Asian Adventures, Part 2: Chiang Mai, Thailand!!

As mentioned in the previous post, we arrived in Chiang Mai, Thailand in the late evening & our tour guide, Lek, & his wife took us to eat some Thai food for dinner. They explained to us what our Monday adventures were going to be like. We were so excited! They took us to our hotel & we checked in around midnight. The next day, was fantastic!

Centara Khum Phaya Resort & Spa

We got up with enough time to get dressed & eat some breakfast. The breakfast bar at our hotel was fantastic! Several kinds of bread & rolls, almost every fruit you can think of, bacon, sausage, waffles, yogurt, cereal, & even omelets! There was also traditional Asian breakfast foods too. We ate a lot & enjoyed it. After a double check that we had everything we needed for the day, we headed out to the lobby to meet our tour guide.

Pool view from our room.

Can't even see the other end! View
from the restaurant.

Natural scenery at the hotel was
beautiful.

It was about an hour+ ride to get into the jungle. The ride was beautiful once we got into the jungle. We passed some elephants on the way. Then we were dropped off to go hiking to see a couple of beautiful water falls, & again, we passed some elephants on the way. We got a lovely view of one of them peeing & pooping right in front of us. Ever seen an elephant pee? It's like a waterfall! Then we continued the rest of the way to the sight where we'd be eating lunch & feeding elephants.

Caution, elephants!

Our first elephant crossing by foot.

Waterfalls on our hike.

The 4 of us & Lek.

Once we made it up to the sight, we rested a bit & had some fruit for a snack. About a half hour later, some elephants made it back & it was our turn to have a ride! Between the 4 of us, we were given 2 sacks of bananas for each of our elephants (one couple = one elephant). The bananas were something Lek provided us with & other people that were there were giving us dirty looks because they didn't get to feed their elephants some bananas on the ride. Our elephants would beg for bananas about every 3-4 steps! At times they would huff at us when we didn't give them one. We tried hard to make them last the whole trip! When we ran out we kept saying the faster you walk, the sooner you'll get more bananas! At times our elephants were temperamental & wouldn't move without receiving another banana.

Elephant ride!

Beautiful view on our ride.

It was hard reaching to give the elephants their bananas.

John riding on the neck!

Jude & Dodi's elephant kept trying to steal our bananas!

Nicole on the neck!

Having so much fun!!!

Banana relaying.

When we made it back to the sight, we were feeding all the elephants a laundry basket full of bananas. We were playing with them, petting them, feeding them, & feeling their tongues! Their tongues are so smooth! There was one hard-headed elephant that wouldn't eat the banana unless it was peeled for her! Such high maintenance animals.

Enjoying lots of elephant company.

After we went through all of the bananas we washed up a bit from our muddiness & started to cook some Thai food! Lek's wife is a fantastic cook. We made chicken in coconut milk, spicy pork curry, & pad Thai. Soooo delicious!! Nicole couldn't handle the spicy pork so she had more of the other two. There was PLENTY to go around. It's very hard to choose a favorite. We all kept wanting to eat more but we were so full! But now we can make it at home ourselves because we have the recipes! A few minutes after the table was cleared of lunch, we were given 4 plates of fruit. Yes, 4. They were: rambutan, pineapple, dragon fruit, & watermelon. So we ate all that too. After another 20 minutes rest, we got ourselves ready to go rafting. It was very calm & fun; the calm part was good for Nicole since she was very nervous. After 30 minutes or so on the water we were cleaning up & on our way back to civilization.

Pad Thai, YUM!!!

Do we look happy to eat or what?!

Only John would notice the camera & wave!

But wait, our day is not over yet. We went to Long Neck Karen Village & saw the men, women, & children who fled Burma to escape death. The women practice their culture of the coils worn around their necks. We saw young girls with a short coils & women with very long coils. It was a very wide range. We had stopped there for donation purposes. We brought 2 grocery bag-fulls of snacks & drinks, passing them out to the children. They were absolutely beautiful. The gratitude was shown so easily in their faces, we couldn't help but wonder why we hadn't bought more. Before we got there, none of us were briefed on what we were about to see. They make their money through tourists & selling their handmade items. Nicole bought a pair of earrings from an elderly lady & John bought 2 bracelets from an adorable, sweet, & bold little girl. John is still wearing one of those bracelets today & Nicole has worn her earrings a couple of times since then. It was an interesting & unique experience that made our hearts feel heavy & wishing that we could do more. Hopefully we still can.

This little boy was beyond adorable!

After that we had one last activity for the day. We were already exhausted at this point because we were all falling asleep on the way! But we made it to Tiger Kingdom. We got to enjoy the company of Tigers. The ladies played with some young tigers & the men went in with the full grown adult tigers. Of the 4 big tigers in the cage that John & Jude were in, one of the tigers rolled over onto John. And of the 10 tigers in the cage that Nicole & Dodi went in, 1 of the tigers went up to Nicole & pawed her leg (very lightly) & ran then ran away quickly. She was a playful little cub. We had a lot of fun.

After our adventures there, it was time to go back to the hotel. After some relaxing by the pool & bathing from our dirty day, we went out to eat. We were all exhausted & by the time we got back to the hotel at 11, we passed out, fast!

Restaurant in the hotel where we
ate breakfast.

Giant leaf!

Tuesday morning we got up & went to eat some more amazing breakfast. It was delicious. Nicole explored the hotel a bit & took some more beautiful pictures. We had to pack up our things & head out at 11. Lek picked us up & took us to the temple in the mountains: Wat Phra That Doi Suthep (วัดพระธาตุดอยสุเทพ). It was beautiful up there. There were several tourist tents set up to buy things & after we got past all of that, we had to go up 300+ stairs to get to the temple. It was beautiful; everything shimmering gold. Just look at the pictures. We were really way up there in the clouds.

Stairs leading up to the temple. 300+

Standing in front of all the stages of Buddha.

Most holy area of the temple.

Emerald Buddha

View from the temple. We were truly in the clouds.

After temple adventures, Lek took us shopping. We went to a silk factory where they showed us how the silk was made. We learned that fake silk, when burned, smells like plastic & real silk, when burned, smells like hair. The factory also had several items for sale. John bought a tie & Nicole bought a hair ribbon. The shop had everything though. All kinds of clothing for men & women & children, hair accessories, boxes, purses, animals, table sets, furniture, & much much more. Then we were taken to a store that made jewelry that is 92.5% silver. Nicole got herself a beautiful bracelet. We also went into a store that was beyond expensive for any of us & we wondered why we were there! The last store we went into was more our style. Most things were hand-crafted & it was just beautiful & pure Chiang Mai. We picked up a few more things there.

Silkworms

Silkworm cocoons hatching.

Silkworms making cocoons.

Silkworms in cocoons; cocoons are boiled
& silkworms are killed.

The dye is boiled in water, silk is added & remains for approximately 4 days.

Loons used to weave the silk. Can do up to 4 meters per day.

And once again, we were on the move, but this time it was to the airport. We were sad to go but we knew we had experienced a lot in our short time in Chiang Mai & we were excited that we were flying with Bangkok Airways again & that we were going to Phuket! We said goodbye to Lek & his wife & we were on our way.

If anyone ever wants to go to Thailand, we highly recommend Chiang Mai & our fantastic tour guide, Lek. We have his information if you ever want. He gives you a lot & can personalize the tour to what you want & does it for a very fair price.

Phuket adventures are soon to come. Thanks for reading!