Chiang Mai in Central Thailand...

Okay, so we left Koh Chang and after another night in Bangkok at The New Siam II, we flew up to Chiang Mai. There are several local Thai airlines that offer really inexpensive flights that make the decision to fly much easier. We save time, see more and they're such cheap flights that it's easy to justify.

We arrived at the airport after a quick flight and grabbed a taxi who dropped us off at our cute little guesthouse, The Sri Pat Guesthouse. We arrived on a Sunday and it just happened to be the last day of the annual Flower Festival in Chiang Mai. The festival was within walking distance of our guesthouse so we cruised out to see the town. The festival was incredible. There were floats in the middle of the street that were constructed completely out of flowers. On the sides of the street were different categories of flowers: orchids, rhododendrons, vermiliads, etc. all hanging inside little shade structures that you could walk under. Some of the flowers in each category had won for their class and were sporting ribbons for first, second, and third places. It was really a sight to see hundreds of these beautiful flowers lining the streets. Further down the way there were food merchants selling all kinds of interesting stuff to eat. A park was filled with Thai locals sitting on mats on the grass and enjoying their peaceful sunday. It was feeling good to get into a big city and have an event to go see that was mostly locals and very few tourists.

Flower Festival Floats

Sunday in Chiang Mai also boasts the Sunday market which is an intersection of two streets that shoots out for a mile in all four directions with nothing but cute little vendors hocking their wares. In Bangkok the people selling their stuff were much more pushy and we found ourselves happy to not have to deal with "i make very good price for you" every time we stopped to look at the items for sale. It was here that I found my "Buddha of Gratitude".

Sunday Night Street Market

On one of our days in Chiang Mai we took a windy taxi ride up to a wat (temple) that is on the side of the mountain overlooking the valley below. The wat is called Doi Suthep and it's incredible. You climb up a bunch of stairs and at the top is one of the most beautiful wat's I've seen yet. There are golden Buddhas lining the courtyard and these really impressive golden spires that shoot up into the sky. The monks that we met were very sweet and in one of the temples, Maggie and I were blessed by a monk who spoke very good English. I went crazy and took a gazillion pictures up there. I'll post some of them soon.

Maggie at the entrance to Doi Suthep

Chiang Mai is also a city that is known for being close to some of the best elephant camps. We were still holding out faith that there was a way to get close to the elephants in a respectful way but this time we were going to do our research. There was a place called the Thai Elephant Conservation Center that looked promising but when you read the itinerary of your "mahout training" it included training them to do tricks and then watching the "elephant show" where they perform these tricks. (it's worth checking their site cause they have rad pictures updated daily). This didn't seem like what we were looking for. Then, thankfully Maggie found us the most amazing organization. They're called The Elephant Nature Park and soon as they get "foundation status" will be The Elephant Nature Foundation. This place is so incredible and so inspiring that I'm going to have to write an entire entry just about our two days there.

More soon!

Giving our new friend Lilly a bath.