Lily, Caden, & Gia Lovers: Chiang Mai - Elephant Experience

We had a great breakfast of eggs - over-easy, scrambled and omelets, plus bacon, pancakes, fruit, and yogurt (oye!) then relaxed a bit before heading out.

We headed to Patara Elephant Farm for a day of caring, feeding, and riding elephants. It exceeded expectations in every way!

We began with meeting one of the baby elephants... Corey actually offered to let the baby sit on his lap.

The wrestling began...Corey lost. Hands-down.

Next we headed over to meet our elephants. It was like walking through Jurassic Park. You could hear elephants calling out as you walked and see them roaming about in the surrounding hills. Absolutely stunning!

The weighing station, that Rod graciously demonstrated

We were all given some amazing outfits to look like a typical elephant trainer.

We received our briefing and learned some Thai words to use on our elephants, like "Bonne" = open up, or "Didi" = good.

We are soooo excited!

We each received a basket of sugar cane to feed our elephants to get to know them and build trust. Phonetically speaking, our elephants were:

A-Roon - Lily and Riley
Sham-Poo - Grace and Abby
Noon - Molly and Alicia
Tup-Tong - Clayton and Micki
Boon-Pak - Caden and Corey
Vom-Met - Ben and Scott
Pry - Caden and Wendy
Ku-Tahn and her baby Taiwan - Rod

Pry

Elephant Hugs = Pure Happiness

Corey and Gia shared an elephant

Lily and Riley shared an elephant

Lily also got an elephant kiss. This was a big deal for our little germ-a-phobe.

Next we learned about the health of the elephant, that included analyzing, and smelling, their feces. No joke. What's even crazier, is that we all did it! Smelled like grass, cuz our elephants were very healthy and happy :)

Next up, we learned how brush the dirt off of them, and how to get on our elephants,

The elephants help you up with a knee or a trunk boost.

We all lined up to begin the trek...which we assumed would be about 20 minutes. Little did we know this was a start of a trek through steep, rocky terrain. It was INSANE! My and Caden's elephant, Pry, had to be in front at all times -- running past other elephants that tried to pass us. We traveled mostly with Ku-Than (Rod and his elephant) and the baby Taiwan. Taiwan was less experienced at traversing the terrain and kept sliding '_' This is what the waiver was for!

We were also instructed to keep our knees up in case the elephant scratched itself on a tree, or came too close, as parts of the path were really narrow. This led to some serious "elephant burn" from rubbing your legs up and down the hide of the stubbly elephant.

Once we made it to the waterfall at the bottom of the mountain, our elephants laid down for us to slide off and then made a b-line for the water. Once we all gathered back, we changed into suits and went to the water to bathe our elephants.

We assumed this last part was a set up, but we let them spray us anyway :)

Our lunch was waiting for us once we finished bathing our elephants. The picnic included chicken wings, our new favorites, sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves, and yummy Thai fruits. Everything but the water bottle was completely sustainable.

After lunch we explored the waterfall and relaxed a bit.

After a swim and a hike, we hopped back on our elephants and rode a short distance to the road where we bid farewell to our elephant friends and the amazing staff. We even got a kiss or two!

At the end of this magical day we all wanted to bring our elephants home with us. Such a special experience to help care from them for the day!

Once home we showered and rested before heading out to dinner and into the Sunday-might markets of Chiang Mai. Dinner was great! We tried the traditional western-Thai dish of Khao-Soi (per Lonely Planet, "...squiggly wheat-and-egg noodles, a rich, fragrant curry-based broth, sides of crunchy pickled greens, sliced shallots and lime, and you have kôw soy (also known askhao soi), a dish that has become virtually synonymous with the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai".