Day 4- Exploring Chiang Mai

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This was a packed day! We started the day with an early breakfast before boarding the bus to the Doi Suthep Temple. In order to get to the temple, we rode in trucks up the steep mountain! The Buddhist temple was breathtaking and unlike anything I've ever seen before. I really enjoyed getting to view a Buddhist temple. I don't know very much about this religion but I would really like to!! It's so different than the religion that I practice so it was very informative to observe some of the religious practices at the temple. We were able to see people pray to Buddha and interacting with monks. Aside from these observations, it was incredible to see first hand the beauty of the temple. There was so much color (mostly gold) and extravagant architecture.



After the temple, we stopped at a large shopping center to eat lunch with our buddies. I ordered khao soi, thinking that I'd be able to handle the medium spicy flavor, but it was to much for me to handle! It made me cough for a whole 5 minutes! I ended up ordering BBQ pork with egg noodles in broth which was delicious. The Ratchapreuk Royal Garden was up next, and it really impressed me. It reminded me a lot of Longwood Gardens back home. We took pictures by the big temple, explored bug world and pranced through the bonsai garden until it was time to load up on the bus for the Night Safari.



The Night Safari has it's own restaurant which is where we ended up eating dinner right beside a gorgeous giraffe family. I ordered chicken fried noodle but it came out a lot different than I had expected!! The Night Safari was a bittersweet activity for me. While I enjoyed seeing the kinds of animals that you only read about in books, I was sad for them. I really hope that the staff at Night Safari take good care of their animals and treat them kindly. I strongly believe that animals should remain in the wild but I understand why it is important to preserve specific species by caring for them in zoos. For example, we learned that the bengal tiger is nearly extinct. Without the intervention by humans, these tigers may be hunted into extinction. On a more positive note, I was able to touch a giraffe for the first time in my life and it was so cool!!! They are such beautiful and kind creatures. Overall, we had a very wonderfully packed day! It has bee such a joy to explore Chiang Mai with my fellow nursing students. I can tell already that we are going to be bonded for life by the end of our time in Thailand.

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