Our next day in Chiang Mai was event-filled.  After sleeping in, we rented a moped and donned our hiking boots and rain jackets.  This was my first time navigating a foreign roadway from the “wrong” side.  Although Thailand successfully resisted colonization by both the British and the French as no other SE Asian nation can claim, they unfortunately succumbed to the urge to drive on the wrong side of the road.  With Nicole constantly screaming in my ear “STAY LEFT” we made it safe and sound.  Following big groups of traffic: okay.  Empty roads with 1 oncoming vehicle: dangerous.

Our destination was the trailhead of a 1-2 hour hike up Doi Suthep.  Relying on Nicole’s interweb research, since hiking does not appear to be a local pasttime, we followed the blogs and pictures of other past hikers to stay on the right path.  It had rained earlier in the day, and it was starting to show as the bugs came out in full force.  At one point, we scrambled through a mosquito breeding ground, and I thought to myself “this is exactly what the travel clinic told us to avoid.  I hope we don’t get Malaria or Dengue Fever.”  Fingers are still crossed on that one.  Nicole got eaten up pretty badly since mosquitos like her more.

Welcome to the Jungle

Nicole trying to figure out where the trail is

We hiked past Wat Phalad, a small temple buried in the forest, and finished at Wat Prathat Doi Suthep near the top with some great views of Chiang Mai.

Dress code — no shorts!

The latter portion of the hike was through some pretty thick brush that I did not care for.  So we opted for a red-car ride down, in a songthaew, Chiang Mai’s version of a bus system is pickup trucks painted different colors. You negotiate your destination and rate with the driver, then hop in the back and hope for the best if you’re a foreigner.  We got within a mile of where we left the moped…good enough.

That night we made our way to a local Muay Thai boxing match.  Very interesting.  The Thai take this sport very seriously.  We were shocked at how young some of the fighters seemed, barely teenagers.  The 6 fights seemed to progress in maturity later into the evening.  In one fight, both the winner and the loser had to be carried out of the ring.  The main event was between female fighters from Brazil and Thailand.  Brazil won in a fun match.  During one of the intermissions, 4 fighters were brought out, blind-folded, and let loose on each other (and in some cases the ref).  It was rather humorous, but when they found a target, they let loose on them…

P.S. Happy belated b-day Gloria!

Thanks to another Jolley recommendation, our stay in Chiang Mai was at Baan Hanibah bungalow bed and breakfast (hmm, delicious sticky rice with mango/banana/taro). We arrived in the evening and grabbed dinner down the street at the rather romantic Ginger and Kafe restaurant, before an early bedtime in anticipation of the next day’s trip.

Pick-up for the Elephant Nature Park was promptly at 8am. The Elephant Nature Park is an animal sanctuary that rescues injured, mistreated, and abandoned animals, mostly elephants, but also dogs and cats. We spent the entire day feeding, bathing, and learning about the elephants, absolutely amazing animals and fascinating to watch. Elephants eat 10% of their body weight every day. All the fruit provided by the staff are merely snacks, supplementing the leaves that they eat on their own throughout the sanctuary. The latest baby elephant born in the park weighed in at a birth weight of 100kg, around 220 pounds! Unrelated, Ryan was one of three visitors at the elephant park that day wearing UT shirts. Small world.

Sniffing Ryan

Maybe she knows Ryan is hiding a watermelon

All they do is eat

Making friends with one of the older elephants

Mother and baby

Roaming down by the river

Protective mother and friend

This elephant spent over 30 minutes covering herself in mud

Finished mud product

Elephant washing

More elephant washing

Donning attire purchased at the elephant park — Excited to be wearing something new

Update on Ryan: We made it to Perth about 36 hours later than expected. Ryan felt well enough to fly, but still is not feeling great, and spent much of the past two days laying in the hotel room. Hoping he gets better soon!