We are now in Thailand! Armed with our 60 day visa scored in Hanoi, we have made it to the southeast Asian destination that has been on our radar forever. Our very first night in Chiang Mai we stumbled upon a local market near our place and had our very first pad thai, for the equivalent of $1.50 CAD, and spiced and sweetened to perfection. It was the pad thai that is now setting the standard for all future pad thais in Thailand. And so it begins.

We had a nice long week in Chiang Mai, and we were lucky enough to have booked the sweetest, loveliest family run guesthouse, painted with bright murals of elephants, and housing 4 eager dogs who ran to greet us at our return at the end of every day. Bliss. We were initially a bit blindsided to be in a bigger city than we imagined, with as many Western influences (they have Boots!) For a couple of days, it was an extreme novelty to wander a mall and have access to the products, foods, and services that you didn't even realize you were missing. We are also surrounded by Christmas hoopla, which I can imagine must be aimed at tourists and expats in this mostly Buddhist country. It is all very comforting! As much as we are explorers, we are also clearly still creatures of habit.

Our Chiang Mai city experience revolved around markets. The end of the hot day was usually marked by a night time stroll through a new, undiscovered market filled with food, hair cuts, fried insects, massages, musicians, cactuses, and any other random item you can think of. The markets are very low key affairs with no hassling, and you are free to marvel and move slowly with your mouth half open at the sheer size and variety of these events. When we weren't off to market, to market (jiggity jig), we were off to the wats (temples) which were similar to the ones in Laos, and admittedly started a bit of our "temple fatigue". We tried to fight the fatigue by not stopping at every single one, and finding ones a bit further outside of the city that were not as "famous", but were a little quieter and perhaps a little more unique.

But by far the number one highlight of our time in Chiang Mai was our day trip to Elephant Nature Park, about an hour outside of the city. For Clare this was the experience that all of Thailand revolved around. Elephant Nature Park is a sanctuary that houses elephants rescued from circuses and riding camps. This extraordinary place now takes care of almost 100 elephants (plus dozens of stray dogs and cats!). We booked an experience called, "Care for Elephants", where we walked the elephants, fed them, and bathed them in the river by splashing buckets of water on them. The whole day felt like a beautiful dream as we never expected such intimate interactions with them. We were fascinated by their extremely versatile trunks (the baby elephant was trying to lift a huge piece of bamboo with his!), their insatiable appetitles (they ate basically all day long!), and how they develop protective relationships with other elephants in the camp (putting a protective leg or trunk over a small one!) It was a day of continuous awe. The kind of day where you think you MUST have the experience again, but it was so perfect that you wouldn't want to try and replicate it. If anyone reading is thinking of visiting this area of Thailand, we believe this particular organization is leading the way in elephant conservation here. Go and support them!