Doin' it BIG in Chiang Mai

Two weeks ago included an unexpectedly adventurous weekend in Chiang Mai. On Wednesday morning, P’Tor the director of the English Deparment at PCC, Alicia, Kirsten, and I went to Mae Fah Luang University for a presentation titled “Teaching English to Young Learners” by a woman from Maryland. That afternoon, the school was cleared out of all students, for it was scout week –yep, you read correctly, boy scouts and girl scouts. Kali and I decided to take advantage of a few days off work and headed to Chiang Mai (about three and a half hours by bus).

On Thursday we arranged to join a tour about an hour outside of the city. We were picked up from our hostel in the city around 9am. We returned to the hostel around 6pm wet, cold, and excited about all that we experienced during our adventurous day outdoors. We visited an Akha tribe village, rode elephants through the mountains (while feeding them bananas and sugar cane), hiked to a waterfall, played with slingshots, went white water rafting, and went bamboo rafting (which was more like bamboo wading, seeing as how we were submerged in water).

(the people we spent the day with --first stop, Akha village)

(our guide explained that the people of the tribe make and use baskets made of bamboo --and that unlike the backpacks we use, their packs are biodegradable)

(a village child --absolutely adorable)

(the elephant camp in its entirety)

(feeding sugar cane from on top of the father elephant --notice how he stores the sugar cane, until we give him more)

(Kali's arm & more elephant feeding --the beast could eat five at once!)

(the baby tagged along for the whole 1 hour journey)

(at the waterfall -- our guide)

(living and loving life!)

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Friday, we went on a tour called “Flight of the Gibbon” (Gibbon = type of local monkey) where we zip lined high above the jungle floor for nearly two hours, then visited a waterfall, and enjoyed great food in the Maekampong mountains outside of Chiang Mai.

Flight of the Gibbon

(we look like crazy lost construction workers)

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That afternoon, we took a songklaw / songtail (mix between a tuk tuk and a station wagon) to Mae Rim, about twenty minutes north of Chiang Mai. We visited the Tiger Temple and spent a half hour playing with and sleeping with tigers. I have been inexplicably captivated by tigers, the most majestic animal on this planet, since childhood. What an incredible experience!

Tiger Kingdom