Chiang Mai: Trekking and Elephants

Let me start by saying that Chiang Mai lived up to its reputations for gorgeous nature.

Day 1 – Landing in Chiang Mai

Trent, Ife, and I stayed in a really cute Airbnb (which, we learned after the fact that AirBNB’s are illegal in Thailand, so keep that in mind if you plan on visiting yourselves). Our first night there we went to a Muay Thai (Thai boxing) match because Trent has trained in Muay Thai for the past couple of years. We saw fighters of all ages and abilities, and it was really fun having Trent there explaining the specifics of it all. Some of the kids could definitely beat us up. easily. They apparently train kicking and hitting (with their shins and elbows) bamboo, so their bones get dense which allows them to have such a hard hit.

Day 2 – Elephants

The following morning we were picked up and taken north to the Elephant Nature Project where we spent the entire day with three female elephants rescued from the circus’ and tourist riding camps.

We chose to visiti elephants at the Elephant Nature Project because it is a sanctuary for elephants, buffalos, dogs, cats, birds and many other rescued animals. No riding of the elephants is permitted.

We walked along with the elephants, feeding them bananas and sugar cane. then making them special sticky rice ball treats where I found out that elephants have really weird tongues that practically scoop up the food

We became friends with a solo Dutch traveler named Liam who we spent the day with. After a delicious lunch, we had the chance to swim in the river and bathe the elephants. At one point it of course turned into a water fight between the four of us and it ended with us white water rafting

I recognize these photos are mainly us having water fights but I swear it was after we washed the elephant

Day 3-5 – Trekking through Doi Inthanon National Park

We were picked up early in the morning to drop off our large backpacks at the trekking office before hopping in an open-air truck with 8 other backpackers who had also signed up for the trek. 6 of them, including Trent, were signed up for the 2 day, 1 night trek; while Ife, two guys from Manchester, and I were signed up for the 3 day, 2 nights. All of the other backpackers were super friendly, we immediately started sharing, who we were, where we were from, how long we were in Thailand for and any future traveling plans.

The first day we rafted down a river in bamboo rafts where we saw elephants grazing by the banks of the river. There was also a BABY SNAKE IN THE WATER that Ife saw. So glad I didn’t see it because one thing I think I’m figuring out is that I don’t do snakes. Or poisonous centipedes. Or giant spiders on my bed, but we will get to that later.

We then went and ate lunch by a waterfall. Trent, Rishub, and I started messing around and rock climbing and our guide, who we came to know as Sam, yelled at us because he didn’t want any of his people to die on day 1… fair enough…

We then hiked almost entirely uphill for the next 4 hours. Along the way lots of local wildlife were pointed out to us, we even ATE LIVE ANTS (if you must know they tasted sour) before arriving at a local village. We explored the village, in addition to the people, there were SO MANY ANIMALS, dogs, chickens, and pigs roamed everywhere. We even made a friend of one of the dogs who ended up following us around the rest of the night.

That night was spent eating a homecooked meal and playing cards with the other trekkers. Even though it was just one day, I really enjoyed their company and so it was sad when we found out that the 2-day trekkers were separating from us early the next morning.

Our sleeping arrangments were basically pads in a bamboo house with mosquito nets over them–not the nicest, but not as bad as the sleeping arrangements we had our second night of trekking…

Anyways, as I said, the 2-day trekkers separated from us the following morning. Our guide, Sam, took his time getting ready for the day. Ife, I and the brits were ready to leave by 9AM, but Sam was just lounging on his phone. It wasn’t until 11AM when Ife asked him what we were waiting for that Sam decided “Oh sure I guess we can leave now”

Sam wandered behind us the whole day with the four of us having to turn around and ask him which way to go whenever we ran into a fork in the road. It wasn’t until AFTER we finished our trek that we found out that this was the day we were supposed to go to the top of the tallest mountain in Thailand and also go to the King and Queens Pagoda, if you click the link then you’ll understand why I am so bitter.

Instead we did a short 1-2 hour walk. Sam fell asleep while we ate our lunch, and arrived at our second stop by 3PM. We were supposed to benear a waterfall but as you can see, there was barely any water coming down.

The third day of our trek we met up with another group of people who were one day behind us, doing just the 2 day, 1 night trek, and we all agreed that our third day was pointless. This day however we went and saw elephants AGAIN.

This time THERE WAS A BABY ELEPHANT AND IT TRIED TO EAT MY HAIR

Trent named the baby Jym, then upon finding out it was a girl named her Jym.

We properly named her Elma

One last final memory: while hiking, if someone mentioned that they had to go to the bathroom, the hiking guide would ask if we were headed to Phi Phi (pronounced “pee pee”) Island or Phuket (pronounced “poo-ket”).