After such a slam packed time in Bangkok we took the first day in Chiang Mai easy. This included sleeping until 10:00am (compared to 6:30pm in Bangkok) breakfast at a cool Vegetarian restaurant called Freebird.
We then got our first Thai massages which felt amazing after traveling so much. Got a quick bite and drinks at a UN Irish pub and called it a night in preparation for the next day.
We checked out of the hostel and got picked up by Elephant Jungle Sanctuary at 8:00. This began the most incredible 3 days of our lives.
These epic 3 days begin with what you would expect from an Elephant tour. We jumped in the back of a Toyota Hilux which everyone drives here (why isn't this beast in America? America needs this truck) Then drove for about an hour and a half into the mountains Southeast of Chiang Mai.
After some slight 4x4 driving up switchbacks we arrived at the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary! We were given woven shirts to wear and walked up to meet the elephants! First we made some sticky rice balls filled with dried tamarind fruits and given bags full of bananas to feed them.
We then met an adult and juvenile elephant. They were quite playful and loved stuffing their faces with bananas. The elephant jungle sanctuary is an "ethical and sustainable ecotourism project" and puts the elephants first. Instead of riding you feed and bathe the elephants.
After we fed the first two we moved on to meet 3 others. A rowdy one and a half year old and two adults. One of the adults is a year pregnant, we learned from the workers that elephants are pregnant for two years! Can you imagine?
We then went down and ate a nice buffet of Thai foods before moving to the Elephant spa (aka massive mud puddle) where we coated the elephants (and each other) in mud to help them cool off. Then it was down to the river pools to clean off and was the elephants off.
It was amazing being with these massive creatures. They are so gentle and playful but their size and speed reminds you just how dangerous they could be.
Everyone washing off in the waterfall.
Here is where the trip took a turn that was completely unexpected. Debra has extensively planed and researched this trip especially which elephant tour was ethical. This was one of 2 activities that we booked before beginning our trip. We had decided to book the overnight tour which I always thought would be staying somewhere near the elephants and would still follow our tourist expectations. Instead it involved something I could only dream about experiencing.
The view from our bamboo lodging of beautiful passion fruit growing. They grow a lot of passion fruit to sell in the markets. It seems like most crops they grow and animals they raise are for selling in the market.
Passion fruit is such a sweet and sour fruit. You have to try it!
They grow and dry their own tobacco. After the tobacco is dry they make it finer and then roll it in banana leaves to smoke.
Tamarind comes in two varieties here in Thailand the sweet variety that is eaten from the pod as a snack and the sour variety that is used in cooking a lot (we used it in the paste form for our cooking class that we take).
We were staying in a small Karen Village a short walk through rice fields away from the elephant sanctuary. Normally there is a small group for these overnight stays but we were the only two. Which turned this trip into our own private tour of Karen villages and way of life. The first night still followed a nice itinerary which began with a walk around the small 45 person village by our (personal) guide Mr. Artid. He explained their way of life from which crops they were growing to how their (Thai government influenced) elections worked. We stopped to enjoy some nuts roasted over a fire and rice whiskey with a group of men. We then went to our neighbors raised bamboo hut to help Artid prepare dinner. The dinner included snap peas and cabbage grown in the village.
Roy's first taste of local made (in someone's house) rice whiskey.
Crushing the local forest nuts after roasting them over a fire.
We chatted for a while with Mr. Artid about his life and ours. He was especially interested with what Debra knew about Korea because Koreans were his main client at his last trekking job.
This trip went even further away from the expected tour we had in mind when he invited us to spend another night in his village where a wedding was going to be held the following day. We jumped on the opportunity (after trying to figure out money and how payments would work) and called it an night, excited for tomorrow.
Another view from our bamboo house. This is the house that we had cooked in earlier with their brand new electricity (7 months old at the time).
The next day we were fed enough food for 5 people before going back to the elephant sanctuary for a private elephant walk up a mountain (very cool). We were given a bag of bananas to hand to the pregnant elephant as we moseyed along the trail. There were frequent stops for snacking on bamboo and various leaves.
Coffee, tea, water, 1/2 a watermelon, 12 pieces of toast, and so many eggs.
We then started an hour jungle hike to a waterfall where we met up with another elephant group eating lunch and preparing to wash the elephants. We had some lunch and played around in a small waterfall before feeding and playing with the elephants one more time.
Roy with some incredibly tall bamboo
We left the waterfall camp and started another hike through the jungle and picturesque rice terraces. As we walked though one of the rice fields I heard a rustling to my right. Mr. Artid ran over, grabbed my bamboo walking stick, and jumped off the path. This caused a four and a half foot snake to slither between my legs. As I panicked and jumped away he chased it down and killed it. We put it in a bag for his cousin to cook later.
Artid returning from the dry rice field with his kill draped over the bamboo walking stick.
Another 30 minutes and we reached a dirt road that lead past a few flower gardens which they grow to sell in markets. We then reached the village and got settled into Artids brother-in-laws house. This house was the only one made from mostly cement and complete with a door. The rest were traditional raised bamboo with some finished with pine siding and sheet metal roofs.
