Chang Mai

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In Thai Chang means elephant which was largely appropriate for our time spent here. Chang Mai is largely known for its trekking and elephants. At first we had thought that we would organise a trek from Chang Mai but decided against it when we realised how expensive and boring they looked. We did some further research and now feel that Laos is our best option for trekking in this region.
We decided to spend our time in Chang Mai relaxing, playing with elephants and learning to cook Thai food. Triona also tried to convince Peter to take a massage course but to no success.
We found a tour that would take us out to visit an elephant conservation centre and an elephant hospital around an hour north of Chang Mai. What an amazing place!! Elephants are very large! I know that it seems a bit of an obvious thing but the enormity of their size is very overwhelming when you are standing next to one. Especially when they realise that you have food and try to pry it out of your hands with their trunk. The place that we went to offered 3-10 day home stays where you learn to train and take care of an elephant. It looked like an amazing thing to do and we are considering coming back next year on a holiday to do this. Unfortunately there is a long waiting list so it was not a possibility to do it now.
The most amazing part of our day with the elephants was meeting some mothers with there baby. They were very cute.
We also visited the elephant hospital. Elephants from all over Thailand come here to be treated. There were also some elephants from Myanmar (Burma) who had stood on land mines and blown up their foot.

Our time in Chang Mai was also spent learning to cook Thai food. So when we get home; it will be Thai food for breakfast, lunch and dinner!! It was a very enjoyable day and I would thoroughly recommend it.

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