We stopped at a local produce market en route to Maetang Elephant Park. Little did we know we would return to the same produce market the following day with our Thai Cooking School.
Have you ever seen beans that big?! The suckers were over a foot long.
We set off for an elephant ride through the water and jungle. For such large animals, the elephants were surprisingly light-footed but still jostled up and down with large swings over the rough jungle terrain.
Look at my elephant wandering aimlessly through the jungle (the guide jumped off for just a minute to take the picture - they had cruel hook-like bars to direct the elephants). I rode with Elise who was from Paris and in Chiang Mai studying at a Thai Yoga Massage School.
There were countless stands from which to purchase bananas or sugarcane for your elephant. We quickly learned that the elephants would be fed whether or not we made a purchase.
Elise and I nearing the terminus of our ride. Because my slowest-ever elephant sauntered his way along the route, Katie had already finished her ride and I was unfortunately not able to capture her on the elephant. Never fear! I requested a special photo op for Katie which enabled us (and half our group) to sit directly on the elephant's head. Woo!
Hook 'em horns! The ox cart ride was a bit less eventful than riding elephants.
There she sits atop the elephant, just like royalty!
Me too! Palling up with the elephant.
Log hauling followed raising of the flag in the elephant show filled with tricks and treats.
The elephants paraded around in a ring hooked tail to trunk and later played musical instruments and danced to music.
Sit...good boy. They seemed so trainable, demonstrating standing, sitting, helping their guides step onto them in various ways, even placing a cowboy hat on each of their heads.
Here an elephant balances on a beam and spins a hula hoop around his trunk.
It was beyond amazing to watch two elephants paint self portraits side by side. They painted elephants, flowers, and one even signed her name. They really did this themselves!
There are the final masterpieces, oh yeah, and the artist (elephant) is playing soccer in the background - both catching and releasing the soccer ball from his trunk. He also dunks basketballs.
We enjoyed a nice Thai lunch with the best pineapple ever (far better than Hawaii), and made a pit stop by the toilet huts. Fancy!
We saw this motorbike while waiting for our bamboo rafting adventure, but this sight was not at all uncommon with 4 or even 5 people packed onto a single bike. Motorbikes were everywhere, as common as pedal bikes in China.
Our bamboo rafting adventure oscillated between rain and shine. We sailed past Thai villages and amazing tree houses.
If you look closely, you'll notice the baby elephant asleep below its mama. Elephants everywhere, not only at the elephant park but in the streets throughout the cities as well.
Another bamboo raft making its way down the brown river.
An unexpected and AWESOME bonus stop of our day was an up close and personal encounter with TIGERS. We got to "play" with 8 month old tigers. By "play", I mean that we got to approach them slowly and gently pet them, while the guards whacked the tigers in the head when they looked or growled or moved towards us.
I got the paw as I scratched the tiger's belly.
Me lounging with the tigers. It looks so natural, right?
Katie gets right into the tiger loving.
Ah, how statuesque.
How often would you be this close to a tiger?!
Look at the size of those paws!!
This was the 15 month tiger which was caged. The guide laughed at me when I asked if he ever gets to come out and play, saying that the tiger was far too strong to be trusted around humans. He even pounced towards me when I came up against the fence to take a picture. Despite the metal fence between us, I jolted backwards as he lunged in my direction. The two 8 month tigers were on either side of me and my quick movement stirred them. Thankfully the guards had everything under control. It wasn't long after that we'd had our fill and exited the scene.
We stole a quick peak of the baby cubs (up to 4 months old) on our way out. They played like cats and seemed to require a lot less observation (aka whacking).
We stopped by an orchid and butterfly farm on our way back to the hotel.
After a nap, we headed out for our first taste of the Night Bazaar.
The Night Bazaar was only a couple blocks from our hotel and went on and on and on. It was HUGE; we didn't even scrape the surface in 2.5 hours of browsing.
