We got to feed the elephants and bathe them in the river. Well, throw buckets of water on them. It was pretty fun. We were given a buffet lunch. Most of it was vegetarian and there were so many different dishes. It was crazy!
We spent a lot of time with the elephants. There are two babies there. They are just over 2 years old. In the video you can see them walking with the rest of their family group.
It was enlightening and fun. We did hear some very sad stories about the abuse some of these elephants went through, but it's good to know they have a safe place to live now, especially since they can live almost as long as humans.
-Miranda
Elephant video!
Elephant Nature Park
Feeding an elephant.
Elephant getting a bath.
The family coming with the mahouts (locals that watch the elephants).
The three of us hanging out with another elephant we got to feed.
Sandra getting a photo with two elephants. heehee
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We haven't done much while we've been here. We took a couple days off, where we mostly worked and relaxed. However, on Tuesday, we rented two scooters and went up a 'mountain' to Doi Sethup, a temple up there. It required climbing around 350 stairs, which wasn't too bad. The 'railing' of the stairs was a dragon, which was pretty neat. The temple was gorgeous. There are apparently 300 temples in Chiang Mai.
That evening was our cooking class! We made a curry paste, then the curry, plus 3 other dishes. Joe made Cashewnut stir fry, Tom Yum soup and Papaya Salad. I made Sweet and Sour stir fry, Coconut Milk soup and Spring Rolls. It was a lot of fun. The food was good and I feel like we learned quite a bit. We got a recipe book to keep also, which looks very helpful. Meither of us liked the soups all that much, but everything else was good.
-Miranda
Our awesome scooters.
Yep, I got the pink scooter with the Hello Kitty plate cover, plus that was the only helmet that fit my head. :p
The stairs up to the temple.
A building in the temple.
Cooking class!
Our teacher was pretty amusing. Yes, that's a little Winnie the Pooh purse thing.
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On the day we were leaving Bangkok, we had a bit of time, so we just wandered the nearby malls and shopping centers. The MBK Center is huge and has a cinema in it. We spent most of the day there. We even went to see Harry Potter. After 20 minutes of mostly commercials and about 4 previews for other movies, they played the National Anthem for Thailand, so everyone in the theater had to stand, then the movie finally started after some more clips about having your cell phone off, etc.
The train left at 10pm and we were supposed to arrive at 12:45pm. There were no more sleepers left, so we were in seats, but at least they reclined. We all got some sleep, fortunately. However, at around 10:30am, two hours from our destination, the train started stopping randomly and would backup a little then jerk to a stop. We eventually made it to a small train stop where we stopped. Finally someone came through the cars and said there was an accident. He made it sound like it was further down the tracks. When we asked him how long, he said an hour. We eventually decided that we thought it was a problem with the train and 'accident' was the only English word he knew that was close.
Eventually we started moving again only to get a kilometer or two down the tracks and back all the way back to where we started.... After sitting for a bit again, we left, yet again. This time we made it to the next big station, where we were told to get off an get on a bus. When we asked how far to Chiang Mai, they said, two hours. Anyway, we eventually made it to Chiang Mai, though we were 4 hours late. After dinner, we walked through the night market, scoping things out to buy later. After getting back to the hostel, we found out that the market was only there on Sunday nights, so we headed back out and did some cheap shopping.
-Miranda
On the train. At least smoking wasn't allowed (technically).
Our train, just hanging out.
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We didn't do much in Kuta. We found some yummy Mexicanish food and that was pretty much it. Sandra's flight left early, so she was up and gone before 7am. We left at 10am. Once we were in line to check in our bags, I went to the kiosk to get our tickets and noticed that Joe and put in 'Lieffring' instead of 'Durbin' for my ticket!!! Let's just say I was incredibly nervous since I had no idea what would happen. To my surprise, the person at the counter didn't say anything about it. We then went through immigration. They didn't say anything either. Last, going through security, they didn't even look at the ticket, let alone care. So, yeah... The name on my ticket and the name on my passport didn't match, but I was able to get on the flight without a problem. Huh.
We met up with Sandra in Bangkok, took the train to the city, then worked on finding a place. It was Sandra's birthday the next day, so we wanted some place nice. We're in a very nice hotel where a separate bed fits in the living room. Yes, the hotel room has a living room. :D We headed to the nearby mall for a very yummy dinner of sushi.
This morning, we found breakfast, then went to find Little India. We went through a section Chinatown, which was a bit crazy. A narrow walkway through shops. It took us a while to find Little India, or really very many good Indian restaurants. We eventually found one and had a good lunch. Since then we've just been hanging out in the hotel relaxing. Tomorrow we head out on an overnight train to Northern Thailand.
-Miranda
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In the morning we got up and headed out for a dive. The goal was Manta Point and Crystal Bay if the conditions were good. We got to Crystal Bay and went in. There were fish everywhere. The water was pretty chilly, but it was still pretty neat. We were looking for Mula Mula (Sunfish) which are huge and apparently hang out in that area. We didn't get to see any. :( Oh well.
Next we headed to Manta Point. They spotted mantas from the boat, so we hopped in. It was very cool. We weren't in very deep water, so we could have brought the camera, but we didn't know that before going in. Oh well. We saw around 6 manta rays. Two were almost completely black. It turned out to be a great last dive.
The rest of the day was mostly spent relaxing. We had yummy pizza at a restaurant near our place. It was cracker thin crust. They even had popcorn as an appetizer. :D Right before our pizza came out the power went out. We got to eat in the dark, well, to candle light. Very fun.
Today we head to Kuta, which is near the airport so we can fly to Bangkok tomorrow.
-Miranda
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