my two year adventure: Chiang Mai

We arrived in Chiang Mai in the afternoon on New Year's Day. After getting settled (also known as a nap), we headed out to walk around town. We stopped at the night market to look at locals crafts and stuff and then to the food market which is a bunch of food vendors selling thai food dishes. I bought a piece of art (elephant in two different pieces of canvas in bright crazy colors). After walking around for awhile we decided it was necessary to get massages so we got a foot massage and head/shoulder massage - half an hour for each totaling 200 baht which is about $6.00. We then headed to a Muay Thai fight. Muay Thai is essentially a boxing match. In the beginning there were some real fights but then it turned pretty fake pretty quickly. We did see someone get knocked out and someone bleed in the ring to the point that they had to call that fight. It was only his leg, so nothing too serious. The fight wrapped up around midnight

On our first full day in Chiang Mai, we headed out of the city to catch a bunch of experiences and sites we wanted to accomplish while in northern Thailand. First, we went to the elephants at sae ma. We were planning just to go to an elephant ride but ended up seeing a show too. The elephant ride was very calm. Our guide, Suk, had been with our elephant, Billy for 17 years. Our elephant was 32 years old. We learned that they train them for 15 years before they are allowed to officially do anything. Training starts at the age of 2. Many of the elephants belong to local villages and they let the be used. They treat the elephants very well at the place we went to.

After our ride, they were about to start the elephant show (which we initially had no interest in, but we thought we would give it a chance). The show was rather impressive. The elephants shot basketballs, played soccer, painted pictures (amazing ones) and gave thai massages among other tricks. The best part was hanging out with them after.

http://instagram.com/p/isyvVjOEBf/

We then headed to the tiger kingdom where we spent time with large, medium and tiny tigers. They do not drug the tigers, but have pretty strict rules on how to approach the tigers. They prefer firm pets to soft ones as soft ones feel ticklish to them. The tigers were pretty active when we were in the cage with them and they even have cat toys that the guides use to play with them when they are not playing with each other. The tiny tigers were like kittens - super playful!

Next, we headed to an artisans village, think tourist trap, complete with shops selling silk, silver, jade and more. Basically were followed by a salesman the second you walked in. We could only tolerate a few of these shops.

We headed to a temple on the mountain called Doi Su Thup. More gold, more Buddhas and more decorated buildings...just like the last one.

On January 3rd, we went to a thai cooking class (Siam Rice Thai Cooking) with two of our classmates. After a brief market tour (much more tolerable than the hong kong market), we headed to a house to cook! We could pick what we wanted to make from a list of options. I made coconut chicken soup, hickey pad thai and pumpkin curry northern style. We left the class with a book of recipes from everything they make in the school. Not sure if I will be able to recreate without all the local ingredients but excited to try at some point.