June | 2024 | To Roam the Roads of Lands Remote

My morning started off with a rushed breakfast at my hotel. I had scheduled to visit an elephant sanctuary and my confirmation had said I’d be picked up between 7:30-8. Of course at 7:28 someone was looking for me already, so I was glad I’d brought all my things down from the room and was ready to go.

We drove around the city picking up two more groups from hotels. One lone Spanish guy, and an American family of five (didn’t catch where they were from). We drove off into the mountains to the elephant camp.

Elephant sanctuaries are tricky. While elephants that have been raised in captivity can’t necessarily be released back into the wild, they still sometimes end up being exploited at so called “sanctuaries”. In particular riding them is supposed to be something that is very bad for them, so any place that is offering rides really lacks an ethical approach. Likewise some of the places don’t have enough space to truly allow the elephants to roam and live their lives. It was important to me that if I was visiting a sanctuary it actually was helping elephants rather than just using them to make money.

This was the reason I chose Chang Chill. They were supposed to be one of the more ethical elephant rescues. In particular they didn’t allow any human interaction with their elephants (no bathing, touching, or riding) and allowed the elephants to roam on a large swath of land with a keeper nearby to keep an eye on them.

We headed up into the mountains for the day and started out by hiking around the camp looking for the elephants. There are four of them in the camp, all female adults (one mom and daughter and two others who weren’t related). We quickly found one eating and hiked down into the brush to get a better view. We watched her eat for a bit, and then headed back up to the road. The other three were all along the main road. Mom and daughter apparently like to stay very close together since they were separated for 10 years. Sounded like some of them had been giving rides to tourists prior, and a couple worked in the logging industry hauling stuff. Either way it was good to see them be happy and free enjoying life as much as they could outside of the wild.

After maybe an hour and a half of admiring them in their natural habitat we headed back down to the camp. We helped prepare their lunch for them (sugar cane and bananas). Got to use a machete to hack up the sugar cane as one of them is getting older and her teeth don’t work as well, so it needs it a little easier to chew.

Then we had our own lunch. A vegetarian Thai food buffet (rice, curried potatoes, noodles and tofu, vegetables, and watermelon).

The Spanish guy and I sat and chatted for a bit exchanging travel advice and talking about what we were doing in Thailand. There were also a few other groups there, but they seemed like they were all together, maybe some kind of college trip or something.

After our lunch we headed down to load up the feeding stations for the elephants. We waited for about twenty minutes and finally the four elephants appeared. They were very excited to eat (I guess they have some pretty big sweet tooths so sugarcane and bananas are some of their favorites).

We got to watch them eating for a bit before loading up the van and heading back to Chiang Mai.

The weather was supposed to be stormy, but thankfully held off so I just had a relaxing afternoon by the pool before cleaning up for dinner.

I found a cute place to eat called Dash. I had Gaeng Phet Phed Yang (duck in red curry sauce), a watermelon smoothie, and a mango cheesecake to finish. It was all very tasty.

Then I walked over to the Night Bazaar to at least check it out. It was basically a big market that takes place after 7 PM most nights with food, music, artists. It was huge and very fun, though I didn’t see anything I really wanted to buy.

By that point I was exhausted. Opted to get a Grab car back to my place. As it was after dark I felt a little anxious getting into a stranger’s car, but thankfully Grab offers an option of women drivers for women, so I opted for that. She dropped me off at my hotel and I packed up my stuff for the next day and set about getting a good night’s sleep.

I’m attempting to get these Thailand posts done so I can update on my latest adventures. Most of them are thankfully written out just need to be edited and have photos added. Stay tuned for the last couple days about Thailand and then on to South Africa!

Day nine was actually my most unplanned day. Anyone who knows me is aware that my travel tends to be extensively planned. I not only book all my accommodation and transportation ahead of time, but often have a daily itinerary planned out.

However, day nine kind of ended up falling apart.

I’d booked a caving tour outside of Chiang Mai. But the night before I looked and realized I had accidentally booked the wrong day. I was able to cancel for no charge, but unfortunately by the time I realized, it was too late to book for the next day.

Therefore I woke up and had a day with nothing planned. Which actually was a nice change of pace.

