Patara

Our day at Patara Elephant Farm was one of the highlights of our trip, hands down.

We were picked up from our hotel promptly at 7:30am and driven to the farm, then spent the rest of the day interacting with elephants. The theme of the day was that we would become "elephant caretakers" for the day - so we were each assigned an elephant and taught how to look after these gentle giants. But really it just felt like fun (once we got over the fear of being squashed by one of them)!

First stop of the day: hanging out with a new mother and her 10-day old baby.

Snapped a picture with the family.

Then Sarah sat down and played with the baby for a while. He was surprisingly playful for only 10 days old!

We fed the elephants - here I am giving Lekho some bananas.

Then bathed them.

They could lay down and get up on command - Meemai was happy to let us snap a picture with her while she was lounging on the ground.

Close up with Lekho post-shower.

After an hour break for lunch, we were instructed on the three ways to mount an elephant, none of which are very easy (and not very graceful for first timers). Once we were all successfully perched on our elephants, we began the hour-long hike through the forest to a waterfall.

Lekho hardly seemed to notice me up there.

Almost time to cool off in the water.

When we got down to the water, the elephants were quick to jump right in - it was a hot day and they wanted to cool off! We joined them after a few minutes to help scrub them down.

Once we'd finished cleaning them, the trainers lined up the elephants behind us and, predictably, they sprayed us. Even though we were all pretty much expecting it, the cold water was still a bit of a shock!

One last picture of just the two of us getting sprayed.

After waiting a few minutes for the photographer to load all these photos onto a CD for us, we were headed back to our hotel in Patara's shuttle bus. The day was not over for us, though. Sarah wisely assumed we'd be a little sore after the long day with elephants so she booked us a two-hour Thai massage right afterward. The massage was the perfect way to end the day - very different than other massages we've gotten, but it left us feeling very limber and relaxed!

Spending today with the elephants at Patara was really a bucket list moment. We had such an incredible experience and cannot recommend it highly enough to everyone!

Chiang Mai

The 12-hour overnight train ride to Chiang Mai was actually not nearly as bad as I feared. Our accommodations were basic but Alex and I both managed to get some sleep before arriving right on time at 8am.

We hailed a songthaew (basically a combination between a small pick-up truck and a tuk-tuk) and in no time we were relaxing, eating breakfast at our hotel in the old city. After showering, we mapped out a walking tour of the city and set out to explore the many historic temples nearby.

The entrance to Wat Phra Singh Woramahaviharn.

Monks in training...

Lots of elephants and Buddhas in Chiang Mai.

The beautiful Wat Chiang Man.

We quickly realized that Chiang Mai is far more manageable than Bangkok - not only is it much smaller geographically, there are fewer people and less cars. The sights were easily viewed by walking around and there were ample restaurants and shops everywhere.
For dinner we headed in the direction of the night bazaar and ended up at a restaurant called Mammary Delicious (we wondered about the name choice too). Afterward we grabbed beers and explored the night markets for a bit, scoring a couple of elephant t-shirts for a very reasonable $3.

Today we woke up planning to start the day with a hike to Doi Suthep, a nearby temple perched on top of the area's highest mountain. Unfortunately, hiking appears to be something of little interest to most Thai people and we really couldn't find any suitable maps or guidance. We settled for a songteaw ride to the temple and back (a beautiful temple but completely overrun with tourists - we much preferred the less-traveled temples we saw in town) and spent the afternoon wrapping up some travel logistics for our upcoming time in Vietnam.

Standing in front of the Doi Suthep stairs. We seriously had to wait over 10 minutes just for this crowded shot.

The temple was pretty cool once we got to the top.

One of the less-visited Buddhas within the temple.

We've seen a handful of temples that display a different Buddha for each day of the week.

Everyone else was so busy with the main temple that they paid no attention to this "side temple."

At 4pm we were picked up for our evening activity - a Thai cooking class at Zabb E Lee cooking school. We spent five hours with Ann,  the owner / instructor, visiting the local market, creating a menu and cooking and eating. We learned a lot about Thai food in general and also that pad Thai - one of my favorite dishes - is actually not made with nuts, but is only garnished with peanuts at the end, meaning Alex can eat it! Ann was a great teacher and our four dishes all turned out to be delicious. What a great way to spend the evening!

First stop of the cooking class: buying ingredients from the local market.

Not the best quality image but the only one our Chef took while we were actually cooking!

Armed and ready to cook.

Tomorrow we head to Patara Elephant Farm for the day and I expect this to be the highlight of our time in Chiang Mai!