Chang Mai, Elephants & Flowers.
A short flight from Krabi deposited us safely in Chiang Mai and what an arrival!
From the friendly welcome we received from the helpful, chatty taxi driver, we immediately knew we were going to love it! It’s 33° here and yet it still manages to feel cooler somehow!
Another great accommodation, V Lodge sees us a in split-level apartment with great hosts. A day of exploring the city, day and night markets, 3-D illusion museum and endless wanderings around the old town followed……..
Is All You Need
Before a day booked in visiting the Elephant Nature Park, a sanctuary for rescued, abused, injured and disabled elephants, that lies up into the hills beyond the numerous touristy “ride an elephant today” parks. Full of cats, dogs, buffalo and over 30 rescued elephants, this place is a not-for-profit organisation that focuses on doing the right thing rather than pandering to tourists who want to tick the ‘elephant ride’ off their bucket list. We spent a wonderful day here, with a small group of like-minded people who had come to see elephants do their thing in their natural habitat. Washing, feeding and stroking the giants was indeed a special treat and a highlight of our trip so far.
Another amazing evening followed. After all agreeing that we were not hungry and that we’d just have a short walk around the old town for a snack before an early bed, we found ourselves still up at 10:30pm sat in the Main Square watching a miniature Thai Prince and his didgeridoo ensemble. We made new friends, shared travelling stories, offered advice and received invitations to festivals, to join in with street acrobats and for Arlo to walk somebody’s dog. What a crazy night! Everyone followed this with a well deserved good night’s sleep, except for me who got some stomach bug and was up all night. It turned out to be just a 12/24 hour thing and I was fine by the time the other three returned from a day out in the city’s park.
https://youtu.be/9OhyekwwNh8
All that and we realised the whole city was to stop the next day for a massive flower festive and parade. Me and the kids watched the carnival in the morning whilst Col got her yoga fix and a body bending Thai massage and we still had time to see the city from the main temple Doi Suthep out up on the winding hill until the sun went down, returning for one last evening wander around the old town before bed.
An early run out to the train station on our last day saw me alone in the flower festival gardens before it got crazy busy, hit the 3 main Wats and bag ‘cancellation tickets’ for the later, faster, much more modern sleeper train to Bangkok and air con to boot! They even made it simple enough, with a minimal charge to exchange the tickets we had for the earlier train. This gave us most of the day to pack, blog, journal and catch up with online maths. A late lunch and take out wraps for tea fueled us up for the exciting night ahead! All Aboard!
9 COMMENTS
Happy now??????
Too busy living it to post about it – that’s the problem! We’re behind but a 4 hr stint waiting for a plane in Singapore might see the kids post updates
Finally a Prince reference!! About bloody time!
I was saving it for you. 💜
I’m very grateful 💜
Really amazing pictures. As you can see my tablet is up and running again. I don’t know how I managed it. Really lovely talking to you all this morning. Love nana gwen xx
Hola can you see this???
Ya we can.
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