I had a very lazy morning at my hotel. I let myself sleep in a little before grabbing some breakfast downstairs.

I don’t think I had any hotels with bad breakfast, but this one definitely stood out. They had a huge variety, both typical western fare of eggs, toast, yogurt, but also some pineapple fried rice, passion fruit, and some kind of Thai dessert (I never did find out exactly what it was but it was sweet and sticky, pictured below as the pink rose).

I had a leisurely breakfast, finding an app for my phone to be able to make my own walking tour of the city. I used GPS My City, which worked well for putting in destinations that looked interesting to explore and then looping them into a logical walking route.

Before I left the hotel, I also decided to make a plan for my afternoon. I decided to book a Thai massage.

Anyone who knows me well is aware I really am not a fan of touching. Only really close friends and family are allowed to even hug me. I’ll tolerate cuddling with a significant other, but most of the time I just prefer to have my own personal space bubble. For that reason, it has never really occurred to me to book a massage. But, it really was something I’d heard people speak highly of, and the prices were so low (about $10) that it was difficult to resist. Besides, Thai massage was supposed to be very different from traditional western style massages. I’d seen things that described it more like assisted yoga.

I planned to be back in the late afternoon to enjoy some time at the pool and then get ready for my massage. But in the meantime I was determined to take off and see as much of the city as I could.

I followed the route the map suggested, stopping at a few temples including Wat Phra Singh, Wat Chedi Luang, Wat Samphoe. I admired both of them, snapping pictures, reading a few signs and reading what the app had to say about each location.

I was a little surprised at the second temple to see a sign saying women weren’t allowed in certain parts. There was a sign explaining that it was to avoid the possibility of a menstruating woman entering the temple and thereby making it unclean. There was plenty else to see, but it was my first encounter with something like that before and it definitely had me surprised. There will always be some downsides to being a female traveler, and unfortunately this was one. Places that will never be accessible to me simply because I’m a woman.

I walked past the Tha Phae Gate and then onwards through a market and to a Chinese temple the Pung Thao Kong Shrine. It was actually fun to get to see the different styles of a temple built by those who weren’t Thai.

After that it was just more wandering, mostly admiring some very beautiful flowers. I stopped at Katam Corner, a remnant of a fortification wall from the 13th century.

Then it was over to Wat Sri Suphan, the silver temple. I paid a small fee to get in and then wandered around, admiring the beautiful shining temple apparently made of silver, nickel, and aluminum.

My final stop was Nong Buak Haad, a public park with beautiful flowers. I took some pictures and a little break, but then decided I needed to head onwards.

I was getting hungry and quite warm, so I decided to stop and get some lunch. I ended up at the Phordee Bistro and had chicken with cashews and a mango smoothie. Absolutely delicious. As I was heading out, I had one of the servers run after me because I’d somehow forgotten my phone. I definitely would have noticed pretty quickly, but I still was glad of the kindness in making sure I didn’t have to come back.

The day was getting later so I headed back to the hotel. I spent a little time in the afternoon in the pool before getting ready to head to the massage area.

I was led into a darkened room with a couple of massage tables and a couple of other people already in the middle of massages. I was given some loose clothing to change into and then brought over to a table.

What followed was one of the most painful experiences of my life. This small Thai woman started with some kneading. I definitely wouldn’t call it gentle. She made sure to work pretty much every part of my body. On top of more of a typical massage, she also did pull my body into some different positions, some of which were quite painful. Nonetheless, I persevered. I knew no massage would really be my thing, but this at least was something different and unique and I hoped maybe it would help me feel a little bit better the next day.

The masseuse did tell me I was “very strong” when she was done. I wasn’t quite sure if that was a compliment or she was remarking on me resisting her movements, but either way I thanked her and tipped her before changing back into my clothes and going back to my room.

I then headed out to find dinner. I ended up at a casual restaurant called Kat’s Kitchen. I started with spring rolls and a passionfruit smoothie before moving to a yellow curry. I was asked my spice level and asked for medium. I often don’t think of myself as very good with spice, but then I meet people who tell me things they find spicy that make me just laugh. So I figured medium would probably be just right and it was.