So four other volunteers and I took a 3 ½ hour bus ride on Friday afternoon from where we’re living in Thaton to Chiang Mai. Now that we’re back, I think it’s okay for me to say that I stayed in my first ever hostel, all of us are female, and none of us spoke Thai before three weeks ago. (Fortunately, Thailand is safe enough that we CAN actually do this! Don’t freak out, Mom!) Needless to say, our weekend was an adventure in every sense of the word.
We started it off by checking into our hostel, finding a restaurant for dinner (which we chose because there was a volleyball match on T.V. Clearly, this is the best way to determine the quality of food), and then going to the night bazaar which is essentially a night market where bartering is key. I don’t know why, but I had far too much fun finding a “must have” item, saying to the other girls in English how great it was so that the vendors didn’t understand, yet showing all of the nonverbal cues to act like I didn’t care. As soon as you start walking away, the vendors literally chase after you. Every step you take, they seem to lower their price… “Wait! 100 baht for you! Okay 80 baht! Okay last for you… 70 baht! 70 baht!” I may or may not be biased, but if bartering were an Olympic sport, I think I’d win a medal.
On Saturday, we woke up early in order to do everything that we wanted to on our “touristy” list. We started the day off by going to an Elephant Show. Now, some other volunteers in our group had gone and told us that this was great, but I was blown away by just HOW great it all was. When we got there, you could take pictures with the elephant as their trunks hugged you, put a hat on your head, and kissed you. Personally, I would have been perfectly happy to have walked away after that, but then the show started. During the show, we saw the trainers bathe and play with the elephants and then we walked to the “arena” where they performed. The elephants took turns doing different “tricks” for the next hour – playing soccer, throwing darts, painting pictures, playing the harmonica, etc. I seriously think my jaw was dropped the entire time. Just for your information, this nearly two hour long extravaganza cost me a little over a whopping $6. No, I’m not joking. After the show, I bought an elephant painting that just so happens to match my bedroom. This may or may not be the best purchase of my life.
After the elephant show, we naturally went a few kilometers down the street to the Tiger Kingdom. Here, we had the opportunity to literally go in a tiger cage to take pictures… while accompanied by a tiger trainer, of course. I think my heart was pounding through my chest, but I did it! The tiger trainer did a great job of easing us into this, so by the end, we were able to feel a bit more – comfortable? – around the tigers. Afterwards, I enjoyed the fact that I could look at my pants and say something like, “Oh my gosh – look at all of the tiger hair on these! How disgusting!”
After the Tiger Kingdom, we treated our amazing song tao driver, Doh, to lunch. Allow me to give him a quick shout out as: 1. He was amazing and 2. He literally drove us around from 8 to 5 on Saturday for a little over $3 per person. It’s a toss up between who my favorite Thai person is at the moment, Doh or Mr. Honey.
We then went to the Buddhist temple that is on the mountain next to Chiang Mai. It took us 300+ steps to get to the top, but it was SO worth it. Not only was the temple very ornate and beautiful, but the view of Chiang Mai from the mountain was absolutely breathtaking.
The last stop on our touristy tour (you like what I did there?) was to a bamboo umbrella factory. Here, we got to see the employees actually make ALL of the parts of these bamboo umbrellas. My personal favorite part was when they painted these detailed designs on the actual umbrella. I loved it so much, that I even got elephants painted on my Toms!
Of course, we went back to the night bazaar on Saturday (I had to do more souvenir shopping!). On Sunday morning, we did a ropes course through the jungle. It took us about two hours to do the entire course and we had so much fun climbing ladders, doing ziplines, and dropping from platforms. Again, another adrenaline rush!
Believe it or not, I’m now safely back at our house in Thaton. Yes, I survived tigers, hostels, and a ropes course. I would hands down do it all over again and, if you ever come to Thailand, I would highly recommend you spending at least a couple of days in Chiang Mai. Trust me, you won’t regret the adventure that is bound to come! Until then, enjoy the pictures!!!
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