The Creatures of Chiang Mai

If you missed part 1 of our adventures in Chiang Mai, be sure to go back and check it out. And Bangkok, too. We had a great time in Thailand, though we are happy to be "home" in Cambodia, where God has clearly called us for this season of our lives. 

There was so much we wanted to do in Chiang Mai. We literally had an excel spreadsheet with every hour mapped out.  We wanted to go to the totally awesome zoo they had there, but we had also heard about a cool Night Safari, and we knew we couldn't do both. On the day of arrival as we had maps spread out before us and our spreadsheet open and a couple "natives" there to give us advice, we quickly decided that we had more time at night than in the day and in combination with locations of each, we opted for the night safari instead of the zoo. We were glad we did. They have the same animals and it's even cooler because you get to see them at night! Cue the scary (but fun) music.

And you get to walk through this:

And the whole place is beautiful like this:

We arrived before dark, when the place was pretty much empty.  It was great because the kids don't stay up too late so we were able to see lots of animals before dark, like any other zoo.  We walked around and were able to get up close and personal with lots of animals.  

He's standing like a flamingo in case you didn't notice his cute little self.

Pretty bird picture at twilight

That door is not locked.  The only thing holding that juvenile tiger in is that little bamboo stick.  Which Stephen was baffled by. But I can't imagine why that scares anyone?  It's just a cute little kitty cat, right? And we're in a perfectly safe place with rules and regulations for sure, right?  

No one was watching the kitty because they were watching the parade that had just begun as it was twilight.

I have no idea what the story was here but it was fascinating.  That queen lady came in on an elephant and they all sang and danced and then a parade of people dressed like that came in carrying animals or walking them on leashes.  I saw a lemur, monkey, python, tiger, parrot, and more that I don't remember. They let the people come right up and touch them. Then they danced some more. One of the elephants was dancing and swinging his trunk. I tried to get a video but he was camera shy. (In other words I was too slow but am blaming it on the 2 ton giant).

After dinner at the zoo - food post coming next blog post! - we climbed on a tram and went on a night safari. I was on the end and the animals were coming right up to me and nibbling on things - like my camera strap - so I didn't get too many photos.  Here are a few.  They were feeding them as we went by, hence the hippo's big mouth.

Since we have seen monkeys pretty much everywhere we've been in Cambodia, we had to venture out to find some in Thailand too.  And like everything else that was much more advanced in Thailand, so were the monkeys!  We went to a show and were really impressed.  Those little guys are pretty smart!

Baby monkey

The introductions:  Hugs and kisses

The show started by demonstrating how they teach the monkeys to pick coconuts from trees, first at a low level, then higher, then from a real tree. They twist them around and around until they fall. Here in Cambodia I've seen kids at the park up in the trees doing that before, while the older men use knives and cut them down. 

  

Part 2 of the show they were just showing off.  They did some really incredible stuff!  They could choose numbers when we called them out, even when they were in random order, and they were constantly folding their little hands, which is the Asian equivalent of a bow.  They were super cute.  Here were some of our favorite tricks:

But everyone knows monkeys are smart, right? And cute. And fun. Or, I've always thought so. Elephants, though.  Elephants are giant wonderful magnificent creatures. We went to the Mae Sa Elephant Camp, which has been praised by pretty much everyone we've ever met who has ever been to Chiang Mai.  

Did it hold up to its reputation?  

Definitely. Oh, yeah! What a great place! What a great day! 

So it started with a show. We saw there were 2 shows - one at 8am and another at 940. Which would we choose? Well, since our kids are usually wide awake, dressed, and fed by 7am, we figured we'd go for the 8:00 show. We were the first ones to arrive and took the VIP seating. By the time they started the show, we were still the only ones in the audience and it stayed that way the whole show, but they did the whole show anyway.  They climbed on and the show began!

They played soccer! Here's a video (below) if you want to see it. The commentary is pretty funny too. We felt like we had to cheer a lot since we were the only people in the audience.

