"There is an elephant in the road", Jen remarked with astonishment.
"What?" I replied over the sound of cars, taxis and other people shouting
"There. is. an. elephant. in. the. road." Jen said again, but I still could not hear her and was looking back at her.
"Sorry?" I shouted. I then caught something out of the corner of my eye and finally looked ahead. There was a baby elephant less than a meter away from me and it was strolling past without a care in the world.
Chiang Mai is an amazing city. It was built in 1259 and to protect it from invaders the designers also included a sodding big moat into the blueprint. We are staying towards the top right hand corner of the square moat. (To look at a boring map click here.) The moat never fully worked though and the city was invaded and taken over by Burma for a short while.
Within the area of the moat Chiang Mai is a spiderweb of streets and alleys with amazing cheap Thai restaurants, Monks in bright orange robes, coffee shops and Wats. You have to avoid the taxis, motorbikes, mopeds and Tuk Tuks as you go adventuring through the old city though and this is no easy task when they keep stopping and asking if you want a ride! The best part about exploring the city for me though is the Wats. What's a Wat? Well a Wat is a temple. So if someone asks what's a wat you know what a wat is because it's what's written here. (Jen and I have been trying as many Wat related jokes and sayings as possible).
At one stage we wandered into this huge temple area and into a sectioned area with a sign saying 'monk chat'. I sat under a tree and chatted to monks. I wanted to ask them if they have a choice to become a monk? Do they like the routine? Can they tell me a little about Buddhism? Instead they wanted to know all about England and the different accents people have. It was still fun to chat to them though.
I have also now just returned from a Thai cooking course. We were picked up from the hostel and taken to the local market where we learnt all about different herbs, vegetables and fruits. We then went to the kitchens and were instructed by a very patient thai chef how to cook a variety of different dishes from scratch. I really felt like I learnt something from it and am looking forward to getting home and trying to cook some Thai Green curry, papaya salad and coconut chicken soup sometime!
Jen showing that asian size aprons are not good for the western woman.
We are planning on staying in Chiang Mai for another night and going to see some hill tribes in the countryside. One of the tribes have the women who elongate their knecks by using metal rings which should be really interesting. We are then travelling four hours outside of the city to a place called 'Pai', because we want to get slightly off the beaten track for a while and have been told this is the best way to see some elephants that are not just there for the sake of tourism. Should be interesting!
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