asian elephants and African elephants and how to feed them we are given bunches of bananas and head off to meet them. It was so exhilarating to stand in front and beside these beautiful animals to feed and pet them. We move with the elephants down to the mud pool to pat them down with mud to cool them. Yes we played in the mud pool and rub the lying elephants with mud. Our guides were happy go lucky guys who had great fun playing in the mud and made sure we were all interacting. One elephant dropped a load in this mud hole and the guide scooped up as much as possible with a laundry basket!! The elephants love to have mud rubbed over their thick skin to keep them cool during the day.
I'm pretty sure the mud hole was 50% mud, 30% elephant dung And the rest elephant pee ..
The guides thought they were pretty silly rubbing mud/dung on our backs and splashing us with water.. Even though we knew we were sitting in a pile of mud, we still had lots of fun!! "When in Rome"...
From here we move to the river where we wash the elephants off and play in the cool water with the elephants. The elephants return back to base camp and we head to the waterfall. The sign says "no swimming". Our guide points this out and then says this means ...we can swim! Yah. So refreshing. Kristen heads up the side of the waterfall to jump in...twice. We swim and wash ourselves off and head up from the falls to eat a tasty Thai lunch. We are beyond happy with our morning and are Sooo happy that we chose to take a tour that did not condone riding the elephants as Continuous riding breaks down the elephants backs.
After our elephant excursion we hung out by the pool to read and relax.
Took a couple showers and a swim to feel that the elephant dung is cleaned off our bodies. Hah a..
Chilling by the pool was great, we had it to ourselves. Super cute. Then it started to rain. But we sat under shelter by the pool and enjoyed the rain. Read and swam. We are settling into vacation mode..
We found a neat street lined with restaurants, hostels and travel agencies.
The mango shakes are yyuuummmyy and a must-have with every meal!! Prime mango time :)
The rain was refreshing, we were zonked and in bed by 8:30
A full day! It was such a great experience
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