Elephant Haven

There are lots of places in Thailand that offer the experience of spending time with and helping to care for elephants.  Some of the best are in the Chiang Mai area, and Judy REALLY wanted to do that while she was here this trip.  Unfortunately, by the time I checked, all the good ones were booked for our time in Chiang Mai.  A good one is one where you know they care more about the elephants than the tourists.  A good indication is whether or not they offer elephant rides.  The rides with the seats on the elephant's back is really bad for it.  There's one in Chiang Mai that the school uses for field trips, and when I looked at their website, I saw that they have a new one closer to us in Kanchanaburi, about a 2.5 hour drive away.  I booked it.

Judy was thrilled, but in order to get to the elephants early in the morning, we had to leave the house at 5:30am.  I hired a van, and we were all going to go, but mom and Jeff got sick, so it ended up being just me, Judy, my dad, and Vivian.  In a way though, it worked out really well, since we all had plenty of space to spread out in the van and go to sleep.  I had put Viv to sleep the night before in her outfit for the day, so it was really easy to transfer her from her bed to the van.

I tried to stay awake for a while on the drive down there.  It was dark when we left the house, but the sun came up as we were driving along.  We were out of the city proper by that point, and there was mist over the fields.  It was absolutely beautiful, but my eyelids were too heavy to keep open, and eventually I fell asleep.

We were meeting a van from Elephant Haven at the Kanchanaburi bus stop, so we got off of our first van and took a quick (and authentically Thai) bathroom break before getting on the next one.  I love that Vivian is completely unfazed at this point by switching out her shoes for "bathroom shoes", bringing our own toilet paper, squatting over a hole in the ground, and "flushing" the toilet using a bucket of water.

After our bathroom adventure, we got into the van, and it was a quick ride into the forest and Elephant Haven.  We pulled up, and there were elephants, hanging out and being fed by another group that had arrived a bit earlier.  We got assigned a guide who offered us tea and coffee, and then he took us over to some tables with buckets.  Inside the buckets was a big pile of sticky rice.  We each got several small bananas to peel and add in.  Then he gave us bunches of fresh tamarind (VERY sticky, but supposedly helps the elephants' digestion) and we were supposed to mash all of it together and then make it into balls to feed the elephants.  By the time I realized what a great photo op this was, my hands were completely covered in sticky mush, so, no pictures.  You can just imagine everyone's facial expressions as we mashed it all up with our hands.

The first group left with those elephants, and a new group of elephants came over for us to take care of.  We all fed them our hand made yum balls, which disappeared really quickly.  Then the elephant minders brought big buckets of cut up pumpkin and watermelon for us to feed the elephants.  I finally got my hands clean and started taking some pictures.

To be totally honest, I hadn't been super excited about a day with elephants.  I figured they would be smelly and too big to be cute, but it just took one bucket of yum balls for me to fall completely in love.  The elephants at Elephant Haven are all female.  They were big, but not intimidatingly so, and they didn't smell at all.  When you held out your hand with food, they would take it gently from you with their trunks, which almost felt the same as a hand.  We could have fed them all day.

I think the feeding was to establish that we were cool, because after that the guides took us and the elephants into the jungle for a walk.  We had one main guide who spoke English, and he was in charge of explaining things to our group.  Everyone in our group spoke English, but I think we were the only Americans.  There was a large group from Canada and a young man from Germany.  There were also a bunch of elephant minders with us.  Our guide explained that each elephant had one person who was in charge of taking care of her, and the same person and elephant were together every day.  You could tell that all the people who worked there really loved the elephants.

The walk part was fun.  We were getting used to the elephants, and they were getting used to us.  

It was pretty warm by then, and the elephants were thirsty, so we all walked down to the river, so that they could get a drink.

We did some more walking through the forest, so that the elephants could eat some greenery.  By this point, Vivian had become very attached to one of the elephants and decided to name her Ellie, even though she already had a Thai name.  It turned out that Ellie was a bit of a loaner, so she tended to lag behind the other elephants.  Vivian decided to lag along with her.

While they were hanging out, waiting for the elephant, the minder showed Vivian how to use a vine as a swing.

Vivian was the only child in our group, and, in typical Thai fashion, all the people there gave her lots of attention.  There was one older guide, who didn't speak much English, but he kept telling Vivian, "no danger, no danger" and pointing at the elephants.  He even photobombed her picture once she got comfortable being close to the elephants.

Another one of the elephant minders made Vivi an elephant princess crown out of banana tree leaves and flowers.  He presented it to her when we stopped for a rest on a shaded platform.

