Chiang Mai, Thailand

August 6-8th: National Day Weekend

We headed to Chiang Mai, Thailand for Singapore's 45th birthday. Chiang Mai is Northern Thailand and so very different from the Southern parts we have been to. It is located near the border of Laos and Burma in the mountains, it used to be the capitol of Thailand but was invaded too many times by Burma and Laos so they moved the capitol to Bangkok. It has a wall around the old city, where we stayed at this quaint boutique hotel, which I highly recommend to anyone needing a couple retreat within the city.

We brought our college friend along with us, Phil. Not sure if this was the kind of holiday he was envisioning but I had a blast playing with and seeing all he animals. Chiang Mai is known for mainly trekking, we didn't have enough time to do an eco trek into Laos so we opted to see all the animals, and yes, another temple! I swore to myself, no more temples that didn't mean anything to me, but this time we had a guide that actually told us more about the temples and culture. It made it much more interesting.

So here are the pictures...

Hotel was Great!

The beers we cheap!

Roof top bar, the guy in the black had some crazy hair!

Connect Four at the bar, why not?

Elephants at the bars... it was a highlight one night.

You know you are in Thailand when... the guy next to you has an elephant?

Muay Thai Boxing

Phil was winning his bets at this point but quickly lost everything.

Tiger Kingdom

Also swore I would never do this, because I thought they abused the animals. It actually was the opposite. Of coarse they were making money off these animals but also had to take care of them and keep them happy?

I would only go into the cages with the small tigers, had heard too many stories about the big ones getting upset and people losing faces.

Dirk makes this tiger look small, they were just babies.

They actually really wanted to play but were also really tired.

Yawn... he was bored with us.

They weren't cuddly either, very hard and bristly.

Phil got in the cage with the big one!

AIG insured this place, you had to sign your life away before going in.

Elephant Camp

They were so happy taking baths in the river and playing in the water!

The show.

The hula hooped.

Played soccer

Painted pictures. This was the only part that I thought was mean, the rest they really demonstrated all their skills they used to use the elephants for in the forest for logging and what not.

This guy was my favorite!

He got tired of taking pictures and put his trunk up. Ha!

The paintings they painted, pretty good!

Picture time.

They were really engaging, wanting human contact and really curious!

The wall around the old city.

Muay Thai Boxing

Phil and his Tuk Tuk ride- the local taxi.

Dirty hippie bar. It should have been condemned it was so dirty!

View from the hippie bar.

At the zoo... I like to call this one...

Driving while talking on the phone... oh driving an ELEPHANT!

This guy was pretty impressive!

I wanted to go to the zoo for the PANDAS! They only were on exhibit from 9-11AM.

It was feeding time, the cool thing about this zoo, all the animals were out and being fed!

Momma & baby eating.

It looks like they eat wood?

Interesting way to drink water?

AND one dirty butt, obviously a male!

The male gorging himself on wood?

It was weird, they had some local market going on in the zoo right next to the lion enclosure. They were blaring music and this lion was just taking it all in. Like it was a normal Saturday afternoon, looking at the tourist?

Temple on the hill.

Thai children in original dance garb.

Receiving my good luck from the Buddhist monk.

Found out those purple flowers are lotus flower and suppose to bring good luck.

I thought people were crazy in Bangkok for dipping them in water and putting them over their heads... I guess it makes more sense now? Same idea as getting a blessing?

GONG!

I want ONE!

Go figure that the engineers are figuring out the bells?

They all made a different sound.

Singha Lion. Guardians of temples.

Also great Thai Beer! hehe

More lotus flowers.

Buddhist daily offering temple outside the hotel.

Offer their goods each morning.

It really was an awesome trip. I am not an animal activist and was a little worried how I would feel about all the animals in cages and performing for you. They actually seemed really happy and the Thai people believe in reincarnation and luck so are rarely an abusive culture. It was a positive experience for sure.

We got our fortures told and they were pretty interesting. I will have to share in another blog.

Next up CHINA... Beijing for the Great Wall and Forbbiden City and maybe Xian for the Terracotta Warriors.