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Hello from Thailand again,
We have returned to Thailand after an overnight bus, long-boat ride and mini-bus ride from Laos. Total travel time: 22hr non-stop. Needless to say, we were happy to arrive at our small guest house for some rest. The following day, we toured the "old city" district in Chiang Mai which features almost 300 temples. We visited some of the larger ones and took lots of pictures. Each buddist temple is uniquely and ornately decorated and the monks attending to them were very kind. The following day we toured an orchid farm with sported 50lbs+ coy fish. After that we visited a Karon village, whose people are native to Burma (Myanmar) and wear long, very heavy coils around their necks. This was followed by an hour ride on an asian elephant. I was allowed to ride right on the neck of these enormous elephants and the experience was exhilarating. I knew elephants were large but to see one up close and to see how incredibly strong they are was very surreal. We then trekked into the jungle to visit and swim in a waterfall which was very refreshing as the jungle was sweltering. This was followed by white water rafting and then a short bamboo raft ride (which was more like a bamboo submarine ride, but we made it to shore.) LC was a little spooked by the rapids, but I think she had a great time. It was a very eventful day.
The following day was spent at the elephant nature park. This is a reserve for injured elephants and was truly the favorite part of the trip. We spent the day feeding the elephants (30 elephants, 40 water buffalo and 100's of rescued dogs), bathing them and just walking around with them. Many were blinded or injured from logging or landmines but each elephant was accompanied by a handler (mahout) and for their incredible size, they were very gentle. LC's favorite part was to get reasonably close to and observe a 5-day old baby elephant. She fell in love at first site and swears she will own a baby elephant one day. After that day, we were physically and emotionally exhausted.
The following day was spent at an all-day Thai cooking class which began at the local market, where we sampled coconut milk and deep-fried bamboo worms, and then to the culinary school which included instruction and cooking of seven dishes a piece, which we had to also eat. We made soups and salads and curries and stir-fry and others that I can't even remember. We were stuffed at the end of that day. That night, we walked to the arena to watch traditional Muay Thai kickboxing. We cheered through seven fights, including female boxers, 12 year-old boys fighting, the "special" flight which consisted of seven blind-folded fighters swinging at each other all at the same time (hilarious), and a few main event fights.
Yesterday we spent much of the day at the internet cafe working on future employment prerecquisites and spent the evening at the bustling night market. Today we have packed all of our things and are waiting to board our overnight, second-class sleeper train back to Bangkok. We have a few more sights to see and food to try in Bangkok, but will return home soon.
More to come...
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