What an amazing day! We met for breakfast at the club and then ventured out to rent scooters for the morning. We picked out helmets and then bikes. When we were almost ready to go, a lady approached us with caged birds and a sign that said ‘Releasing Birdes To Be Free To Make Your Lucky And a Safe Trip’. ha ha Doug happily bought the larger basket of birds for the higher 200 Baht price and called it ‘Thai insurance’. We ceremoniously let the 6 of them go.

It was so fun riding around the streets of Chiang Mai. Crazy traffic like so many foreign cities we’ve travelled to. We zipped through narrow alleyways, big streets, over bridges and through busy markets. Always our four bikes traveling together. Unfortunately our 6 birds were not enough insurance. Brian had a mishap with his scooter when thinking he was reaching for the brake squeezed on the gas instead lurching him forward and into Chris’ parked scooter which knocked it over and shattered our tail light and scraped up Brian’s leg pretty bad. Poor Brian. Luckily no one else was on their scooters. It could have been a lot worse.

Wah Phantao Temple

The Wah Phantao Temple was a beautiful teakwood temple and monastery and we needed wraps to cover our legs. Fun to peak in and admire the cool architecture, see the Buddhas, and get a picture with our colorful skirts.

Was Chedi Luang Worawihan

We stopped at several temples around town and ended up at Was Chedi Luang Worawihan. Amazing! Fun to see the pyramid ruins with elephant statues, the ancient architecture and monks walking throughout.

The boys dropped us off at the hotel and then found somewhere to park the scooters for the rest of the day. Then we ate some lunch at the Club and got ready for our afternoon excursion.

Patara Elephant Farm

There are some people that are worried about how the elephants are treated in this kind of touristy arena, but we were careful to pick a farm that was dedicated to the elephants. It was such an amazing experience!! A driver picked us up from our hotel and drove us from the city into the lush green jungle 40 minutes away. Our initial 30 minutes was spent taking pictures with several elephants in the shade of a couple big trees. A one year old and five year old accompanied their mommas. Our adventure had barely started and we were already amazed at how close we could get to the elephants. The trainers happily took pictures for us.

Feeding the Elephants

We received instructions, picked out a colorful shirt and then made our way to the second area where we would be feeding and training the elephants. Chris and I were assigned to care for a big male elephant named Pooh — one of the largest. Brian and Terri were assigned to a mama elephant and her little baby. Doug and Missy were assigned to a momma elephant who was 18 months pregnant. Jared and Geneva were assigned to another male. We followed our trainers with a big bowl of bamboo and bananas and took turns feeding him. We tried to put the food into his mouth like they told us, but Pooh kept on sticking his trunk up clearly wanting to just grab his food instead. We put the food right into his trunk and he either popped it right into his mouth or saved it by placing it on the fold of his trunk, later eating three bananas at once. It was pretty fantastic. We patted his face and said “Deedee” when we wanted to say ‘good boy!’

Patara Farms had a photographer who came along for the afternoon. We received a code to download these photos at the end of the day - which was so great.

It was absolutely surreal. So cool to be up close and personal with our elephant.

Smelling Elephant Poo

We gathered together to talk about how to know if the elephant is healthy or not. Water running out of his eyes symmetrically, whether he was sweating at his back toenails, dirty or not dirty from lying down… then we examined the elephant’s poo. The head trainer picked up a piece of poo and broke it apart showing us it’s fibrous makeup. Then we all took a big sniff — bad smelling poop means they are unhealthy. It didn’t smell bad at all, interestingly enough.

Elephant Training and Cleaning

We then learned some commands and went back to our elephants to tell them to come, stop, lie down and then get up. When they lay down, we took a big leaf branch and swatted their back to get all of the dirt off. My trainer kept telling me that I had to hit harder. Once the elephant was standing back up, we gave our branch of leaves to Pooh and he promptly ate it. Everything was just so much fun!

Elephant Clothes

The colorful elephant tops and much-needed elephant pants were so fun!

While trying to take this picture (below) of everyone decked out in their elephant getup, the elephants got curious and wanted to come hang out with us in the gazebo. Love that little baby!! It might have had something to do with the fact that we were eating bananas (check out Chris’ hand below). It was so funny that they came right up to check us out. After the trainer guided them away the baby went straight behind us and INTO the gazebo. So funny!

Elephant Ride through the Jungle

Getting onto the elephants was a little surreal. We grabbed the rope with our left hand and the top of the elephant’s ear with our right hand to pull ourselves up while stepping on the back of his front left leg and then on the top of his knee like stairs. Pooh was so tall. I sat right up on top of his head and found it pretty comfortable because I’m flexible. Chris sat behind me and — like all the guys— had a harder time since the elephants body is so wide. My trainer grabbed my flip flops from me and carried them so I sat barefoot on the elephant - which I loved because I had the sole of my feet right up against his skin.

We held on to a rope around his neck and off we went — first straight down a ravine (where we had to lean back) and then back up again (where we had to lean forward). It felt so surreal. Something I will always remember. Pooh liked to grab branches of the bushes nearby as he walked. Snack time all day long. Our trainers walked beside us and helped keep our elephants going if they lingered too long. It was so fun looking ahead to Jared and Geneva and back to Doug, Missy, Brian and Terri. Especially fun to see the baby tagging along. They kept calling him a ‘naughty boy’ and had to keep him coming by playing peek a boo around trees. Once the baby got fed up, lifted his leg and kicked the trainer - which Terri got on video. We even heard him trumpet a couple of times which was so cute. I wish the pics were better, but it was hard to turn around and take pictures on a moving elephant.

Elephant Bathtime

After 40 minutes we got to the waterfall. We leaned forward on Pooh and he pretty much sat down and then we pulled our legs over and slid down. The elephants all headed for the water and got right in. Pooh immediately lied down in the water and played around. It looked like he was doing the side stroke.

We watched them for a minute and then we hopped in the water too. Chris and I each grabbed a brush and scrubbed Pooh’s skin all over and then took buckets to splash water on them — which they loved. It was so fun!

At the end they had us line up for pictures with the elephants behind us. We thought we might get sprayed and we were right. The elephants were trained to drink up water and on the count of 3 squirt us. They did it over and over targeting several of us each time. Oh my gosh — it was pretty great.

When the elephants climbed up and out of the water we got to ride them up the hill one last time and say goodbye to our elephant. Unforgettable.

We changed out of our wet bathing suits and hopped in the van for our ride back to the hotel. Then we showered and got ready for dinner. The consierge suggested a Thai restaurant about seven minutes from our place and it was really great. One thing that was unusual was that we had to check in our shoes with the shoe guy and walk barefoot to our table. Chris and I shared a mild vegetarian Masaman curry and liked it. Then we walked to the marketplace and had fun wandering through the stalls. One lucky stall owner helped us as we picked the perfect colored Fjallraven backpacks. Our group bought 8 total I think. Usually $70 in the States, here 450 baht ($15). We were texting the girls back and forth to ask which colors they would like. Then we bought Emily an extra small yellow one as a thank you for babysitting for us. Later in the night (while Emily was at her first class) she texted us saying that her friend Riley would like one too- so we headed back again.

The Breinholt‘s and White had enjoyed a foot massage at a place close to the hotel the night before so Jared Geneva Chris and I decided we wanted to give it a try. The foot massage part was great. But the shoulder back massage part was way too hard! Seriously I had to tell him ‘softer’ five times. I just decided that Thai people don’t know how to do it softly. They are all about hard movements and contorting your body. Yikes. Oh well - only $7 each.

Chiang Mai - Scooters and Elephants