We landed in Chiang Mai at about 11:40 am on Thursday. There we were met by a driver sent over from our hotel. We're staying at the Vanilla Place and this place was the best find. It is truly a little hidden treasure. The rooms are comfortable, but what really makes it special is the couple who own it. They are absolutely the most helpful and accommodating people. We are definitely enjoying our stay. Yesterday once we got here we took a truck down a road and looked at some factories and saw how thai silk was made, a gem and silver shop and a few other things. We then wandered around a night market and I bought a wonderful handmade quilt. Dad and Mom needed a break from Thai food, and guess where we ate for dinner....Pizza Hut. (i'm not kidding) Then we headed in, made arrangements for Friday and called it a night.
Friday, wow, it's been quite the day. We woke up and at 7 am were in the back of a truck headed to an Elephant Conservation Camp called Maetaman Elephant Camp. It was a wonderful camp. We started with getting up close and personal with the elephants and got to ride them around for a few minutes totally bare back and then watched as they painted a pictures and kicked soccer balls around (...this really happened). We then went on about a 30 or 45 minute elephant riding trek where they took us to a little hill tribe market. We then took an ox cart back to the camp for lunch. (The ox looked like a weird breed of cow/camel/droopy rabbit ears...they were strange) We had a delicious lunch (Khao Soi is SO GOOD!!) We then got on a Bamboo raft and headed down the river. Sounds like a pretty good day right....it's not even close to being over yet. We then went to the Tiger Kingdom. There we got to play with baby two baby tigers and got to be inside with 3 HUGE tigers. Did you know the big tigers sleep 18 hours a day? Needless to say the baby tigers were much more playful. We finished up the day by visiting a monkey camp where we got to play with this adorably tiny baby monkey and feed a bunch or really obnoxious grown up ones. We headed back to the hotel and had dinner at a really good restaurant called Lemongrass.
The next day we went up to Chiang Rai & the Golden Triangle where Burma, Thailand and Laos meet. It was a lot of driving but definitely worth it. We got to see the White temple, the hill tribes, and ate amazing Burmese Curry. We then packed up our bags and got ready to head back to Bangkok to head home.
I wish we would have taken pictures of me an my ridiculous about of baggage at the airport because it was quite the site, especially because my bags were bright red and striped. But the flight went well and we are now safe at home. (Oh, I got a lovely welcome back to America as i almost got hit by a car coming out of LAX...definitely my fault I wasn't looking for a light, in Asia you just walk) Needless to say I've got some reverse culture shock coming my way.
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