Nic Trips

Our third and final full day in Chiang Mai we spent at the Happy Elephant Sanctuary. This is a sort of rescue center for elephants that have been mistreated or misused in the past. Unlike the other elephant programs in the area that advertise riding the elephants, this one emphasized us taking care of the animals. We got bananas, banana trees and sugar cane and fed it to them, and generally took care of them rather than them being there for our entertainment. The first thing the native volunteers did when we arrived was write our names on our hands in Thai so they could remember what to call us. First, they gave us special clothes to wear. These clothes have scents that the elephants are very used to and recognize so they don't have to take time introducing us as strangers and making sure the elephants will be okay with us. Next they gave us a bag full of bananas. We spent a good while meeting the elephants and feeding them the bananas to get to know them. They h...

Due to our late night the previous, our second full day in Chiang Mai had a late start. We renewed our stay at the hostel, go some breakfast and then headed to the bike rental place to return our bikes and rent motorbikes instead! It was incredibly cheap, just 6$ for a day, and about 2$ to fill the tank. (we thought we needed to fill it, but then ended up barely using 1/4 of it) After getting out of the main road and out of the city, we drove up the same street we had biked down the day before. Only this time, the traffic was much heavier and we went much farther. I had always wondered what it'd be like to be on a small moped or motorbike zipping in and out of cars in heavy traffic to race ahead, and we got to experience it first hand! Although nerve racking and slightly worrisome at first, the more our confidence grew, the more fun we had. We had learned the previous day that the cars, and traffic in general, are very respectful towards and patient with bikes riding on th...