Day 3: Elephants!

 Our third day we spent at the Patara elephant farm. This was definitely the highlight of our trip. It was a once in a lifetime experience that we will never forget. When we first got there, we got to hang out with the babies. They look little, but they are strong! They will push you right out of the way.

 Then we got to meet our elephant that we would be with for the day. Our elephant's name was Poochan. Justin pointed him out when we very first got there, saying that he was the one he wanted. We were surprised when that was the one we actually ended up with.

They introduce you to your elephant and then we got to feed him. These elephants eat non stop, in mass quantities. They said that is one sign of a healthy elephant.

 (White pasty legs...should have worn some longer board shorts!!)

 Another sign of a healthy elephant is the smell of their poop. Apparently it should smell like hay or grass. I love Ashlee's face in this picture. It is priceless.

Here we are, ready to ride!

They have you wear these clothes so that you look like you come from the Karen tribe. All of the people who work at this elephant camp are from the Karen tribe. The guy who picked us up at our hotel told us when he was growing up, there were only 14 homes in his village and 20 elephants. They grow up around elephants. It was fascinating to see them working with them.

 Pretty soon it was time to get on! You can't really see it, but behind Justin, I am standing on the elephants knee as he lifts it up so I can hop on his back. It was crazy! You tap his foot to get him to bend his knee. Then as soon as you stand on his leg, he lifts you up!

Justin got up on the front. You tap his head and he bends down. Then you stand on his trunk and he raises it up so you can hop on his head.

And just like that, we were riding an elephant.

 Hollie and Adam, Amy and Keldon, Justin and I, Shane and Ashlee, Spencer and Suzy

We rode through the jungle on a little trail for and hour and a half. It was a beautiful view. My bum was so bruised from our bike tour the day before, and the huge back bone that I was sitting on was not helping my situation. It hurt so bad! 

 We stopped and ate lunch that they had prepared for us. The food was super yummy. Lots of fresh fruit, chicken, baked goods, and inside the banana leaves were different kinds of rice.

The babies came and attacked all the leftovers after we finished eating. They cleaned up the entire table in about two minutes.

After lunch, I switched places with Justin to give my back side a break. Sitting on his neck was way more comfortable! Towards the end, they wanted Justin to come up behind me on his neck and for me to sit on his head. I felt like I was going to fall off the front of him. Luckily it was right before we got off.

We got off at this waterfall. The elephants were so excited to get there! They got right in and started swimming and playing.

 We all took off our riding clothes and hopped in the water to give them a good scrubbing. They said if an elephant doesn't have good skin care, their health can decline. So we all jumped on and started scrubbing them with a brush. It was really fun.

 They had us all line up for a group picture. They gave some command in Thai, which we of course couldn't understand, and we got sprayed by the elephants!

 

 My favorite is the V shooting straight off of Suzy's head.

 On our way back, we stopped to see this little baby elephant. He was only 4 months old and so cute. Justin was trying to get a picture with him and he kept running off. This is Justin trying to bend down and follow him at the same time.

 He was so cute!

It was the best. day. ever.

Day 2: Chiang Mai

After our day in Bangkok, we woke up early the next day and flew to Chiang Mai. It's a much smaller city and much more laid back than Bangkok. We checked into our hotel and took this red taxi truck to get started on a bike tour. This was one of my favorite things that we did. It was so fun to ride through the country and along all the back roads of Chiang Mai.  

 We stopped at this temple and our tour guide took us inside and explained a lot about the monks. He told us that young men choose to become a monk. Later on if they feel the need to get married and have a family, they are free to do so. They can be a monk for a month, or for life. Sometimes if a child is born into a very poor family, the family will send them to live with the monks and be taught in the Buddhist religion and attend school. The Thailand government doesn't pay for school, so it is very expensive to give your kids an education. Most people that we came in contact with, only had one child because of expenses. 

 They consider monks to be greater than the king. If the king is inside a temple, he will sit lower than the monks.

 Next we stopped by a leper colony. A long time ago, leprosy was a huge problem in Thailand before they received a vaccine. Now, there are only a small number of people that have it in Chiang Mai and they live here. 

 We also stopped at a gift shop that was started by christian missionaries. They created jobs for people with disabilities and the products that they make, are sold in the gift shop. They had some fun things for sale. I bought a nativity from here. Since Thailand is a Buddhist country, I knew this was the only place I would find one, and I took advantage. 

 We also stopped at some rice fields. Our tour guide said that in Bangkok, they have machines that do all of this work, but here in Chiang Mai, it is still done by people. It looked like an awful job. They were out in the heat all day leaning over and if I remember right, they made like $5 a day. I don't remember for sure, but it was something crazy like that.

 The fruit in this tree is called a Jack fruit. :)

 We ate lunch at a teeny little restaurant. They introduced us to mangosteen fruit, and it was so yummy! We ate a ton of them. You peel the purple skin off and eat the white fruit inside. They were delicious. And I'm usually not a soda fan, but for some reason, this Coke in a glass bottle was really good. Maybe it's because we had been riding bikes for 4 hours, or maybe they do their's differently. Justin said that the Coke in glass bottles in Guatemala were the same...yummy.

 We rode past some old ruins and headed back to our red taxi truck, dirty and sweaty!

 We went back to the hotel to clean up and spent the rest of our evening at the Night Bizarre. The Night Bizarre has tons of food and people who set up a stand every night and try to sell everything from t-shirts to jewelry to suitcases. 

We ate more yummy food. Our favorite thing of the week was mango sticky rice. We ate it every day. I've been having withdrawals ever since we got back!