So right now I am sitting in the back of a truck after being picked up from my hostel this morning by a man on his moped which I hoped on the back of. We are on our way to have a rumble in the jungle with a bunch of elephants! I have already seen elephants on the road, and one naughty baby elephant in the middle of the road. My driver likes to swish his head from one side to the other and then projectile spit out the window!
Yesterday was a great day. I got picked up at my hostel and jumped in the back of a uht where I joined 5 other girls and one guy and off we set to the market. This was really good as our guide explained to us about the different types of rice and shredded a coconut,squeezed it and showed us the coconut milk. The rest of the day was taken up by cooking, I cooked Thai vegetable soup, chicken and cashew nuts, green curry and banana coconut milk. Now for those of you that know me well will know that my cooking skills are not fab but my goodness I blew myself away! It was delicious! I will definitely try and cook more when I get home! After lunch we chilled out in the hammocks for a while. During this time I got talking to two America girls who are going to Pai the same day that I am and they have offered me a lift on the back of their moped! Perfect! One thing that I love about travelling is the people that you meet. Everyday I am so pleasantly surprised by how kind and friendly everyone is that I meet, and how interesting everyone is. Our journey back from the cooking school was spent discussing how the western people have introduced many things to Thailand such as plastic yet we haven't educated these people about it, therefore rubbish and recycling is a big problem over here which is a shame. Along with the lack of education, religion is also an issue as they believe that the Buddha will take care of the rubbish which unfortunately will not happen.
That evening I went for dinner with Felictys auntie, it was so lovely! She was so kind!

There is a bit of an issue with the air at the moment in chiang Mai because a lot of the forest around the area is being burnt because it is so dry, but Chiang Mai sits in a basin and so the smoke sits and therefore pollutes the air.
One thing I have noticed which I find really funny is the amount of thai's that have iPhones and modern phones yet most other things they own are very basic.

So getting back to the elephants....my day with the elephants was awesome! I loved it! We got to feed the elephants in the morning and then we walked them down to the river (by holding their earlobe!). Once we were in the river we patted their side and they sat down so that we were able to splash them water and wash them with brushes! This experience was UNREAL! It was incredible, one of the moments where you have to remind yourself that this is infant real life and not a dream! Following this we took them back up to hard ground and mounted them. I was first to get on. The elephant bends his leg to act as steps so that you can get up, these are elephants who live in the wild so this was just incredible! We then rode them to a waterfall, up and down hills which was great fun although going down hill was pretty scary! Once we arrived at the waterfall we had lunch which they had set out on big leaves. Then it was time to swim with the elephants, the baby elephants came running in and kept going under the water, he loved it! It was so great to see! Then it was time to ride them back, it was so steep so pretty scary! And then we let the elephants go free again to wander wherever they wish through the night! Fabulous day!
That evening I went to the walking street market which was crazy! So many market stalls!
Travelling alone is one the funniest experiences, I sometimes find it challenging but most of the time it is great. I am meeting so many people, only for short periods of time but it is certainly showing me how kind and friendly people are to complete strangers. This is one of the best experiences of my life, and everyday I wake up feeling grateful!
Peace out :)