elephants, flowers, and a day trip

A year ago, Stephan and I hopped on a plane to Singapore. Our first new country in Southeast Asia, after living in Thailand for a couple of months. Singapore was a breath of fresh air. We were in our stuffy Nakhon town, with very few pleasures from the western world. Singapore had it all. 

This year, our four day weekend in July crept up faster than expected. We had an elaborate plan to go somewhere expensive again. Because being in an expensive place for only four days, couldn't cause too much damage to the wallet. We checked out tickets for various places that we wanted to go, but nothing seemed worth it. There is a town, Pai, a few hours away from Chiang Mai, that seemed like it was calling our name for this long weekend. We had heard that the drive there is breathtaking. We immediately agreed that motorbikes would be our mode of transportation for getting there. With our laid back, I love Chiang Mai selves, we never had much gumption to completely plan the whole thing. This month we spent money on plane tickets to and from Hong Kong for Christmas, so our bank accounts were quickly reaching that uncomfortable amount.  

So, after all of our daydreaming of a motorbike adventure to Pai, we decided to stay in Chiang Mai, save some money and enjoy this place that we have quickly come to call home. We would explore some neighboring towns, dine at new restaurants, and sip on coffees from places that we had not yet discovered. Some of our favorite things to do while traveling is to obviously indulge in new cuisines and enjoy new coffee shops and of course Chiang Mai has plenty of that left for us to discover.

Needless to say, this long weekend has been wonderful. A vacation in my own home. I have read a whole book, tried new restaurants, and am now sipping on my second coffee of the day (from a place that I don't often go). On Sunday, we took our motorbike to the neighboring town called Mae Rim. The drive there left my legs vibrating, my back sore, and my face covered in a layer of dirt. It's one of those drives where everything around you is so overwhelming for your senses. You just want to take it all in, but then you get a face full of exhaust, or have to pull your self up for a second to slightly stretch your cramped back and legs which causes the bike to wobble and makes the driver a bit nervous. 

Our final destination was the botanical gardens. We were in no rush, so along the way we stopped at a cute restaurant where we ate some fish and an interesting take on a lemongrass jackfruit salad. We also grabbed two cookies to take for a treat later. Stephan had the snickerdoodle cookie, and I the ginger snap. After lunch we continued our short, but hilly drive towards the gardens. We passed a couple yellow diamond signs with black elephants, to warn the drivers on the road, that there was in fact elephants that could come out onto the road. I was trying to turn my camera on to capture one of these said obscure signs, when Stephan shouts "Get your camera ready". I look up and there right before us, was a giant beauty, an elephant walking down the street. Those signs weren't lying. A few more minutes down the road, we pass an elephant camp and shortly after the entrance, I peaked through the woods, to see young Thai men riding elephants through the woods along the creek. I made Stephan pull over, so he could see these creatures. Their mouths stuffed with long chutes of grass, gracefully walking where their leader would tell them to go. After standing there gazing at these animals, with our jaws dropped to the gravel ground, and getting a few shots of the elephants, we returned to our bike and continued to the gardens.

Once we reached the gardens, we drove our trusty motorbike up some steep hills and found the glass houses, that I had quickly read about before going out on this adventures. The houses were filled with orchids, lotus, waterlillies, cactus, pitcher plants, and other dreamy plants. We pulled out our cookies and walked through the houses slowly snacking on our treat. After we felt we had seen enough fauna for the day, we decided to return back toward Chiang Mai. The drive back leaving us sore and sweaty, but the adventure leaving us with a little more appreciation for the fact that we get to live in this crazy beautiful place.