Thailand & Cambodia: Day 4

We flew up to Chiang Mai, which is in Northern Thailand. It had everything good about Bangkok and not much of the bad. It was just more small town and so peaceful and quiet and really green and jungley! We loved it there. We stayed in the most beautiful hotel, actually we were very lucky, we stayed in all the most beautiful hotels in all the cities because my amazing dad let us use his Starwood points, so all of our hotels were free...and that is why we were able to afford it! Thanks so so so much dad...oh and on top of it, he and my mom watched my children too! Love you guys!

Out our window in our hotel room

And Mitchy just being his usual self...I love his usual self! I get to be married to this crazy man! He makes everything fun!

So, our first full day in Chiang Mai, we went on this all-day tour and it was an incredible adventure! Day 3 was definitely one of our favorite days on the trip!

We started out at an Elephant Sanctuary. It was amazing, they are really smart animals but also just enormous.

We bought several bunches of bananas and every time an elephant would walk by they would slowly but surely attack our bananas no matter where we hid them. They did it to Mitch and then he went over and bought a couple more bunches of bananas and another elephant came right over and Mitch never had a chance!

Neither did my dress, an elephant snotted all over it...nasty! Other than the snot, we loved the Elephants.

We took a really scenic Elephant trek through the jungle for about half an hour. It was an experience! We loved it...it felt really adventurous and it was through the most majestic mountainside.

Elephant rides are kind of romantic....who knew?

Our P.O.V.

Our elephant needed a little snack half way though, so I am feeding him bananas...not touching his trunk, that would be gross.

The elephants put on a great show for us! The highlight was definitely the Elephant painting. This kind of blew our minds! Each elephant brought over their little paint set and each started painting their own unique picture. They were extremely precise.

When I realized that they were going to paint I thought, cool, maybe a little Picaso-esque picture, that would be interesting to see, but I got a lot more than I expected. They were better at painting elephants than probably 85% of all of us. We were wondering what was going on in their heads, were they taught a few paintings and then just chose the one that they felt doing that day. I don't know, it was pretty unbelievable!

Here are a few of the finished paintings...amazing, right? My mind is still blown!

The Crane Pose...who knew elephants did yoga? I'm impressed.

They were running around kicking soccer balls into goals.

Just helping his trainer up...he was laying on the ground and the elephant picked him up like he weighed about 3 pounds. These animals are amazingly strong.

Maybe next time I am on an elephant, I'll try standing on his tusks like this guy...pretty cool, huh?

This baby elephant was only like 20 days old, so sweet, a little Dumbo.

Next on our list was Bamboo Rafting down the river.

We just slowly rafted down a peaceful river on a raft that looked like it would break apart at any moment! But once I realized that it wouldn't then it was a really peaceful and beautiful ride through the jungle.

Our tour guide had a really great sense of humor and that made it even more fun...oh and the hats, the hats were pretty fun!

Next stop, Monkey Village...

Look at those eyes...I couldn't stop staring at this sweet little monkey and he was really drawn to Mitchy. He was climbing all over him and playing and jumping on him, it was really cute!

Yes, it was cool to see a monkey ride a tricycle, but it was hard to be impressed after witnessing the elephants paint masterpieces just a few short hours earlier.

Next stop...Tiger Kingdom!

The tiger is probably one of the most beautiful creatures in all the animal kingdom, in my opinion and so to see them up close was such a thrill. There was almost a reverence in their presence, it is hard to describe, but it is an experience that I'll never forget.

We went inside the cage with three of these tigers, we stayed in for about 15 minutes just petting and watching the tigers. They had no leashes or anything, they were roaming free. It was SO cool!

Such a stunning animal!

Then we headed off to the breath-taking orchid farm and butterfly sanctuary. The orchids were so gorgeous. It is one of my very favorite flowers, so I loved being surrounded by them. And unfortunately it wasn't the right time of year for the Butterflies, we got to see quite a few but during the good season, there are thousands! It was still really beautiful though.

Then we went to dinner and to the Night Bazaar. It is a really cool night market that goes on every night of the week. There is a really cool laid-back vibe. We went there all three nights we were in Chaing Mai. It had a real charm about it.