They painted pictures. And not just ugly, blobs of paint on paper. No... really nice, beautiful, better-than-I-could-ever-dream-of-painting-and-I'm-a-homo-sapien paintings!

And I got to be in the show!

At the end of the show they all came over and put hats on us and took them off, wrapped slimy trunks around us, made noises and wiggled those funny looking noses all sorts of ways. It was so fun! They also gladly took money from us for tips and gave it to their trainers.  

Anyone notice that guy is wearing a Louisiana letter jacket? Wonder what the story behind that is?  

Then it was our turn to ride the elephants. 

We didn't just hop on and ride around in a circle, either. We got a whole hour of riding up a real mountain through a jungle on the back of an elephant. This was a little village we passed as we we walked, and a small elephant was tied up down the trail.  

See? Totally awesome experience. Just as I was thinking it wasn't fair that all the pictures would be of Stephen because I had the camera and couldn't photograph myself, I realized that my elephant trainer guy - called a mahout - had telepathy because he turned around and said "photo?" I said sure and handed him the camera but he shocked me by what he did next!

He climbed off the elephant and we just kept walking! He took a bunch of photos and my elephant just left him there! Good thing they don't move too fast though. He was able to catch us after not too long. 

See how the mahouts ride? They just sit on the head. I wanted to try it so badly. Maybe somewhere in Cambodia a mahout would let me do that.  

We ended the journey by letting our precious beasts cool off in the water and have a drink. They stood there a long time before the mahouts could get them to leave. Then we headed back where we gladly bought them a snack before we said goodbye. It was such a wonderful day that none of us will ever forget.  

I'll let the elephants close for me.  

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Well, our next stop after Bangkok was Chiang Mai, Thailand.  It was amazing and fun and we did way too much to put into one blog post, but I will try to keep it to just two - plus a Thai food one after that for all the people requesting that!  So here, we go - lots of photos, just a few words. Or, that's the plan.  But I'm only just now beginning...

In Cambodia, anything goes.  But we don't have a car.  In Thailand we got to borrow one so we let our three year old drive.

Totally kidding of course.  Actually we are extremely grateful to a super amazing couple from the IJM office in Chiang Mai who not only offered us their home during our visit, but also their car.  We have no idea how to thank them enough for their hospitality and we do hope they come to visit us in Cambodia so we can at least try! We had a lovely time seeing where they live and work, visiting IJM Chiang Mai, and experiencing things with them we might not have been able to do if we'd only been "tourists" for our visit - like eating the best NY style pizza we've had in 6 months! So thank you so much. You know who you are and I hope you know how grateful we are. And I hope you know we didn't ACTUALLY let our little one drive your car :)  

And did anyone else notice the steering wheel placement? Yes, they drive on the left side of the road. So, Stephen hadn't driven in 6 months and suddenly had to do it on the other side of the road. It was amazing how well he did it - and how he drove just like all the other crazy drivers out there!

ANYway...

"Old City" Chiang Mai is surrounded by a moat and used to have a wall around it.  At each corner you can still see remnants of that wall.  I got zero photos of that.  Oops.  Here's some of the water and the birds around it.  

The next day, after we started to get a feel for the roads and where things were, we got up early and headed out to the Bo Sang Umbrella Festival.  Bo Sang is the name of the village and they make umbrellas and paint them by hand. This is what we were greeted with, and it's what the whole town looked like. Pretty cool.

As you can surely see, it's not just umbrellas. It's paper lanterns, umbrellas of all types, paper flowers, fans, those Christmasy lights you hang outdoors, and all types of things.  

We got to paint our own, too.

That sweet lady showed us how to do it. Then Stephen was helping the kids and they got up and ran away and he kept trying to "fix" what they'd done. Some European couple walked by and saw just him sitting there working on an umbrella painted by a 3 year old and the man says "That's what mine would look like if I painted one." Stephen didn't get to defend himself before the man was gone. I laughed hysterically thinking that man thought he painted it! Here's the finished products:

After painting we saw these girls getting ready for the parade while we ate lunch.  We weren't totally sure of the event order because the map and information was in Thai, so we were glad to know it was coming soon.  They got on a moto and headed out and we stayed put waiting for the big event.

