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Published: February 11th 2008
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My mom and her fiance Jan eventually made it to Thailand after a marathon 48-hour journey. Their plane was delayed for 8 hours in San Francisco due to a cracked window, which in turn made them miss their connecting flight in Taipei. They were supposed to arrive in Bangkok at noon for a fun filled tour of the city with me, but they made it after midnight. So, we had a quick evening drink at 1 AM in Bangkok and then went to bed for our flight to Chiang Mai the next morning.
As with all of my mom and Jan's vacations, it was raining when we got to Chiang Mai. Luckily it let up enough in the afternoon for us to check out some temples around town and go to the Chiang Mai night safari. The night safari is a big game reserve with a really amazing fountain show. The fountain show included lights, music, pictures of animals and was surprisingly impressive for a fountain show. Then we headed off on the "Predator Prowl" train to see the great predators of Africa. There were lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes, zebras, and all sorts of other African and Asian animals. It
was really cool to see them at night because many of the animals were very active. The cheetahs even played chase with each other.
The next day we scheduled a tour to Doi Suthep, which is the tallest mountain in Chiang Mai. On top of the mountain is a beautiful Wat (temple) that is legendary for its golden pagoda. The location of the temple was selected by a white elephant who climbed the mountain with Buddha's relics on his back in order to select the site. After climbing the mountain, the elephant died on the site that the pagoda now stands. We even received good luck bracelets from the monks. I guess we did have good luck because after the temple visit we went to the spa for a bit of pampering. Ahh. The massages were super relaxing and I have a feeling it was just what the doctor ordered for the jet lagged parents. That night we went to a nice dinner at the Riverside Restaurant. Notably, Hillary Clinton dined there in 1996 as shown on the restaurant's brochure and a huge poster of her visit in the restaurant. After dinner my mom and Jan took their first
tuk-tuk ride to the night bazaar in Chiang Mai. We browsed and bought a few things, but everyone was tired from all of the traveling so we headed back to the hotel.
Our third day in Chiang Mai included the usual tourist activity of elephant riding and bamboo rafting. We drove for an hour outside of Chiang Mai to an elephant camp. There was a 3 month old baby elephant there that was so freaking cute! He rolled on the ground, stuck his little trunk out at us, and rubbed his itchy but on the fence. Aww. We then watched the elephants bathe in the river and saw a performance that showed all of the useful things an elephant can do such as stack logs, pick up their mahouts' (trainers) hats, and raise flags (that was pretty cute). Afterwards, we hopped on top for a ride! We rode up through the jungle and rode back down to the camp through the river. The day was completed with a picnic lunch eaten while floating down the river on a bamboo raft. There were elephants grazing along the side of the river and Jan even bought a beer from some guy
standing in the middle of the water waiting for the tourists to float by. Luckily the gigantic dung balls from the elephants had already floated down stream by the time we got on the raft.
After a too short visit, we said goodbye and I headed off to Vietnam while my mom and Jan spent their last few days in Bangkok.
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