We sat up there and watched the elephants wander around the field.  It wasn't long before Vivian left her crown behind and went to wander with them.  The grass was pretty tall though, so you can only see the top of her hat peeking out to the left of the elephant.

Judy and Dad decided to borrow the crown and pose for pictures with the elephants.

By that point we had worked up an appetite for lunch, so we headed back to the main area.  They had tables and benches under a thatch roof equipped with fans, so it was nice and cool for lunch.  There was a buffet of Thai food laid out.  Only a few things looked familiar, but everything I tasted was delicious.  I had figured that lunch wouldn't work for my picky eater, so I had packed a sandwich and some snacks which Vivian was perfectly content with.

After a leisurely lunch, our guide told us that the elephants were going to go play in the mud, and we could come along.  

Of course the only person who wanted to get in the mud with them was Vivian.

Even she had an ewww moment, but she still managed to convince Judy to get in with her.

The elephants seemed to get great joy from flinging mud and dirt onto their backs.  I think it can work like a sunscreen, but I also think they were not averse to tossing a little playful dirt at the people around them.  Basically, we were all pretty dirty by that point in the day, so it was time to go back to the river for washing up.

As we walked back towards the main camp, we went by a house where puppies had recently been born.  Of course, we had to stop and visit, and, of course, Vivian had to hold one.

During lunch, Vivian had made friends with two of the Canadian guys, so she ditched us to walk with them for a while.  Luckily, they were amused by her and had no problem with it.

We got back to the camp, picked up some life jackets, and then headed to the river.  The elephants wandered in, and the guides gave us buckets to throw water on them.  Judy and Vivian plunged in with gusto, despite an initial bucket malfunction.

At first, my dad wasn't going to participate, because he hadn't brought a change of clothes, but he couldn't resist, and after a few minutes he waded in and starting throwing water.

He didn't say anything about it, but I think even he developed a soft spot for the elephants.

After a lot of splashing and fun, the elephants headed back up the hill, and we followed.

They had all flung dirt on themselves by the time we got back to the camp, but I don't think the river break was as much about getting clean as it was about cooling off.

Vivian was completely soaked and pretty dirty herself, so I took her to the showers, rinsed her off, and put on a new outfit.  She launched out of the shower area, and went right back to the elephants who were getting a sugar cane snack.

Then it was time to say good bye to the elephants.  I was worried that Viv would have a tough time, saying good bye, but luckily her new friends helped soften the blow.  After the elephants left, we had time to hang out with more coffee and tea and chat with the rest of the group and our guide before our ride back to town.

Our regular van driver had coordinated with the Elephant Haven driver, and they exchanged us at a gas station outside of town to avoid extra traffic.  After that it was a smooth ride back home, and we all napped a bit.  We got home in time for dinner.  It was an absolutely wonderful day.

The next day was New Year's Eve.  We had debated doing something downtown, but everything was ridiculously expensive.  I also doubted our ability to stay up until midnight, so I decided we should celebrate the new year when 2016 actually started, at 5:00pm Bangkok time.  I knew the Sydney fireworks would be at 8:00pm Bangkok time, so that seemed like a good bedtime end point.  We planned to celebrate with some friends, and one of my friends with a bigger house offered to host and cook up a mass of barbecue.  More people were invited, and it turned into a huge party with more kids than adults, which was fun for everyone.  Our hostess even armed the adults with wine sippy cups to avoid spills.

Each family brought a dish or two, so we feasted, watched fireworks, and then went home at a reasonable hour.  New Year's Day was pretty relaxed.  The only major events were meals.  We had a big, late breakfast, and I made a big pot of pasta for dinner.  We did farewell massages, and my family left the next morning.  It's always sad to see them go, but we had such a wonderful time with them while they were here.

A Day and Night in the Sky

Our flight from Chiang Mai didn't leave until early afternoon, and Jeff and I still hadn't seen one of the most famous temples in Chiang Mai, Wat Chedi Luang.  Vivian had also expressed an interest in pancakes for breakfast.  Since the mornings were nice and cool, I figured the three of us could have a nice morning walk to the temple, and then find a good breakfast place.  It took a little research, but I found a route and a restaurant for us.

We retraced our steps from Sunday night a bit, turning onto Ratchadamnoen in front of Wat Phra Singh.

In the light of day, we figured out how the evening street market gets electricity to light itself up.  There are electric outlets attached to all the light posts.  There are even some attached to trees.

It's a wonder the Sunday market doesn't short circuit the whole city.

We also walked by the Chiang Mai police station.  Jeff and Vivian felt the need for dramatic poses in front of the sign.

