Thailand (Part 2)

Our breakfast on the train was an interesting combination of sandwich triangles and cold french fries, which turned out to be a culinary masterpiece! As we were too early to check in to the hotel we made best use of the time by going for some massages, so good we almost fell asleep! We then headed out to explore the impressive Wat Chedi Luang complex.

Atmospheric ruins, beautiful temples and hundreds of bells characterised this complex.

On our way out we heard some chanting and popped into the main temple to investigate. The complex houses a monk university and we happened to stumble upon a large group of novice monks practising their prayer chants. Incredibly melodic and definitely set the tone for meditation.

The whole group then set out on a sunset tour of Wat Phra That Doi Suthep where we climbed the 200+ steps on the Naga guarded "stairway to heaven" to reach the temple at the summit.

The view of Chiang Mai city was slightly hindered by the smoke from the seasonal crop burnings but you got the impression that it was normally stunning.

In the main temple we all participated in saying a prayer then we were blessed and given a small bracelet by one of the monks. In Thai tradition you must wait until it falls off on its own or have it removed by someone older than yourself in order to preserve the good luck. Once it's removed the most auspicious place to leave it is as an offering to a fig tree.

  

Back in Chiang Mai we headed out to a foodie night market with live music and Muay Thai boxing for entertainment. 

The next day we headed up into the hills and began our jungle trek. The hot hike did stop at a couple of waterfalls which provided some much needed relief and only one cobra was spotted en route. 

We got to the hill tribe village at about 4pm and after claiming sleeping spots in the barn Mike headed up another hill to catch the view at sunset. 

  

The village had multiple free range animals including puppies, kittens, water buffalo and pigs, as well as the ever present (and noisy) cockerels.

After a traditional village style feast for dinner we made a bonfire and stayed up well after dark playing childish games such as "apple pie", "slaps" (involving charcoal face paint as forfeits) and "heads down thumbs up".

The next morning was valentine's Day and in a break from tradition we were woken by the sounds of pigs shuffling around in the mud underneath the floorboards of the barn. Soon after breakfast we hiked for another hour down to a different waterfall then caught a taxi to a bigger river.

The bamboo rafts were surprisingly sturdy and what started as a sedate paddle soon turned into an adrenaline sport with our guide spotting snakes in the water, elephants bathing in the river next to us and several stretches of white water to navigate.

After a much needed freshen up in the hotel we headed back out to a lady boy cabaret where Mike got a lot more audience interaction than we bargained for! 
 

The dancers had us howling with laughter as a great sense of humour shone through the impressive costumery and dancing.

We stayed out with the group after the Cabaret and so needed a slow start the next morning before Zip lining. Whizzing through the treetops really blew away the cobwebs from the night before and everybody had a blast. 

The next day we had another early start which can only mean one thing - super awesome busy day planned! This day was the most anticipated of our trip as we were headed out to help at Chiang Mai Elephant home. On our arrival we got changed into some traditional clothing then made the elephants their daily multivitamin balls of banana, tamarind, raw sugar, salt and whole barley wrapped in a banana leaf. Unsurprisingly these went down very well with the elephants!

The sanctuary is currently home to 5 elephants, 2 adult females (both currently pregnant), 2 juvenile males and an 18 month old orphan.

The baby had learnt to squeeze under the fence and came running towards us with the intention of stealing as many bananas as possible.
 

After feeding them the bananas, fresh sugar cane and bamboo leaves a couple of the elephants wandered down to the mud wallow where everybody got in with them and slathered them in mud. We then went down to the river and what started as washing quickly deteriorated into a full blown water fight with the elephants joining in, they can spray water a surprisingly long way using their trunks!

The female elephant who had "adopted" the baby had been taught a trick before she was rescued by the sanctuary and was happy to give anyone a "kiss" for a small bribe of sugarcane.

We were absolutely amazed at the beauty and presence of these incredible animals and it was a real pleasure to be able to get so close and personal with them, definitely moments we will remember fondly for the rest of our lives.

To top of a fantastic day we treated ourselves to another massage before taking the long and wiggly road to Pai, a road famous for having no less than 726 switchbacks as it meanders through the mountains!

The next day we began a grand tour of Pai, first stop was the White Buddha with some more incredible Naga stairs.

Up next was Lod Caves with giant fish, thousands of birds, impressive stalactites and a lantern lit bamboo raft through the darkness.

After a quick dip in a natural hot spring we headed up to Pai canyon to catch the sunset before exploring more food markets with some of our tour group.

We enjoyed a slower pace the next day with poolside relaxing and a short trip to a Chinese settlement before another wander through the excellent street food markets in downtown Pai.

After another wiggly bus ride back to Chiang Mai we had a chef guided tour of a locals food market, where Amy got bonus points for recognising fresh galangal, before heading to a cooking school. 

After admiring the productive market gardens surrounding the school we got stuck in and over several hours each made Tom Yum soup, Pad Thai, Massaman Curry, chicken cashew stir fry and sticky rice with fresh mango.

We were all made to promise that as delicious the food was cooked using this technique it was NOT to be replicated in our home kitchens!

The last day of our tour was spent exploring more markets and doing some more shopping for souvenirs, our haggling skills slowly improving.

After saying lots of heartfelt goodbyes to the group we flew back to Bangkok and spent a full day relaxing in our hotel suite thanks to a suite (sweet, geddit?) upgrade due to our booked room having been damaged by previous guests. 

Despite the next day being a Saturday we headed downtown towards the grand palace to take in some of Thailand's most famous temples.

  

The palace was breathtakingly ornate and despite the heat we enjoyed exploring the palace temple complex, home to the emerald Buddha. 

As it is still technically the cold season in Thailand the Buddha statue was dressed in his winter robes. Our guide Mickey had mentioned at the beginning of our trip that Thailand actually has 3 seasons, hot, hotter and hottest. We are quite glad we visited in the cooler months, if 34°c can be called cool!

So that concluded our Thailand trip, we have made some wonderful new friends, lots of promises to host people should they find themselves in Devon and countless memories.

Onwards to Cambodia!