The first event was these ladies riding bicycles with their umbrellas.  They were all dressed the same and wearing numbers. We gathered it was also a beauty pageant.

This little girl above was walking along with them trying to be one of them.  So cute!

And then the parade began.  It actually started with a real marching band like USA parades do but then this followed, and it was way more interesting  That's a big contraption all connected but made up of lots of different instruments with all the boys playing different parts of it. This part was called the "cultural parade." Or that's what someone told us I think. Here's one of the floats:

See the fingers?  Weird.  

And those are the girls we saw get on the moto earlier.  We guessed maybe they were winners last year?  But we were just guessing.  No clue why their dresses are different than everyone elses and they get to ride on a float instead of bicycles.   

And alas, it was over.  He couldn't even make it to the car before he crashed.  He slept like that.  We walked slow enough that we caught the end of the parade and people started pointing at him and taking his picture. 

That one's just for fun.

After a nap in the car our friend took us to the night market where you can find ANYthing and all sorts of unique gifts.  The boys bought Muay Thai boxer shorts and I got a couple things, too.  

I thought these turtle shell guitar things were pretty neat.  Photo worthy neat.  

And then we saw people playing rattan ball.  It's a sport like Volleyball, but you only use your FEET.  Seriously. The ball is made of that rattan stuff - like wicker/bamboo something or other and they kick it over the net.  It was pretty amazing to watch, though hard to capture in a photo, especially since it was in low light.  

After a bit we took a drive up a mountain called Doi Sutep.  Doi means mountain.  There's some Thai education for you :).  When we got to the top we saw all of Chiang Mai.  It was a bit hazy, but still a great sight.

I thought the monks taking in the view made a neat photo.  

And a monk taking a photo made a neat photo, too, or so I thought. I don't know why, but it made me chuckle a bit.

Sometimes it's easy to forget that these are sacred places to them.  I'm just a tourist visiting a neat, pretty, interesting place, but to them it's a religious place, often holy and sacred.  Below you'll see a photo of people placing coins in cups as an offering.  I don't know the meaning or the purpose of it.  I have learned a bit about Buddhism but there is so much I still don't have a clue about.  

And there's a family picture in front of one of the gold monuments in the temple on top of the mountain.

Those girls are from one of the mountain hill tribes in northern Thailand.  It's kind of like Native Americans in USA.  They are Thai people but live in a way separate from the others.  They were at the temple that day dancing and collecting money.  I'm not sure if they do that everyday or not.  They were just children but if you wanted them to look at you, you had to pay money for a photo.

Here are a couple more photos from the top of the mountain, around the temple.

Many bells to ring, again, don't know the semblance of that

Orchids

Garden with small wooden children with open mouthed smiles, seen often in northern Thailand.

On the road back down the mountain that wound around and around for many kilometers, we stopped at a National Park to see a couple waterfalls we had heard were gorgeous.  It wasn't much of a hike, and the kids could do it themselves, which they thought was pretty fun.

They sure were a sight to see!  Can you spot the Schiffman Men?

Above was waterfall #1 and below is #2, which only Stephen could cross those wet rocks to get to.

And that's all the photos of the 1000+ I have to show you for now.

Except for all the animal ones.  And that includes elephants playing soccer, monkeys riding bicycles, tiny baby tigers, zebras almost eating out of our hands (if only we'd had food),  hippos with their mouths wide open waiting for food, and so much more.  That's for the next post.  The animals of Chiang Mai.  Tomorrow.  I promise.

For now, here's a dog driving a car we saw at the night market.  And some fashionable tie dyed leggings in the background. Thailand was pretty awesome.

See you tomorrow...