Chiang Mai

I arrived in Chiang Mai around 11am and was surrounded by the usual mob of taxis, tour guides and men from guest houses. The train station is about 13Km from town so I asked another couple if they would share a Sawngthaew which is basically a big red Ute with the tray enclosed and two bench seats down either end. I got dropped off in an area which seemed like it had a few guest houses and hoped for the best. I found a place quickly JJ House nice clean room shared bathroom and toilet for only 150B a night. Chiang Mai is a very busy city, lost of tourists and lots of traffic, but there is lots and lots of good food and the locals are so sweet and helpful. I spent my first day checking out the town, I booked a day trip to an elephant sanctuary where we would have Mahout training. I did an hour yoga class which was very nice, quite challenging, probably harder as I haven't been practicing for a few weeks now. After class I walked down to the night bazaar, it was massive lots of clothes and food and very cheap, I got dinner and a pair of pants for 130B. There is heaps of great food here I have been eating at a nice little vegetarian restaurant for at least one meal/day. I also found a little place serving lots of traditional northern Thailand dishes for really cheap! my favourite was an eggplant dish which was quite spicy with a smokey flavour served with sticky rice and green papaya salad. My mahout training course was great, one of the highlights of my trip! We travelled for a few hours out of town in the back of a Ute picking up some big bunches of green bananas on the way. We got to the sanctuary and changed into our Mahout outfits, kinda like blue pajamas with a cane hat, then were introduced to our elephants. We spent a while learning commands and practicing getting on and off the elephants my fav style was standing in front of elephant, commanding her to put head down, then hugging her around her neck as she lift me up onto her back with her trunk. We then rode down to the river and swam with the elephants, washing and scrubbing them throwing buckets of water around and elephants were spraying with trunks was so much fun. Got back on and walked down the river to a muddy area where the elephants could roll around in the mud they loved it! we all ended up getting into a mud fight the cheeky young Mahouts from the village threw me and another guy right in. We rode back to the camp, got cleaned up in the river, planted some sweet grass stems for future food for elephants. We were then given some incense and taken to a shrine to make a prayer for ourselves and the elephants it was a very special moment. I spent the rest of my time in Chiang Mai getting massages, visiting temples and I also tried a fish spa where hundreds of little fish eat the dead skin from your feet. Tomorrow I will get a bus up to Pai for a few days to relax before continuing on to Laos.

Photos with elephants, Fish Spa, Wat Phan tao.