He then gave us a tour of his village which includes 145 families and ~600 people. It was incredible seeing their way of life. We were amazed by all the raised houses, most complete with 2 or 3 pigs tied up below and all the chickens that ran loose through the village. The dogs were all semi-tame and semi-feral. There were constantly quick spats between the dogs over food and they were quickly stopped by the brooms of village women nearby.
Artid showed us a huge pig that was going to be killed for the wedding the following day. This village was quite a bit bigger then the first one and had a preschool that was ran by the village people. Here they are taught the traditional Karen language before moving to a Thai government run school for an education that includes learning Thai.
It takes the women in the village 2 weeks to weave these hand made skirts and shirts.
We had a quick shower which involved a bucket and a bowl of water and then sat down to play some cards and relax before dinner. While Artid cooked our dinner we sat around a small fire with a few of his neighbors/in laws. Because of the language barrier our communication revolves around smiling, nodding, and pointing. But we enjoyed sitting with the neighbors as kids played and gathered things to burn in the small fire.
We then ate an incredible dinner that closely resembled a Ramen dish made with different veggies from the village. After dinner we went over to Artids cousins house. He had been cooking up the snake that had gone through my legs about 4 hours before.
Even though we are both vegetarian it seemed like a opportunity we shouldn't miss out on. He had prepared the snake a few different ways over an open fire outside of his house. He then invited us in and we sat around the small cooking fire in the center of the house and tried different snake dishes. For the first meat I've eaten in about four years it didn't taste as bad as I would have guessed. This could be due to the fact that after every bite they would give us a shot of homemade rice whisky out of plastic bottles.
Snake with spices and herbs.
This was one of the most surreal experiences. Sitting in a raised house around a small cooking fire while our hosts give us cooked snake and moonshine. His wife, with two kids on her lap, laughs at the faces you make while you eat and drink. This was really one of the coolest experience either of us has ever had. And it was only going to get better the following day.
Off to bed we went. We also continued our "do what the locals do" philosophy that we adapted in Bangkok. With no mosquito net, no malaria pills (we have them for Laos but didn't think we would be sleeping exposed in Thailand). We tried to stay away from the water and our guide was nice enough to pick us up a few bottles of water. We did have tea and coffee made with the water pulled straight from the creek nearby but hopped that it was boiled.
This philosophy would only increase the following day. We went to bed a little buzzed around 8:30 and woke up around 5am to the sounds of a pig being killed. Around 7 Mr. Artid showed up to take us to down the road to where the wedding festivities had began.
Here was another sight that we never expected to see first hand. Around 50 people were hard at work in preparation for the wedding. In an open grassy area one group was searing the skin of a medium sized pig by burning hay directly on top of the skin. They then move it over and began processing the animal.
Everyone was in good spirits as they moved various parts of the animal to different processing areas. Some of the pig was being put into large pots over small scoop hearths. Others would make small skewers to cook under the pots for snacks as the rest of the pig was cooked.
Under one of the houses a large tarp had been laid out and about 15 guys were circled around. The majority of the pig was being brought to them and added to bowls. They then took the raw meat and began finely chopping it into what looked like ground pork. They would add pigs blood as they went and once it was fine enough it would be added into a large bowl.
As the men processed the meat the women were in small groups. One group was bagging sticky rice into personal sized packets. One was cutting up a form of green eggplant that was grown though out the village on vines. Others were adding meats to the giant pots that held boiling water above the scoop hearths.
Our host Artid chopping the raw pigs meat.
Finished product of ra meat, pigs blood, spices and herbs.
As the different methods finished they would offer us samples. This was always accompanied by smiles, laughs, and moonshine. Like the snake we decided to just go for it, enjoy the special moments, and eat what ever they offered us. In the end we tried pig liver, heart, intestine, (which had been squeezed out and cleaned but didn't seem to remove everything) a stew with cabbage, and the raw pork and blood "tartar" (which had tons of spices and peppers added, and was surprisingly delicious). Not to bad for a couple of vegetarians.
Throughout this I was given small tasked including hauling wood for the fires and stirring some of the large pots. Everyone seemed to get a kick out of watching me work.
Debra began taking pictures with her Instax and they were a huge hit. Different groups and family members wanted their pictures taken and it was fun seeing them pick their favorites.
By about 8:30 am we were both a little drunk from the constant shots and full of meat that our bodies didn't know what to do with. We took it easy in the shade as the work began to slow down around us. The wedding wasn't until later and they were waiting for the brides family to make the 4 hour drive from their village.
Roy showing all the men pictures of us at the shooting range in Wyoming.
We both wish we could have stayed for the rest of the celebrations but were honored to be part of everything that we were. The three of us then hopped on a small 100cc dirt bike and drove the 20 minutes back to the Elephant jungle sanctuary.
We met up with another group and watched as they feed and bathed the elephants. We were both so tired and overwhelmed by everything that we relaxed by the water and zoned out until our rides were ready to take us back to Chiang Mai.
Those three days ended up being some of the most incredible experiences of our lives and we are so thankful to the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary and expecially Mr. Artid for inviting us to his village and including us in the wedding celebration. Those will definitely be memories that we will keep for ever.
Us and Artid.
