Full disclosure: the only reason we thought about visiting northern Thailand was to try food I saw on a TV show with Anthony Bourdain. Then we were talking with scuba diving friends who had a wonderful time at an elephant camp outside of Chiang Mai. Just like that, it was added to our itinerary after Bangkok. And we’re glad it was!

We arrived at the train station promptly at 1pm and were bombarded by tuk tuk and taxi drivers. Because we already booked accommodations and knew it was about 2 miles away, we figured we would walk (it’s always good to stretch the legs after a long travel day). Throughout the whole walk, tuk tuk drivers pulled over, yelled and honked at us hoping we would jump on for a ride – they were very pushy in Chiang Mai! It’s actually the most attention we’ve received while walking streets in Southeast Asia.

Upon checking into our hostel, Kikie’s House, we were provided a map with attractions circled and the host recommended we visit the regular Sunday market. We headed out to wander the streets and visit a temple but quickly realized we couldn’t miss the Sunday market. The main street in town was closed to traffic and rows of vendors were lining the streets. We were pleasantly surprised that many were selling handmade goods (vendors even working their crafts to add to the inventory while on the street). Because it seemed like everything was authentic and local, they were hard to pass up (we ended up having to ship a box home)! Eventually, Will had to grab my hand and lead me away to ensure our budget did not get off track.

That night, we were excited to try the food stall I found via Netflix several month prior. Actually, I had only remembered that the food is cooked by a woman wearing a cowboy hat. Luckily, she is popular enough (mostly with Chinese travelers) that it was easy to find on the Internet. The dish is khao kha moo or stewed pork leg served over rice with a boiled egg. There are also chili peppers, raw garlic cloves and pickled mustard greens available on the table to customize your plate (we only added the pickled greens). The pork is moist and super flavorful. Coupled with the pickled flavor provides a nice contrast. It almost resembles a New Years day pork and sauerkraut dinner but we joked it was the Chinese New Year version. We loved it and ended up eating there every night (3 times total).

 

The next morning, we headed outside of town to visit the Chang Siam Elephant Mahout Training School. Our two day elephant experience started with getting familiar with the elephants and learning some basic commands. The first command was “baan”- the elephants lift their trunk so you can feed them directly. After that came riding commands – “bai” is go and “how” means stop. Easy enough to learn but once we got on, the elephant didn’t listen to us at all. There were nine of us in the group and we all took turns climbing onto the elephants and feeding them. It was amazing how smart they were! One elephant would grab a banana with his trunk then keep coming back for more till he had 3 or 4 bananas in his grasp before eating them all at once.

After a day of learning, riding and cleaning elephants, most of the tourists went home but we had purchased the two day experience so we were going to spend the night at the camp. Two of the elephants trainers decided to go fishing for dinner and invited us to help. This is when we realized they were fishing with fireworks and was quite the spectacle! The fish went into our curry dinner and was very tasty.

We spent the rest of the evening relaxing by the fire and drinking “water Thailand” (or moonshine). The elephant trainers were very interested in talking to us and asked questions through our tour guide, Vin. They wanted to know how old we were, where we were from, the type of climate in our hometowns and the type of farming conducted in our home states. They said they wished the could speak better english so they could chat with us more. We also enjoyed learning about their families, the elephants and their working practices. Our nights stay was peaceful and were able to listen to the elephants, chickens and pigs rustle just outside our cabin. The next morning, we went on a private trek and even got to play with the baby elephant but I’ll save that for the video!

After we got back from the elephant adventure, we decided to leave Thailand and continue on to Laos. It took some time to find a travel agent that had any options for the city we were trying to visit (Vang Vieng), but eventually lucked out buying the last two seats on an overnight minibus.