They also got a kick out of the statue of an officer rescuing someone and attempted to replicate it.

Some of the funnest sight seeing opportunities are not in any guidebook ;-)

The wats are great too.  Wat Chedi Luang has a large stone ruined part from the 15th century, 

but I liked some of the newer surrounding wats even more.

After a little more walking we got to a restaurant called Good Morning Chiang Mai, attached to a small hotel.  They had outdoor seating near the hotel's pool.

The pancakes did not disappoint.  They were huge, fluffy, and served with syrup, which can be hard to find in Thailand.  Vivian was very happy.

We only had one small hiccup with breakfast.  The waiter who took our order did not speak very good English.  Jeff ordered an omelet, and then we ordered three sides of bacon, one for each of us.  Instead of one omelet and three sides of bacon though, we got one side of bacon and three omelets.  We found someone who spoke a bit more English and sorted it out.  They didn't charge us for the extra omelets, but we felt a little bad about wasting food.  Other than that though, it was a lovely morning and a nice way to say good bye to Chiang Mai.

I'm choosing to remember Chiang Mai that way, and I'm going to try and forget the airport which was incredibly crowded and where Elena finally lost it, having an epic meltdown as only a toddler can.  We all got home in one piece though, but that was far from the end of our day.

I really wanted my family to be able to see Bangkok all decked out for Christmas, and the shopping area has some especially spectacular lights.  They also really liked the roof top bar we went to last time they were here.  Since we were running out of nights, I decided we should have the same van that brought us home from the airport take us downtown for drinks at Red Sky.  I may have been pushing things a little, but we made it work.  The view was great, and they loved the lights (no photographs though, sorry, lights at night don't photograph well).

Even though it was a success, and we were home by 9:00 pm, it was still crazy, because we were getting picked up at 5:30am the next day for a day trip to Kanchanaburi.  Yes, I'm a crazy over-scheduler, but man is it a lot of fun.

Chiang Mai - Doi Inthanon

Doi Inthanon is the tallest peak in Thailand, and it takes about two hours to get there from Chiang Mai.  We left Elena and Young at home again, and set off relatively early Monday morning.  I had been hoping that Chiang Mai would be colder than Bangkok, because it's farther north, but so far it had only been cool in the mornings.  I was hoping we would be up high enough on Doi Inthanon to get some actual cool, crisp weather.  I was not disappointed.

First we had to get into the national park though.  I got in line to buy tickets and showed my Thai ID for resident price which was 30 baht.  Unfortunately, tourist price was 300 baht, and we had more tourists than residents, so that got a bit expensive.  As we got higher up the mountain though, the driver rolled down the windows, the cool air came into the van, and it was all worth it.  There are two temples on the peak, and we could see them from the car.

There wasn't any parking in that part of the park though.  Instead, our driver kept going a little ways to the van parking area and pointed out the free songthaews (covered pick up trucks) that would take us back to the temples.  We like songthaews if it's not too far to go, and it let us enjoy the fresh air, so we were happy.

The weather at the top of Thai mountains seems to be perfect for gardens, and Doi Inthanon has a beautiful one.

The views were great too.

Vivian decided that the gardens were Wonderland and she was Alice.  She wandered around completely happy in her own little world while the rest of us took pictures and enjoyed the view.  We stayed up there for quite a while just taking it all in and taking fun photographs.

Finally, we decided we should go and got in line for the songthaew back to the parking.  We got on one that wasn't full, but my sister and cousin really wanted to ride standing up in the back, so they hopped on there.  I took a picture in case it was the last time I saw them, but they were fine.

The park also has lots of waterfalls, some more accessible than others.  On the way back down, we stopped at one that had parking nearby, so it wasn't much of a walk.  It was beautiful.

It was warmer at the bottom of the mountain, as you can see.  No sweatshirt needed.  

There was an open air restaurant there, nothing as nice as the one we'd stop at on the way down from Doi Suthep, but a step up from the plastic tables on the side of the road.  They had pad sew gai, that wasn't fantastic, but it filled us up.  The real treat was a woman selling Chiang Mai strawberries which are small and sweet.  Vivian wiped out a container in minutes, and I got a couple more to take back to the house.

When we got home, Elena was pretty grouchy about being constantly left behind, and she hadn't napped.  Jeff and I decided that Young needed a night off, so we stayed home with the girls and sent her out to dinner and shopping at the night bazaar with my family.  They made another attempt at Huen Phen.  There was still a long wait, but this time they chose to wait and see what all the fuss was about.  They hung out for an hour until a table was ready.  When I asked Young if the food was worth all the fuss, she made a face.  I guess not.  She and my mom left the rest of them at the restaurant and went shopping together, and it sounds like she enjoyed that part.  We definitely enjoyed Chiang Mai, but after four days, we were all ready to go home.

