After nearly missing our flight and splashing out on a hefty £24 each just to get to the airport, we eventually arrived in Chiang Mai. But the day didn't get much better as the hostel we planned on staying in was fully booked (typical!). So another hour or so was spent wondering around looking for somewhere to stay, when we met this nice girl who suggested the one she was staying at, and it wasn't too bad after all. We were desperate to shower after all of this hassle, so we got ready then headed out to wonder around the night market. By this time we'd seen a few markets, but nothing like Chiang Mai night market, it went on and on and on, and was full of more interesting goodies and souvenirs.
The next day started off fairly chilled as we were both exhausted from barely any sleep on the night market and a hectic day yesterday, so we took a lie in... a long lie in and decided to book a Thai cooking class for the afternoon. From 2-6pm we cooked 4 dishes and made a curry paste, I chose to make: Pad Thai, Spring Rolls, Soup and Yellow Noodle curry with we made the curry paste for first. If you visit Thailand, this is a must do! We did our class at Baan Thai cookery school and I was very impressed! They were organised, spoke good english, very friendly and helpful but obviously the facilities lacked as we are in Thailand, but we had what we needed! After returning from the cookery school, we strolled down to the market and somehow ended up watching a Lady Boy cabaret, it was interesting to say the least!
To follow yesterday, we booked to see the elephants the next day. The elephant sanctuary was probably what we were both looking forward to the most and now after completing the whole trip, it was certainly one of the highlights. We spent some time researching different sanctuaries as we knew there was a recurring problem of animal cruelty at some but after a while we found a sanctuary where you spent the day with a group of elephants and could feed, wash, bath and play with them until you leave. The elephants in the sanctuary had been rescued and were allowed to roam free around the jungle but we always accompanied by one of the staff, who were a tribal family.
We were picked up early that morning and on the truck met a British girl, Jenny who was from up north, we actually ended up travelling with her for a fair while after Chiang Mai! The journey took nearly 2 hours, 1 hour of it was off roading through the jungle up huge hills to get to the sanctuary, poor Jenny suffers from travel sickness, so this wasn't the smoothest journey for her! We got there and hopped off the truck, put on a tribal top and started to walk up the hill. To my surprise, the elephants were literally right there! I don't think I expected to see them so soon and I also don't think I expected to quite literally be roaming around the jungle. We spent some time feeding and meeting the elephants, where we could also grab a few pictures and videos of them. Then walked to meet go and find the others, where there was a baby one!!! After all this excitement, we had lunch and they definitely fed us well!! There was a curry, pad thai, veg and all sorts of drinks and other snacky bits. After lunch we got changed and headed to the mud bath where we scrubbed them and played with them again, then strolled along to the waterfall and washed the mud off. Overall, it was an amazing day and an experience I'll never forget! Although I absolutely loved Elephant Jungle Sanctuary next time I would go somewhere else so I could get a difference experience with the elephants. For under £50 we spent the day here and it including food and free pick up/return.
After a whirlwind of a day yesterday and a busy day the day before as well, Sunday we wanted to do something a bit more chilled. We went out to get some lunch and noticed locals putting up stalls, then we remembered the Sunday market was on. You know how I just said I thought the night market was huge, well the Sunday market took it to the next level! It went on for streets and streets and I managed to grab some bargain vintage denim shorts for £2! We even returned back there later that night as Jenny hadn't been!
We were generally very impressed with Chiang Mai and it has to be up there with one of my favourite places. The city centre is built around a moat and the whole atmosphere feels much more cultural and laid back than other cities like Bangkok or Siem Reap. We also probably favourited it as we did complete a lot of things off the bucket list here!
The next day we were back on the road and travelling down to Bangkok to the airport, AGAIN! Instead of booking another flight, we booked a night sleeper train and I've never experience anything so bad! The train itself was old and very grotty, the toilet smelt horrific and it lingered through the cabin, the fan barely worked and the bed was tiny so I was sweltering the whole night! By this time, I has kind of got use to having little sleep, and found that I actually slept better on the airport floor during our 8 HOUR WAIT for the plane! We live to tell the story though ay!
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