Hi Gram!
I finally got off my butt and got out to see some things around this beautiful city! We hired a driver for the day to take us around and show us around. I was hoping for someone that would take us to more off the beaten path kind of spots, the sort of “you wouldn’t believe the view from here” or “this is a really cool spot that most people don’t know about” places. Instead, we got the “I know this one place where you can spend money to walk through a market” and “here’s another market where they sell the same stuff you see at all the other markets” kind of guy. That’s alright, though, we still had a fun time and built some great memories!

When the alarm went off, I was a little discouraged with the sound of rain on the windows. Knowing that it rains here every day but usually clears up, I crossed my fingers that the sun would soon be shining and drying up the path for our adventures. After breakfast, we prepped a backpack for the day, with the umbrella, water bottles, sunglasses, and assorted other things that we might need, then our driver picked us up just before 9.

Our first stop was in a village of Karens – a group of people originally from Burma who migrated to northern Thailand. While there are many disparate groups around the world, this village was known for their long necked women with the metal rings around their necks. They were very friendly and full of smiles, but I couldn’t help but feel bad, like I was contributing to minimizing them. It seemed that the people along the main road where tourists are marched were mere caricatures of the actual living, breathing humans who lived there. We walked through, smiled at them, got some pictures, left a donation to help their village and headed out.

Our second stop was the most exciting for me – an elephant sanctuary! There are many tourist attractions all over SE Asia where they drive the elephants to put on a show. In some areas, like Chiang Mai, they have “sanctuaries” where the elephants are treated better, not ridden, and allowed to roam through acres of land instead of being chained or caged 24/7. This sanctuary had a wall of photos showing their elephants, aged from 8 to 76, each with its own handler who makes sure it’s healthy and cared for. I’m not naive enough to think that every one of these sanctuaries has the elephants’ best interest at heart – without the tourist dollars, they probably wouldn’t exist – but this one seemed to treat them well and they all seemed fed and happy. We had the option to just feed them and get a photo or the deluxe package where we could feed them, bathe them, learn about how they receive medicine, and interact with them even further. I wasn’t interested in bathing an elephant, so we opted for the basic package. In retrospect, I made the right choice. It was the right combination of laughter, fun, feel-good emotions, and pictures to remember it by. It was a little scary the first time an elephant took bananas out of my hand with its trunk, only to drop it in its mouth, but I quickly got used to it and really had fun. When we would walk away to go feed another elephant, they would reach out with their trunk to try to stop us, sometimes trumpeting to get our attention or doing a little dance. The handler arranged for a couple pictures with the trunk wrapped around our waists, which felt heartwarming. I could have stayed and fed them all day, but we were soon out of food and opted to move on to our next stop.

From there we went to a mountaintop flower farm with lots of Instagram photo spots, with of course a market lining the walk from the car park to the actual attraction. Unfortunately, the sun hadn’t burned off the precipitation from the night before, so it was foggy and overcast, leaving photos that didn’t turn out all that great. Our driver imagined himself a budding photog, having us pose and positioning us in all the right spots. I imagine on a clear day, some of the swings, balconies, and other framed made-for-Insta spots would have been much more picturesque, but we made the most of it and enjoyed smelling the flowers and seeing what we could see.

On the way back down the mountain, we stopped for a few other photos overlooking the city, then on to our final stop, a temple.

I laughed when we got there and a nice woman walked up to us to tell us that the elevator was only 50 baht (about $1.50USD), SO MUCH better than all those stairs! When I told her that we like climbing stairs, she responded “but there are 306 of them! You look tired, the elevator is much more comfortable!” Despite her kind attempts to save my poor American physique from getting any fitter, I kindly declined and made my way through the line of vendors selling lucky bells, lucky flowers, incense, and other offerings.

The stairs were beautiful, even (many in SE Asia are a different height from one stair to the next and slope one way or the other), and had a cool dragon atop the wall, extending from bottom to top. At the top of the stairs, we paid an admission and got a map to show us around the sprawling complex. After we walked around a bit, I sat outside while Nattiya went in and prayed. The stairs were much easier on the way down, although a little scary. If I fall climbing stairs, I don’t fall that far. On the way down, though, the fall can just keep falling. We got a few more pics at the bottom of the stairs, then called our driver to bring us back to the hotel.

A cool 45 minutes later, we said our goodbyes, collected his pictures, then had lunch in the hotel restaurant before heading to the room to relax a little. Around 6, we walked over to the Sunday Walking Street market. It’s a section of town where they close down the streets for blocks in each direction and set up a walking market, complete with musicians, street performers, and of course lots of vendors. We walked around and did some people watching, but after a day of crowds, this felt too crowded. We vowed to give it another walk next Sunday, then went back to the room.