Tuesday, November 19, 2013

ELEPHANTS

Hiii! I'm sorry it's a been a little over a week since my last post, the travel life is time consuming! Just kidding, I've just been lazy. Oops. But now I have lots to update you on about our explorations :) Lucky for you, it won't be as long as the last post! Just some sweet nothings about adventures in Chiang Mai and Laos! 
After the orphanage, we slowly made our way up north to the incredible Chiang Mai. It was extremely touristy, but my favorite spot in Thailand thus far! It's a big city with so much to do and most importantly, SO.MUCH.FOOD. All different kinds! After having rice three times a day at the orphanage, saying we were sick of Asian food is kind of an understatement. We spent 6 days in Chiang Mai filled with gourmet pizza, whole wheat pancakes, peanut butter, sandwiches, and Mexican food. I actually had the best burrito of my life in Thailand (other than Chipotle of course). Weird? On top of having healthy food places, this was obviously my dream come true. 

Speaking of food (I swear I really have other hobbies besides eating...), we got to take an awesome cooking class! It was taught by this adorable Thai woman right in the backyard of her house. We even went to the market with her to pick up ingredients before hand. And it was the real market, the kind where there are no tourists and everyone stares at you like you are a multi colored hippo or something. I learned how to make curry paste, yellow curry, fried rice, and banana steam cakes! Hope your drooling because it was all so yummy. She gave us cookbooks so I can attempt to put together these magic creations back home! 

Okay, time to stop talking about food. There are other things we've done besides eat like Americans! For example, fish spa! Yes, it is exactly as it sounds. I've always wanted to try it so when we walked by one on the street, I convinced Chris it was a necessity! Obviously there are health benefits to willingly having fish bite your feet, right? Literally all you do is sit down and stick your feet in a giant tub filled with little fish. And then they just go at it. They supposedly are eating dead skin (gross, don't think about it), but it actually feels like death by tickle. Probably never doing that again. 
Another first time experience was going to a Mauy Tai match!! Which is basically a big arena full of foreigners and different bars. It's like the fights on tv! It was awesome and really entertaining, even if it was partly staged. While in Chiang Mai, we also got to check out the well known Sunday Night Market. Every Sunday from 4pm until midnight, they close down an entire long street and random booths set up shop! It's full of hundreds of street vendors, art, and cheap souvenirs. It's also more crowded than Disney Land. My favorite part of the market was getting a Thai foot massage in an alley. Sounds sketchy, I know. But it wasn't at all and that's why Thailand is so awesome! 
Saving the best Chiang Mai activity for last...elephant day!!! I have a new obsession with elephants after this experience. There are many excursion options, so we did research and made sure to go through a company that treats the elephants well. It was a perfect full day trip, starting when our crazy tour guide picked us up. He literally calls himself "Eddy the Elephant Man." With a name like that you have a lot to live up to.  We went to the middle of the jungle to an elephant camp and started off by feeding them bananas! Elephants are HUGE. I mean really ginormous. You don't realize how massive they really are until you are standing next to it as it tries to basically eat your hand. Pounds of bananas later, we got trained to ride them bareback! And by trained, I mean they taught us a few commands in Thai and then you were thrown up there.  Somewhat terrifying but once your sitting on his back and petting his cute fuzzy head its fine. After the "training" and a great lunch (again with the food), it was time for the full ride! This part was interesting because we had paid to just both be on one elephant. But Eddy liked Chris and I so much that last minute he told each of us to jump on our own elephant! Which sounds nice, but of course my elephant was the extra giant one with no ropes at all! Even though it's bareback, they all had a rope around them to hold on to. But not me, I just had a mahout  (elephant trainer) sitting on the back with me who spoke zero English. Sounds safe huh. Thank God for that fuzzy hair on the elephants head. It was all I had to hold on to! But we both survived the jungle trek and then got to swim with the elephants in the river!!! That was the best part. We also got to see a 6 day old baby elephant. Needless to say, I told Chris I want a pet elephant for Christmas. 

After the best day ever, we took a longgg 12 hour bus ride to Vientiane, Laos. Luckily the seats in the bus were reclining and massage chairs! We planned on going to Laos to get our Thai visas extended. Our 30 days were up and we needed to get a 30 day extension tourist visa, which you can only get when you are out of the country. It sounds simple, but it was such an extreme process. Once getting to a town near the border of Thailand and Laos, we had to jump in a taxi to take us to the border. Then once at the border, we showed our passports and had to wait a bit to get on a bus that would take us across the border to Laos. At the Laos border, we had to fill out some paperwork and wait to get our Laos visas. From there, we had to get in yet another cab to take us to the Thai embassy. At the embassy we filled out some more paperwork and dropped off our passports in order to pick them up the next day with our visas. It was exhausting! But we ended up staying at this incredibly awesome hostel called Sihome Backpackers Hostel. It was full of wall paintings done by young artists all around the world! It was also brand new and had only been open for a couple of weeks, so it was exciting to get to experience it fresh!  A couple of guys named Steve and Phil were in charge and they do a great job at making everyone feel at home. We met some pretty awesome people our age from all parts of the world! Australia, Switzerland, Ireland, Germany...just to name a few! The hostel had beer to purchase and even gave you free vodka. We found out that playing drinking games with Europeans is a challenge! We loved the hostel so much, we ended up staying 4 nights. We did some awesome sightseeing in Vientiane, including a day trip to the beautiful Tad Xai waterfalls! Now I can check swimming in a waterfall off my to-do list. 
After leaving Laos, it was another grueling bus ride to Bangkok! We arrived yesterday morning, and now I'm sitting in a coffee shop on Khao San road as we speak :) It is only a quick stop though, because tonight it's another 8 hour bus ride followed by a 2 hour ferry. Next stop: Koh Tao island! 
I promise I won't get too distracted by the beach and neglect to update on island adventures :) lots of love! Xoxo

An example of a street food vendor in Chiang Mai! You learn to get over health code ideas real quick in Thailand 

Have you ever had dragon fruit before?! It's a main fruit here and I'm obsessed. Not just because it's so pretty, but it's super delicious as well! 

Fish spa! 

Chris couldn't handle it! 

The Muay Tai match! 


Inside some temples in Chiang Mai 

Our cooking class set up! 

Showing off his yellow curry creation 

The steamed banana cakes I made! Mmm

Eddy the Elephant Man throwing a plethora of bananas on the truck 

Feeding the elephants!!!! I was a little skeptical at first 

Awww this is Jenny! 

They literally kissed me!!! It was so tickley 

Just a view of Chiang Mai 

 The Mekong river at sunset! In Laos 





These are all paintings on the walls of Sihome Backpackers Hostel! 

The Laos victory monument! We climbed all the way up there! 

The view  of Vientiane! 


Tad Xai waterfalls! 

1 comment:

  1. What an adventure! Love the bow in the hair for elephant day! Can't wait to taste your Thai food your going to fix for us! :) Love you!! xoxoxoxo

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