Thailand Part II: Elephants

On to part two of our Thailand adventure!

Tom, our guide

On our second day in Chiang Mai Kaelin and I went to an elephant sanctuary where we took part in an elephant mahout training course. Baan Chang Elephant Park is a private sanctuary that primarily rescues begging elephants and elephants from logging camps and tries to provide them with a better life. They work with the recognition that while they provide the elephants with the best care possible, it is still not an ideal environment for the elephants. The owner's dream would be to release the elephants back into the wild, but there is currently nowhere for the elephants to go that is protected. As such, he continues to put the money that he makes back into the park, buying more land for the elephants and building structures to protect them from the heat and the rain. It was nice to go to a place where it was obvious that everyone there really loved and cared for the animals and wanted nothing but the best for them.

Om nom nom

Anyhow, we started our day by getting a longer version of the above information and then moved on to feeding the elephants. As a group, we were provided with four giant baskets full of sugar cane and fed them by the handful to the elephants. 

"Can I have some more please?"

After we ran out of sugar cane we were given a lesson on how to get on and off the elephants and then what commands to give them to get them to turn, go and stop. We sort of got the impression that what we were saying had no real impact on the elephants, since they seemed to know the drill and looked like they were just paying attention to their mahouts anyhow. It was still fun to pretend like the elephants were listening to us though.

After our lesson we had lunch, which was in a pavilion that overlooked where the elephants were getting their second bath of the day. I doubt I will ever have a lunch like that again.

"And here is your shoe."

After lunch we went on our bareback elephant ride:

Elephants are big and far away from the ground

We were seriously worried that the mahout was going to get stepped on while taking these pictures

Once we got back we got to help give our elephants a bath. The water was absolutely filthy, but it was so much fun to be washing an elephant that I didn't really care. They also had shower facilities for us to use afterwards, which helped a lot.

So that was our day with the elephants. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience and something that I will never forget.

Thailand Part I: Food

Hi everyone,

We're back in Singapore for a few days before we head off to Cambodia and Laos, so hopefully we'll have time to throw up a few blog posts that are more interesting/story-like than the piecemeal entry I put up on Hong Kong. To that end, I will now regale you with a tale of the delicious food that we ate at every turn in Thailand. We spent most of our time in Thailand in Chiang Mai, which is known primarily for two things: hill trekking and food. Those of you who know us well can easily guess why Kaelin and I went there.

Me as a happy little housewife

On our first full day in Thailand, my birthday, we took an all day cooking course at the A Lot of Thai cooking school in Chiang Mai, and it was absolutely fantastic. I have never eaten so much good food in my life, and the best part was that I actually cooked it... with a liberal amount of help from Yui, the owner of the school and our teacher. Yui was amazing, both as a cook and as a teacher. She's even been featured on "Chef Abroad" with Michael Smith and will be on the second series of Gordon Ramsay's "Gordon's Great Escape". It was really neat cooking in a kitchen where there were pictures of our teacher with Gordon Ramsay on the wall. 

Our cooking class, minus the only guy

Who knew there were so many kinds of eggplant?

Anyhow, we started our day by cooking Pad Thai and it was honestly the best Pad Thai that I've ever had. We got a cookbook as part of the course fee and Kaelin and I are going to attempt to make it for Cynthia and Neil tonight, so we'll see how that turns out *fingers crossed*. After we made and ate our Pad Thai we went on a trip to the local fresh market where Yui showed us all the local produce, rice, noodles, and meat. Both of us were absolutely amazed at the sheer amount of fruits and vegetables on offer that we had never even heard of. 

You can tell that chili peppers play an important role in Thai cuisine

The red things are banana flowers. Did not know those could be eaten.

A soup kit with all the vegetables prepared for you

Any guesses as to what the white things are? Hint: not a fruit or a vegetable

Our Pad Thai place of choice in Sukhothai: it was delicious and cost about $1.

After we got back from the market we spent the day cooking up an incredible variety of delicious Thai dishes. Both of us have now made tom yum (a kind of hot and sour prawn soup), stir fried chicken with cashew nuts, green curry with chicken, stir fried glass noodles with vegetables, spring rolls, and sweet sticky rice with mango. For the rest of the trip both Kaelin and I were craving Pad Thai and sweet sticky rice with mango. Thankfully we were able to find Pad Thai everywhere for incredibly cheap, though we had a harder time finding sweet sticky rice with mango. We're making that for dessert tonight, so hopefully it turns out. 

Who wouldn't want to eat there?

We were told by Yui that while we didn't make it, we couldn't leave Chiang Mai without eating Khao Soi. Khao Soi is a sort of soup made with crispy noodles, a bunch of different vegetables and meat in a curry-like sauce with coconut milk. We found an amazing restaurant in Chiang Mai that was owned by a British fellow in partnership with an incredible Thai cook, and it made fantastic Khao Soi (and Pad Thai). There was also a little garden out back that provided lovely ambiance. It was an "expensive" place at about $4 CAD for an entree and a fresh mango smoothie. It's mind-boggling what you can get for your money in Thailand. I can definitely see why a lot of British people have retired there; the weather is lovely, the food is fantastic, the people are friendly, and everything is dirt cheap compared to western countries.

Delicious Khao Soi

Equally delicious Pad Thai

That's all that I have to say about Thai food, but Kaelin may very well have something to add later, since we both loved it so much. I am now off to help Kaelin prepare dinner in the hopes that we can replicate the Pad Thai and sweet sticky rice with mango that we made in Thailand. Wish us luck!