Chiang Mai
Trip Start
Jun 19, 2008
1
8
26
Trip End
Ongoing
Chiang Mai,
Thailand
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Later that night we hit up the infamous night market. Stalls selling everything from t-shirts to scarves, silk, illegal dvds, watches, you name it line the streets making it sometimes difficult to weave your way through all of the buyers and sellers. Haggling is the name of the game here. Joe did quite well with a t-shirt, cutting the price by over 50%. It is at the night market that Angie and I also discovered a divinely delicious treat called Mango and Sticky Rice. Sweet sticky rice topped with fresh cut mango all drizzled with coconut milk
Train station
. It doesn't get much better than that! The following day we were picked up in a minibus and had our own driver/tour guide for a wonderful trip to Mae Sa elephant camp. On the way there we stopped at an orchid and butterfly farm. Although this didn't really interest us, it ended up being pretty fun - mainly because Joe had to wear an orchid pinned on to his shirt just like everyone else who entered the farm and because a butterfly happened to land on Angie's head for a few minutes. The orchids were big, beautiful, and plentiful; the butterflies not so much.
Mae Sa elephant camp was absolutely fantastic! When we arrived we got to watch the baby elephants being bathed in the river. They loved the water and would just plop down on their sides and play with each other. Then we went to the elephant show which was one of the best things I have ever seen! The elephants played soccer, two of them kicking the ball to the goal and another as a goalie. They would beat their trunks on the ground before they kicked and when they scored they would take a bow and swing their trunks around in a big circle. They also painted pictures. Their trainers would give them brushes and they would paint with their trunks. All of the paintings were very good, especially considering that elephants painted them. Some of them did flowers, another a heart that said "love you mom," and the one in front of us drew the Olympic rings and some stick figure Olympians. In addition to the painting and soccer playing, the elephants also played harmonicas with their trunks
The first piece of indistinguishable food
. Honestly, neither this recap nor the photos do it justice. It was so much fun! We were able to buy a few of the elephant paintings in the gift shop afterwards.After the show our guides took us to a handicrafts store (Like the orchid and butterfly farm we did not know this was part of the trip. Tour guides get a little commission for taking people to these somewhat out of the way places, but hey, it was still fun and we just saw it as an extra bonus) We heard about the making of oriental rugs there. Some of them can take 5 years or more to make. No way that I would have the patience for that! Apparently it is also good to walk on them as this makes the rugs shinier and stronger. Then we went to an elephant dung paper making place. Interesting fact learned there: because of elephants' diets, their dung doesn't smell. Who knew. The paper was pretty neat and they had lots of cool little notebooks and things made from the dung.
Finally, we went back to Mae Sa elephant camp for our elephant rides! We sat in little seats on the elephants' backs while a trainer sat right behind the ears. It was great fun, though we were glad our seat had a bar in front of it because elephant footsteps are really big. Sometimes it felt almost like a rollercoaster when the elephant had only taken one step down into the mud. This day was definitely a highlight of the trip.
That night we hit up the night market again. It's so big that we felt we hadn't gotten to see enough of it on the first night
Wat
. Angie and I also enjoyed more mango and sticky rice. We went to a bar later where two Thai girls did a few dances that were very odd and slightly comical. It seemed like a traditional dance, but to modern techno music and the girls did not look happy to be there. One of them kept yawning as well. We didn't stay very long. After a few more drinks we decided Mike's Original Hamburgers looked enticing and ate what was probably- normally-not-very-good-but-at-the-time-was-delicious hamburgers and cheesy fries.A little anecdote: At one point walking down a side alleyway an old man on a bicycle was behind us. Instead of honking a horn, saying excuse me or some other word in Thai, or just going around us, he calls out in a sing-song tone of a bell, "ring ting ting." It was great, maybe you had to be there.
We spent the rest of our time in Chiang Mai walking around, enjoying the scenery, food/lots of fruit shakes, trying to catch the Olympics when we could. The problem here being that since Asian countries seem to dominate in weight lifting and badminton, this was often what they showed. We also took several tuk tuks to get around the city. These are kind of like golf carts, function as taxis, and are quite fun! Chiang Mai is a great city. Pretty, friendly, more low-key than Bangkok, cleaner, and fantastic overall!
Interesting note: the Queen's birthday was on August 12th. There were lots of displays and decorations set up around Chiang Mai and Bangkok. Because the Queen is viewed as the mother of all Thai people, this day is the Thai Mother's Day as well.
Comments
we need more!!
You know, some people are living mundane and boring lives Stateside and need to have some sort of diversion to get us through the days. Don't make me turn to a cabana boy for some distractions!! Update us on your adventures! We need it!!
...not that i know of any cabana boys, anyway. That point is moot, you know what i mean.