Returning to Chiang Mai
As this was my second time in Chiang Mai, it was a trip sprinkled with new and old. I was able to revisit some of my favorite places, meet up with old friends and venture into unknown territory as well.
To my delight, Thailand also provided a very mango-y welcome. On our flight with Thai Smile we were given mango ice cream, mango juice and mango sticky rice in none other than a mango decorated bag. I thought I was heading to Thailand, but it turns out that I had booked a one-way ticket straight to the mango heaven of my dreams.
Visiting Elephants
If you are visiting Chiang Mai, there is a 98% chance you come face to face with an elephant at some point on your trip, that’s just the way it goes. Personally, I’ve had been reticent to visit the elephants as Thailand is notorious for their lack of animal rights, exploitative practices, and horrific “care” given to wildlife in captivity. Fearful that I’d only perpetuate the problem, I opted not to see the elephants during my first visit to Chiang Mai. My second time, however, I did more research and felt confident that I had found a reputable and responsible sanctuary to visit.
In the spirit of research, I thought I’d also share a few fun facts about these mammoth pachyderms to get you in the mood.
1. Elephants are pregnant for two (!!!) years, and thankfully have only one baby cooking in there at a time
2. Newborns weigh 250 pounds, while mature adults average 11,000 pounds
3. They live an average of 60 years
4. Elephants mourn for their loved ones
5. They have excellent memories and are highly sociable
6. Their trunks are 400 pounds alone
7. Elephants are the only mammals that can’t jump (this is shocking, I know)
With only 50,000 Asian elephants remaining, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) lists them as an endangered species. Humans are, of course, the largest (and really only) threat to elephants, particularly through habitat loss, ivory poaching, and the capture and domestication of elephants for physical labor and entertainment purposes.
visiting the elephants
I’m still not 100% sure if it was a good decision to visit the elephants at all, but through my research I found that Elephant Jungle Sanctuary promoted responsible tourism and conservation practices. A close runner-up was Elephant Nature Park . If you do choose to visit, I recommend these two organizations. While they are more expensive, the cheapest options tend to not have the elephants well-being in mind. Just some food for thought.
Half-day tour
We opted for the half day tour with Elephant Jungle Sanctuary Camp 6 (฿1700/$50). Not only did it provide plenty of time to learn about the elephants and spend time with them, but it gives the elephants a break from the excitable and likely irksome humans drooling over them, too.
Upon arriving, we settled in for a little chat from our guide regarding how to interact properly with the elephants. Later, we fed the gentle giants a ridiculously large amount of bananas and for your enjoyment I present another fun fact: elephant tongues feel very, very strange.
After feeding time, we moseyed to the mud pit where they laid down as if receiving a luxurious 5-star massage. We ferociously lathered them in brown mushy goodness that I sincerely hope was purely dirt-based seeing as I was slugging my way through it with reckless abandon.
From there we went to the watering hole where we washed them off. I found this to be a fun but highly unnecessary task since elephants are far more efficient at spraying themselves with their 40,000 muscle-packed trunks than a bunch of tiny ant-sized tourists splashing them with 10-ounce buckets of water. But hey, elephants don’t really need help to mass-consume bananas and roll around in mud either, though it was still amazing to be up close to these gentle giants for a few hours.
FAMILIAR PLACES, FAMILIAR FACES
SANTISOOK ANIMAL SHELTER
While I spent the day with a couple of giant mammoths this time around, my previous trip to Chiang Mai was spent with animals of the much smaller variety. Last summer I spent a month working at Santisook Dog & Cat Shelter and knew that my trip wouldn’t quite be complete without a visit back.
The organization is undergoing a few changes at the moment so it was pretty quiet, though I got to see many familiar fuzzy faces. I helped out for a few hours and assisted with a kitty surgery, and by “assist” I mean I watched and handed over the appropriate equipment when asked. Still counts. Turns out I make a much better cuddler and sometimes it’s best to stick to what we know, so of course I happily spread love like wildfire to about 60 cats and dogs.
travel friends
It is said over and over by travelers everywhere that meeting people is the best part of traveling. Even for a self-proclaimed hermit crab such as myself, I couldn’t agree more. Although the world is filled with incredibly beautiful places, in the end places are just places. It’s people that make the places special. It’s going on random adventures with your best friend or getting to know a stranger that you’ll never meet again; It’s days spent with people who feel like old friends after only a few hours of meeting and simple chats with locals while you stumble over the walls of language barriers yet still understand each other enough to laugh together; It’s being awestruck by the immense beauty of the world with that special person by your side.
Travel has a lot of perks and the people aspect almost always comes in as numero uno on the Why Travel Is the Best Thing Since Sliced Bread list. After a few years of moseying this mighty fine globe of ours, I’m lucky to now have friends all over the world and sometimes it works out where we can meet up, such as with Ray in Chiang Mai. Ray and I met at a going away shindig when we volunteered in Costa Rica in 2015. We chatted loudly over booming bar music, threw back insanely cheap chiliguaros and realized we were equally awesome. Unfortunately, I was just starting my work while she and her boyfriend were leaving, A two-hour friend was made, Facebook and Instagram’s exchanged, and we parted to go on our merry ways.
Fast-forward to 2017 when Ray sends me a message after seeing a picture I posted while in Chiang Mai. And what do you know, they’re in Chiang Mai too! We were able to meet at a bar where we danced poorly to music that was equally as bad and caught up over beers. Maybe one day we can hangout in more than two-hour increments in random bars across the globe, though I’m not complaining.