Chiang Mai is a wonderful city filled with hundreds of temples. It's also the gateway to many more adventurous activities, including interactive elephant experiences, and home to great food and many night markets. We spent each night in Chiang Mai at a different night market where we could eat street food, drink amazing fruit smoothies and browse their different crafts.
On our first day we visited a number of temples within the walls of Chiang Mai's old city. Each temple had something different to offer. One was made completely of teak wood while another had a golden Pagoda with elephants built into its side. Some were old and some were new. One temple was hosting a monk graduation and the grounds of the temple was filled with monks shopping stalls for robes, graduation frames and more. We ended the day at a temple where the monks were praying. Both were quite a beautiful experience.
The following day we started a crazy adventure. For $50 each we went on a two day tour that included
- Feeding and bathing elephants
- An intense uphill climb through the jungle to a small village
- Getting lost in the village
- Sleeping in a hut in the village
- Listening to "Whiskey's", our tour guide, crazy stories over a camp fire
- A waterfall
- White water rafting
It was a great two days! It was interesting to see how people live in the smaller villages. This tour in particular gave us a good perspective on the vast difference between home (America) and most of SE Asia. We are extremely lucky and grateful to have what we have.
The remaining two days in Thailand were much slower. When you are traveling for almost 6 months you can't have an adventure everyday. We spent our last two days getting a massage, visiting one of the larger temples outside of the city, watching the McGregor/Mayweather fight, visiting markets and eating good food.
It was a shorter stay in Thailand than we thought we would have but it was packed with fun!
