Adventures in northern Thailand

At long last, we finally made it to Thailand! We crossed over the boarder from Siem Reap on a tourist bus headed for Bangkok. The bus dropped us off at a famous backpacker area of Bangkok, Khao San Road, and from there, we had our pick of travel agencies from which to buy our ticket to Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand. With only 30 minutes until our next bus, we grabbed some falafel and hummus (yes! Thailand has been colonized by Israelis... on Khao San Road, there is actually more Hebrew signage than Thai or even English, and there are tons of Israeli shops, restaurants, and hotels!), and around 8 AM, after a mildly uncomfortable night bus, we arrived at a hotel in Chiang Mai (a side note: all tourist buses in SE Asia are subsidized by hotels that serve as the drop off or pick up location and hope to thereby get the business of the bus riders). After settling in at the hotel, we walked around the city a bit, investigating all of the many activities options in the area. If you remember our post from Pucon in Chile, Chiang Mai was a lot like that... an outpost for adventure activities to do all over northern Thailand, and the real challenge is to try and figure out which ones you are going to turn down! From a selection of playing with tigers, riding a 2 km jungle zipline, bungee jumping, a four-day jungle jeep tour, a three-day whitewater rafting trip, visiting a snake farm, a three-day jungle trek, elephant training, and cooking classes, we decided on the latter three. Fortunately, our trekking package included a short bit of whitewater rafting, and on the way to the elephant training camp, we also got to visit an orchid farm, so we didn't have to give up on too many good activities (although Amit is still mourning missing out on playing with tigers and the 2 km zipline). This first exploratory day also happened to be Friday, and Chiang Mai is one of the four cities in Thailand that is home to a Chabad House. So at night, we joined the mass of Israelis, as well as a few other Jewish travelers, at Chabad for Shabbat services and Shabbat dinner. After having spent several days visiting Hindu and Buddhist temples at Angkor Wat and being surrounded by people of such different faith (almost all of Cambodia and Thailand is Buddhist), it was relaxing and comforting to have an evening of Jewish activities and Hebrew speaking (for Amit), and to be reminded of our own family traditions. To keep up this sense of relaxation, we decided not to book any activities until the next evening, when we took our Thai cooking class (our final and most anticipated cooking class!). We took the class at a school called "Smart Cook," which was the most professional of all the cooking schools we attended on our trip. The teacher was a very smart (no pun intended!) and experienced Thai woman who knew how to make all sorts of substitutions in traditional Thai dishes for both vegetarian needs and American-ingredient needs. Among other things, we learned how to make Pad Thai (hurray!), red and green curry (double hurray!), and a delicious dessert consisting of coconut sticky rice and sliced mango. After obtaining all of our new culinary skills (Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Thai!), we are greatly looking forward to have many dinner guests in our new apartment in Chicago! The next day was our mahout training day! Mahout is the Thai word for elephant trainer, and as elephants are a major tourist attraction in Thailand, there are many mahouts and many elephant "camps" throughout the country. The camp that hosted us was a very primitive (and therefore, not touristy!) center that housed only five or six elephants. One of their elephants was pregnant and two others were "out in the field" with tourists, but there were two elephants (a mother and her 14-year-old daughter) there for us to work with. To skip ahead to a summary of the experience, this day of one-on-one interaction with elephants was without a doubt one of the most special things we've done on our trip! Nowhere in the US would an average tourist have the opportunity to engage hands-on with elephants like we did. In this program, we worked with the elephants on their obedience to commands (right, left, forward, backward, stop, head down... all in Thai, of course!), and we learned to mount them from the side (using their ear as a handle!) and the front (they lower their head for us to climb on). Then we took them on a walk, took them into the river, gave them a bath (which they promptly undid with a wallow in a huge mud puddle!), and then we went on a hike to collect grass to feed them. The elephants were surely domesticated, but I would add this to our Antarctica trip as another personal interaction with animals that are not behind a fence or in a cage at a zoo or conservatory. They were hugely impressive creatures and it was humbling to be so close to them and engage with them in such a mundane way! Highly recommended for anyone traveling to Thailand (although we came away with nasty bug bites or some sort of rash, so cover your legs with leggings if you do it!). The next morning, we left for our three-day jungle trek. It was not raining when we first set out, but shortly after entering the jungle area, it started to rain, and it rained for the entire first day. We did a little elephant riding on the first morning, but we were riding on big bamboo seats on tops of the elephants, two people to a seat. There was no contact with the elephant directly, and it was a much less personal and fulfilling of an experience than our mahout day. From the elephant riding area, we started our trek into the jungle, which despite the rain, was very beautiful. For both of the nights of the trek, we stayed in little bamboo huts (the entire group of 8 trekkers stayed in one long hut, with little individual/double mosquito nets and mattresses) in the jungle. The first night, we stayed in a village at the top of a mountain, and our host family built a fire inside the communal hut where we hung out all night, got to know our fellow trekkers (from Belgium, New Zealand, France, and Thailand), and enjoyed an impromptu magic show by our new French friend (he had brought a few of his magic show implements with him). It was amazing to hear all of the trekkers' stories... the Frenchman was a former Navy seal who had been injured in a climbing accident and was now retired; the Thai trekker had met the Frenchman a few days before and decided to join him on her first trek ever; the New Zealander was a perpetual traveler who only worked when he needed money to travel; one of our Belgian friends was at a transition point in her life (personally and professionally) and she was trying out her new found freedom and searching for some answers and inspiration; and our two other Belgian friends were employed back in Belgium as a bus driver and a social worker and were on their annual vacation. A great group that made the trek very enjoyable! On the second day of the trek, we got slightly better weather (no rain), and we got to enjoy two great waterfalls/swimming holes on the trail, and on the third day, we did terrifically fun but short whitewater rafting ride! All in all, the trek was good fun with interesting people and a good way to end our trekking adventures before we heading to the beaches for our final weeks of relaxation! Only a little time left on our Great Adventure, so we'll try to post a few more updates and then we'll be seeing many of you in person! Hope the summer is going well, and for our working friends, we'll enjoy a banana smoothie on the beach for you! Cheers, Dena (& Amit)

Amit and our fellow cooking students making spring rolls Dena and her beloved Pad Thai Amit at a bar in Chiang Mai that turned out to be run by singing and dancing "lady boys" Amit and a Thai Boxer at a match we went to in Chiang Mai Amit, rewarding his elephant with a banana for good behavior Amit learning the over-the-front elephant mount Amit, teaching his elephant to go forward Taking our elephants on a VERY muddy walk A final pose with our mahout leader and one of our elephants Our trekking group One of our Belgian friends with some Thai village children Playing in one of the waterfalls on the trek