The Honeymoon Tales - Chiang Mai

Before I start telling you about our stay in northern Thailand, let me rewind to our last day in Bangkok. We decided to spend it in Ayutthaya - a city that was once the capital of the Siam Kingdom. Famous for its historic sites and temples, my husband we could not pass it up ! 

We got lost in the historical park (a UNESCO world heritage site) and ended up having one of the best meals of our trip. We walked around the historic city in the sweltering heat and visited the main temples.

In the afternoon we were exhausted and ready to go back to the city - but the only trains available at this hour were the cheap, crowded trains without A/C. We waited for about 2 hours at the train station (let's just say Thailand's train system isn't the most efficient) and embarked on what I would call an epic train ride. Never again, but it was fun. Needless to say we were really glad to have chosen to fly to Chiang Mai the next day !

We arrived in Chiang Mai after a very smooth flight with Bangkok Airways. Our hotel was amazing and we went right for the pool before hitting the animated Sunday Night Market where we bought cute souvenirs and yummy food. The next day was spent touring a few of the many temples of Chiang Mai.

We tried to take it all in - and in pictures (we have taken over 1400 photos during our trip) !

We learned that monks live by 227 rules, or precepts. Female monks, or Mae Ji (they are not ordained monks as I believe it is illegal for women to be ordained in Thailand) only follow 8 or 10 precepts.

We went to the regular night market (which is in a different location from the sunday night market) and discovered it was a great spot for good street food. Thai street food is the best ! 

Our second day in Chiang Mai was the day one of my dreams came true !

I love elephants and had always wanted to learn more about them and ride one.

We took our time looking for Elephant camps excursions. Many agencies in Chiang Mai offer daily excursions to various Elephant camps - but we did some research and found out that elephants were often abused in the camps that offer "shows". We were not interested in seeing elephants dance or paint or play soccer. We really wanted to be with them, learn about them and be in an environment that is respectful of their well-being and needs. We found the perfect Elephant camp and were extremely happy with our experience.

We got to feed them, learn how to ride them & talk to them, ride them (bareback, any other option would hurt them) and give them a bath.

Don't we look dashing in our Mahout clothes ? (we needed them so the elephants would "recognize" us and not feel threatened).

We had so much fun taking turns riding Baan Wa & giving her a bath ! She would show us where she wanted to be scrubbed, and let's just say you have to scrub hard because elephant skin is thick !

The next day, we booked a private excursion with a tour guide to go to the Doi Suthep temple in the mountains and visit the Hill Tribes.  

Our guide was amazing, we learned so much thanks to him and it would probably have been disappointing not to have a guide with us to tell us about what we were seeing.

The Hill tribes are mostly populations that fled Tibet, China and more recently Myanmar. They live in villages and are protected by the Thai government and by the King. 

I believe we saw about 6 different tribes. The Hmong village was independent from the others, but many of the other tribes (the Karen, Lahu, Yao and Akha people) live in a community together. 

That's it for beautiful Chiang Mai !

Next up : sunny Phuket !