There are not enough words to say how much I adore northern Thailand. The hotel I'm staying at is really neat, it's a hostel combined with a hotel, which recently opened. The owners both live on site and are beyond helpful and you can tell share a passion for traveling along with their many visitors. Talk about a dream business. Oh, they have the cutest dog named coco,too.

I spent my first night here in Chiang Mai wandering the night bizaar market. To get there, I used what's called a red taxi, which is a shared taxi where it stops along the route you're on to pick up people going in the same direction, the ride cost $1. I could get used to that. The market basically has anything you could ever imagine. I picked up a sweet pair of shoes, had a delicious dragon fruit smoothie, and treated myself to a foot pedicure by some fishies (see photos). Me and an English girl laughed and fidgeted our way through the tickling feeling for our 15 minute time slot.

The next morning, I had breakfast at the hotel, and white eating, met another solo traveler, Eva, from Germany. She had just arrived and couldn't check in to the hostel portion of the hotel until noon, so after chatting for a while, I offered to let her nap in my room since I wouldn't be around most of the morning/afternoon. She had taken an overnight bus to get here and was exhausted. I left her to it and headed out towards Doi Suthep which is a mountain at the western edge of Chiang Mai.

The road up to Doi Suthep is extremely curvey. My taxi driver let me sit in the front bc I was the only one in the shared ride, and it helped my stomach a lot. The drive was amazing, we literally drove straight up into the clouds! I then walked up the 300+ steps, further into the clouds, and checked out the temple. I got there really early, which I've found is the way to do temples, and didn't have to fight crowds for photos and views. While up there, I had to remove my shoes and cover my legs and shoulders, as it's considered the holiest place in the northern Thailand region and a place of worship. Inside one of the coverings was a monk who was blessing visitors, of course I participated, how cool. He gives out yarn to tie around your wrist as a symbol of the blessing. For women, he can't tie it on for you, as he said "please tie yourself, monk can't touch lady."

Next on my to do list, perhaps the most anticipated of my whole trip, THE ELEPHANTS! I was picked up by the company I arranged it through and we picked up a family of 4 as well. We endured a 45 min bus ride up another mountain, where all of us thought we might get sick due to the curves, and then got to the camp. Our first visit was to the new baby and her momma. I've been following this babies birth on Facebook and it was amazing to see her in person. She is just under 2 months old. She was so cuddly, almost as if she was a dog.. At one point she layed in my lap, luckily there was a cushion under me or I may have been crushed.

I chose Patara Elephant Farm because of it's mission. It is a conservation center and teaches visitors about taking care of and rehabilitating the elephants. I was basically a care taker for the day. My elephants name was Tip-ton, and we got along wonderfully. I fed her (a lot), bathed her in the river, and exercised her. It was amazing. I'll never forget it. I took over 200 photos of my experience and could talk about this for hours, but I'll save you the reading and you can ask me in person!

Upon returning to the hotel, I showered up, met Eva, and went to a local jazz night down the street. So many backpackers were there and it was so fun watching everyone interact. After all, we are all there for the same reason, we love to travel and want to see the world!

Up next, thai cooking and tigers!