We had finally arrived in Chiang Mai—a city we had been looking forward to since the day we stepped foot in Thailand. We had a long checklist of things to do, places to see and food to eat. It started with the most important: food. We started with the most important of food: sushi. Yes, we ate raw fish in Thailand (Hello, G-Unit). And no, we didn’t not get traveler's diarrhea. Thank Buddha. After inhaling disgusting amounts of salmon, tuna and crab, we returned to Julies Guesthouse, an alleged travelers' oasis. By the next morning we realized it was an oasis for travelers of all sorts: backpackers, schnitzles, and, yes, you guessed it, bed bugs. Again. That night found Jen and Cam sharing the twin size mattress of the bottom bunk bed sticking to each other fighting for prime fan real-estate.
The second most important thing in life after sushi is the chance to play with a handful of tiger cubs. We tuk-tuked our tushies (hah B-sun) to the tiger kingdom, a complex that fosters the mingling of humans and tigers ranging from 5 months to 12 years old. We snuggled with these beautiful beasts, rested our heads on their stomachs and watched as they playfully roared and tumbled around on the cold cement floor.
Our next adventure was called Flight of the Gibbons, an infrastructure of zip-lines that transports you from treetop to treetop in the canopy of the thick Thai jungle. Aside from being afraid of heights and scared that an oafy Israeli man would snap the line, we flew through the forest side by side. The final descent back to earth involved abseiling 40 meters, dropping a couple hundred feet in just a couple seconds all the while trusting that the tiny Thai man could hold a weight seemingly twice his size. When we touched down we looked straight up, quite impressed with the distance we had covered, the fears we had overcome and the exhilarating day we just had.
With our next endeavor it’s hard to know where to begin. By the end of the day we had both decided that we hit our peak at age 23…our day at Patara Elephant Conservatory was and will be the best of our lives. It started with the pairing of an elephant and mahout (elephant trainer) for each of us. We learned how to check if they are happy, if they slept well, and if their dung smells right. We fed them a basket of bananas and sugar cane in an attempt to get acquainted letting our fingers be engulfed by massive, sloppy and gooey elephant tongues. We brushed them off with giant palm leaves and learned to communicate with them using Thai commands. Pai Dee Dee! We brought them to a nearby stream, washed and scrubbed their rough, textured skin, and learned how and where to sit to ride them properly and comfortably. We spent the next couple of hours with our knees tucked behind our elephants’ ears and our hands resting lightly on the top of their fat, hairy heads. We trudged through the forest, sneaking through crevices that a human could hardly manage to squeeze into. The experience was so surreal that we often times weren’t sure whether we were in the midst of a video game, at Disneyland, or actually in Thailand. Jens elephant’s decision to start galloping brought us back to reality quite quickly. Jen’s near fatal experiences on trip so far: 3 and counting. We eventually arrived at a small waterfall with a pool large enough to fit four or five elephants and a few humans. We joined these majestic creatures as they cooled off in the water, dove under, and playfully splashed water out of their trunks. We repeatedly pinched ourselves every so often, reminding each other that yes, this was real, we were swimming in a waterfall in Thailand with elephants. After lunch we returned to the main camp where our elephants were given a break and we got to meet twin baby elephants born just a couple of months ago. Perplexed as to how these two baby giants could have ever fit inside another animal, it was a pleasure to see just how large they were, even as children. Later in the afternoon, we rode an elephant together through endless rows of rice paddies and into a small stream with stones that massaged the bottom of the elephants’ feet. When we arrived at our final destination, we smothered our elephants with bananas galore, received a hug from the trunk of the smallest elephant and reluctantly dragged ourselves away. Our time at Patara was over, but we knew then that we would remember this day forever.
Knowing that Patara would be an impossible act to follow, we signed up for an activity as different and difficult as possible. Ok, not as difficult as possible… we hoped to mountain bike a level one course but we unwillingly and unknowingly were placed on a level three. The day was disastrous, to say the least. We both had particularly embarrassing and bad falls off the bikes, one fall resulting in a loss of dignity (cough jen) and the other resulting in a slightly bloody chin (cough cam). (Jen's near fatal accident: 4.) We trampled our way over rocks, streams and an entire mountain, ending dozens of miles later with a depleted water supply and a depleted morale. It was beautifully exhausting.
Our last day in Chiang Mai was reserved for temple hopping, our new favorite pastime. We visited the international Buddhist center at Doi Suthep, located at the peak of a mountain with spectacular city views, roaming monks, burning incense, and tulip offerings. Nestled in the clouds, this temple was surreal. Our next stop was an off the beaten track forest temple, complete with moss covered stone, tunnels, meditation caves, and orange monastic robes hanging to dry. The sounds of the city were too far to hear and life was peaceful in this oasis of Buddhism.
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