Chiang Mai - Zoo and Sunday Night Market

I felt bad about leaving Elena when we went to Doi Suthep, and I knew we would leave her for our next day's adventure to Doi Inthanon, so I wanted to make sure that we had at least one activity that was kid-friendly.  The obvious choice was the Chiang Mai zoo, which got pretty good reviews and has giant pandas.

Judy is a die-hard Redskins fan, and they had a game that would determine whether or not they made the playoffs.  It was happening on Saturday night in the States, which meant Sunday morning in Thailand.  Ever resourceful, Judy did some research and found an Irish pub in old Chiang Mai that would be showing the game and serving breakfast.  Jeff went with her, and the rest of the family, plus my cousin Anna, went to the zoo.

Our first stop was at the flamingos.

We could explain to Vivian why the flamingos were more white than pink, but whenever we told Elena they were flamingos she looked at us like we were nuts.  The ones in her toy zoo at home are bright pink, so there was no way the white birds could be flamingos.  She did better with the elephant, even though she was a bit afraid to help feed it bananas.  

She did even better with the giraffe.

But the favorite for both girls were the hippos.  It was feeding time, and you could pay 10 baht for a basket of carrots to feed the hippos.

Vivian decided she was a hippo queen . . . or something similar.

Dad was brave and stood near the Emus, even though I told him that at Safari World there's a sign saying not to get too close or they'll peck your eyes out.

The best part of the zoo though was the pandas.  We've seen the pandas at the National Zoo in D.C., but they're far away from the observation area, and they don't tend to move around very much.  In contrast, the panda here was easy to see, and something was itching him because he was walking all around, scratching, and then stopping to eat some bamboo.

After a couple hours of animal fun, we headed back to the house.  We met up with Jeff and Judy who was in celebration mode since the Redskins had won.  We left Young and the girls at the house and went out to lunch to celebrate.

Mom had read about a place called Ugo Bar and Restaurant.  The food was good, but the most important thing was that they had mango smoothies, Mom's favorite thing to drink in Thailand.  They had a yummy coconut one too (my favorite).

After lunch, we dropped the men back off at the house.  Jeff went to find a massage, and Mom, Judy, and I set off with a taxi driver for some shopping.  We hadn't really done much research, so we just asked him to take us wherever he usually took people.  We ended up at jewelry store, where things were much too expensive for us, but we liked the part where we could watch them carve jade.

Across the street from that, we learned about carpets.

The owner had an interesting story.  He was originally from Persia, but he used Thai silk and hired Thai families to make his carpets using Persian designs.  He also showed us how to tell a quality, handmade carpet, from a synthetic, machine made one.  My mom and sister had seen this type of demonstration before, but I hadn't.  First, he held a lighter to the carpet to prove that it was silk.  Synthetic fibers, he explained, would catch on fire.  Next, he took a big pair of metal shears and slashed at the carpet without damaging it.  Handwoven carpets apparently have tighter knots than machine woven ones, so the shears couldn't cut into it.  Finally he took a stool and banged and ground it into the carpet to show that it left no impression.  It was quite an impressive display, and even though we didn't end up buying a carpet, I've stored the lessons learned for future carpet shopping.

It was getting late, and stores were closing, so we went back to the house to meet up with everyone and do MORE shopping.  On Sunday nights, Ratchadmnoen Road, one of the main streets in old Chiang Mai, is closed to traffic from Wat Phra Singh, near where we were staying, all the way to the Tha Phae gate.  This makes a mile long walking street market full of crafts, food, and live music.  I wanted to make sure Young got to experience it too, so we brought the girls along for the first bit.  Elena's stroller actually worked to our advantage, because we could use it to carve some space in the pedestrian cluster.

The girls lasted about 30 minutes, and then they headed home with Young.  Jeff was there to help out with bedtime.  Shopping and being surrounded by a mass of people are two of his least favorite things, so he had opted not to come to the Sunday market with us.

My dad had read in his guidebook about a restaurant called Huen Phen, and he really wanted to try it, but there was a ridiculously long wait, and we were hungry, so we pressed on.  Eventually we stumbled upon a restaurant called Hot Chili with a red tent and flower decor theme that was impossible to pass by.

We only had to wait about five minutes for a table and the food was good, so we were pleased with our find.  It was another good day in Chiang Mai.