chiang mai, thailand + elephant nature park

bakara and madison have pretty much summed it up, but the past week and a half have been amazing. we arrived in chiang mai last sunday night where we went to the Sunday Walking Market — miles of vendors selling beautiful art, bags, jewelry, food (CUSTOM WAFFLES), etc. 

the next morning we were up early to begin our adventure at elephant nature park — an hour outside of chiang mai, nestled in a valley, surrounded by mountains — easily the most beautiful place i’ve ever been. we spent the week being with the elephants during the day - bathing and feeding them - and also doing ele-related chores. the chores that were part of our volunteer work included shoveling poop (which isn’t as bad as it sounds), washing all of the TONS (literally) fruit that the 37 hungry elephants eat in a given day. (note: elephants are vegan.. cool). also, 95% of the fruit that the elephants eat are organic, and grown locally — right down the road from the park. the week went by so quickly and was such a magical experience. elephants are so smart and they all have distinct personalities and close relationships (every elephant has a best friend that they travel around with all day). i’m so happy we decided to take a week out of our travels to stay there.

leaving the park was sad, but it was exciting to get back to chiang mai city. sunday we went back to the night market, and then on monday we headed back to the mountains to go zip lining through the rain forest. another amazing, exhilarating experience — the zip line course even included a few vertical drops where you free-fall upwards of 120 feet. we’ve spent the rest of our time in chiang mai exploring the city and getting (more) cheap massages. 

tomorrow morning we leave for Pai - a small town 3 hours from chiang mai, which is supposed to be a fun little hippie/artist town with lots of river-related activities and hammocks. also our hostel is in the middle of a rice paddy. i love rice.