Chiang Mai, Thailand

Once we arrived in Chiang Mai and checked into the Smile House guesthouse. I had a feeling this place was going to be my favorite. Our place had 2 swimming pools and a nice lounge area. It had a really chill vibe to it and I knew we would love it. The first day we just kind of hung out by the pool planning the remainder of our trip in Thailand.  We knew a lot of things we wanted to do so our next stop was booking all the tours we were interested in. We found a travel/tour office right by our place with the sweetest lady that spoke perfect English. Little did we know she would be such a huge help throughout the week. We booked a few things with her them headed out to dinner. We ate at a restaurant called Tiger Kingdom. No they didn't have a tiger there like Tyler thought but they do have amazing food and a wonderful band playing on the deck. It was then that I really wanted to take a picture. I went to get my camera and realized my camera was not in there. I remembered taking it off the charger that morning in Bangkok and thought I put it in my purse but we were I'm a rush so I think I left it on my bed. We tried calling the hostel and nothing was turned in or found in the room. I was really upset because I was so cautious with my purse in Bangkok because I've heard all the horror stories but I still managed to lose my camera. Also it was upsetting to realize I had lost all my vacation pictures. Luckily Molly takes amazing pictures and we saw the same things so I will just have to steal hers and just keep my memories. The next morning we went to the Women's Correctional Institute to get Thai massages. This is a place for former inmates, sort of like their halfway house before making it back out in the real world. Although it is a strange thing if you really think about it, it was dirt cheap costing a whopping $6.00 for an  hour massage.  Molly had broken her party camera in Ko Phi Phi and I had lost mine in Bangkok,yes we are hot messes I know, so we decided to go shopping for cameras because I knew I needed a camera for the trip. We both were successful shoppers!  Later that night we went to a Thai cooking class. We started the the local market looking at the ingredients we would be using to cook. It was then time to start in the kitchen. You got to chose 4 different things you wanted to cook. I chose chicken with coconut milk soup, pad tai, green curry and vegetable spring rolls. It was a really neat experience filled with delicious food and we even got a cookbook at the end of quite a few traditional meals.  After filling our bellies we then went to a Maui Thai boxing match.  I don't do well watching boxing but it's part of the culture so I figured I needed to see it. There were about 8 fights and only 3 of them went further than the first round and only 2 went all five. As an intermission of the fights they put in a few guys in Muai Thai training and blindfolded them as they fought each other. It was pretty humorous. The next day we went to Baanchang Elephant Park. We started the day by feeding the elephants bananas and sugar cane. They had elephants of all ages and sizes. Most of these elephants have been rescued from logging or performing. After feeding time we learned how to be a mahout (elephant trainer). We learned simply commands such as lay down, turn left, turn right, go straight and stop. We then got some practice guiding them. We had lunch at the camp then it was time for riding. We each got our own elephant that we got to ride bareback. We rode a course which was probably 45 min long. We then got to bath them in the pond at the end I the trail. The elephants just plop down and we scrubbed them up. Molly, Molly and I then got in a water fight with our marhouts while Tyler got in a water fight with his elephant. The only bad thing about this is the elephants started pooping in the water and the marhouts  started throwing poop bombs! Needless to say woods a good scrub down before heading home. This was such a neat experience. I'm glad these elephants were saved from the days when they worked longer hours than the average person does.  The next day Molly and I went zip-lining through a jungle for half the day.  It was voted the best zip-lining course in Asia and is the longest course also. There were various types of lines, bridges and free falls to go through the jungle. We then ate lunch and checked out a waterfall before heading home. We met some really nice guys from England. They Mentioned the temple we wanted to go check out so we went back to e hostel to get Tyler and Molly. We all rented scooters and drove up to a beautiful temple at the top of a mountain overlooking the city. They driving is a little nerve- racking for me since they drive on the wrong side of the road and there are scooters constantly swerving through traffic. Luckily our English friends were willing to drive considering that normal for them. I probably would have killed someone. Then we hopped on a bus to head for the border for our next stop...Laos! It has been quite the experience so far and I'm excited for the rest of it. I will try to be better about posting about each place we stay since I can't call and tell stories and it's hard to skype with time difference and being on vacation. I just got lucky I had another 12 hour bus ride on the way from the border to Luang Prabang. These bus rides are not fun but allow me to catch up on things.