Tom, Jess, Hanisha, Sophie and I hired bikes for the afternoon to adventure around the city. The majority of us were confident riding around on the Thai roads with cars and mopeds wizzing past us. But if you talk to others in the party they may disagree that it was a lovely peaceful afternoon riding around. We passed and stopped off at different beautiful temples and markets before finding a bar to recover in and have a cider (which was delightful as cider is hard to find out here). In the evening we found a cute restaurant for dinner and then had a few drinks round the camp fire.
The next day was Jess' birthday and what a day it was. We wanted to do something very special for her day so we organised a day at the Elephant Nature Park. We all love elephants but not nearly as much as Jess so it was the perfect birthday present for her. Well I hope it was, I think her constant smile throughout the day showed us it was. Having said that we were all smiling the whole day. The elephants were adorable. I had very mixed views about elephant care before coming to Thailand and what was right and wrong and what hurt them and what didn't, but this place certainly told me more than enough about the right way they should be treated. Please check out their website and go visit if you can http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/
Throughout the day we got to feed them bananas and watermelon, walk around the park and explore their home. None of the elephants are tired up or ridden, they each have a Mahout that looks after them and with positive reinforcement keeps them in check, especially the young boy elephants who can be a little naughty. We learnt about there individual stories and where they had come from, some of which were so sad, but so lovely they had now been rescued. The day finished by giving them a wash in the river and splashing them with buckets of water.
That night after a trip to the night market, where I spent too much money on souvenirs, we put on our glad rags and headed out for Jess' birthday. We danced the night away at Zoe's in the Yellow. Zoe's is a cool cluster of bars and dance floors playing music from Thai reggae to main stream chart music, there was something for everyone!
After the night out and a little too much to drink the next day ended up being a very chilled lazy day, we wondered down the street, found a Thai massage by blind people and snoozed by the tree house. That evening we had the pleasure of being reunited with our Thai trainer Rungwit from Koh Samui who lives in Chiang Mai with his wife (Nadine who also works for TEFL Heaven so a lot of us knew her from emails) and their adorable son Ollie. Rungwit put on a lovely BBQ and we all chatted and caught up with the gossip within the TEFL family.
The next day was mine and Sophie's last day in Chiang Mai before our flight back to Bangkok. In the morning with Hanisha we ventured up the mountain to Doi Suthep a beautiful temple on the top and to "find the beauty". As per usual the Thai temple didn't let us down in how magnificent it was, Unfortunately the view from the top overlooking the city was unseen due to it being misty. Nevertheless the trip up the mountain was worth it.
Back in Bangkok, Sophie and I bought in the New Year from my balcony and watched as the city came alive with fireworks. We filled New Years Day with a whistle stop tour of the sites of Bangkok for Sophie to experience before her flight back to Jakarta.
With Love from Thailand xxx
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