Thailand - Chiang Mai

There is nothing like the train ride from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. The beds face the direction of the tracks so as the train rocks, so does your body. It’s therefore impossible to sleep because you’re constantly rolling around. Then there’s the issue of the bathrooms. They’re little more than a hole in the floor. As you use them, you can see the tracks whizzing by beneath you. 18 hours of this is not all it’s cracked up to be.

But it was well worth it. Chiang Mai is one of the coolest places I’ve ever been. Alex and I packed in three days of awesome stuff. We took a Thai cooking class (cool), we rode elephants (way cool), and we cuddled with tigers (fucking awesome!).

Day one got off to a late start, as we caught up on several hours of sleep. But we signed up for an evening cooking course. After nearly a month of delicious Thai dishes, it was time we learned how to make them ourselves.

Our class was a group of 14 people. We had to collectively decide on two classes of dishes to create with the third being chosen for us (curry). We all easily agreed to create a noodle and a soup dish. From there, each of us got to pick their individual dish. Alex and I split ours up so we could share. I made a green curry, a pad see euw and a coconut milk soup. Alex made the massaman curry, pad thai, and a thom ka-gai soup.

The noodle dish was first. The teacher handed out all the ingredients; we chopped them up and moved to the wok. She then guided us through the process step by step. When we were done, we ate immediately; like an appetizer.

The rest was prepared at the same time. We broke into small groups to grind the curry paste with mortar and pestle. Next we cut up all our ingredients for the curry and soups. We cooked one right after the other and sat down for our meal. Everyone was sharing with each other, so you could get a little taste of everything. All of it was delicious. The lesson learned is that Thai food is easy to make, you just need fresh ingredients and about 20 minutes.

The next morning was an early wake up call as we were brought out to an elephant sanctuary far in the jungle. There were only four people on the tour, which turned out to be the perfect number. There were only four elephants there. We each got our own. We were first introduced to them by offering up crates of bananas. In fact we handed out nearly 4 crates over the course of the day. We spent the rest of the morning taking practice runs atop the elephants and learning the commands and directions. You sit atop the neck, clutching behind their ears with your thighs. All of the commands involve applying some form of pressure to their neck. After our practice runs we had lunch and were off for a full hour-long trek.

Alex and I split our time between the largest and the smallest, and most unruly, elephants. I was put on the small one first. His ears are still somewhat small and his head doesn’t rise much higher than his neck. The entire time you feel as if you’re about to fall forward and over his head. Especially when going downhill. While he may be the smallest, you’re still well over 6 feet off the ground and it would be a miserable tumble. The only thing keeping you attached is a rope tied around his neck. I held on to that thing for dear life the entire time I was on him. But at the halfway mark we got to switch. Riding the big one was so much more relaxing. You just plant your hands on the bumps on his head and enjoy the ride. He’s much taller (at least 12 feet) and you feel like you could crush the world below you. It’s an indescribable feeling riding something that big.

Upon our return it was time for more bananas and a scrub down. This is clearly their favorite part of the day. They all immediately lie down and look so relaxed as you wash them. The best part for us is when the trainers got the baby elephants to start playing. It was like a giant water fight, but with elephant trunks instead of water guns.

That night we went to a muay thai fight, and I was thoroughly disappointed. It was clearly set up just for tourists as many of the fights seemed staged. The most telling fight was the “intertantional bout” in which a woman from Switzerland fought a woman from Chiang Mai. The Swiss woman clearly dominated all three rounds yet the woman from Chiang Mai won by decision. On the bright side though, they did have a blindfolded battle royal. 10+ fighters went into the ring swinging blindly. I don’t care if they could see through them (quite likely) or not, it was really funny.

As cool as the elephants were, my favorite part of Chiang Mai were the tigers. Just outside of town is a tiger sanctuary where you can enter the cages with them. There are three sets you can visit: small, medium, and large. Naturally we had to do all three.

The baby tigers (around 4 to 6 months) are pretty mellow and you can cuddle with them for about 15 minutes. Afterwards we wandered around the cages viewing all the 40+ tigers. Most of which you can’t visit but can see from very close. Next up for us were the medium tigers (around 1 year old). These guys were like teenagers. Once in the cage, the trainers got them up and playful. As much as people think the tigers are drugged, I doubt they would be as active if they were on drugs. We spent nearly 20 minutes watching them play with each other. Then lastly we sat in with the big boys (around 1.5 to 2 years old). It’s an exhilarating thrill sitting next to something so powerful and dangerous. Really an amazing feeling.

It had been nearly a month that I’d travelled with Alex and I’d made a great friend in the process but this is where we parted ways. He was off to Laos and I was getting back down to Bangkok and on to Siem Riep. I was once again back on my own.