line + box

A mahout is the person who trains, feeds, watches, and generally takes care of the elephants. At Woody Elephant camp, one mahout has one elephant. They go wherever the elephant goes. Every. Single. Day. You can tell, because there's this quiet bond between them. They grunt at each other all the time like their own language. When we interacted with the elephants, we could tell the elephant had the mindset it was “working”. But when the mahout spoke, the elephants reacted more empathetically.

At the camp we husked corn for the elephants (even though most of the elephants could do this themselves using their trunks). Pictured below are the farmers working on the crops used to feed the elephant's enormous appetites.

We spent two days with the elephants so I think they deserve a few posts! After riding the elephants we took them down to the (dirty) river to bathe them and play in the water. This is the point where the baby elephant, Happy, played with Alex by pushing him down and nearly drowning him. Don't worry, there's a video.

Riding an elephant was the activity I was most looking forward to on this trip, and I was not dissapointed. Those things are not comfortable though. Their hair is like 2″ broom bristles stabbing you in the thigh. Also, they're real slow. But overall, it was awesome.

This might be my favorite wat so far. You enter the wat by underground passageways and emerge above an expansive brick platform to where the old chedi is. This whole complex is burried in the forest at the base of the Chiang Mai hill. We visited when the wat's monks were sweeping the grounds so that made it extra peacefull.

This was the oldest wat we had visited, dating back to the 14th century. The complex housed temples of various ages. Some under construction. It was interesting seeing how they make the curved roof profile by bending the roof purlins. I also liked watching the young novice monks. Many Thai boys train to become monks and can voluntarily leave the service when they choose. Adult monks can also leave at any time.

This wat is high up on a hill overlooking Chiang Mai. I thought the view and expansive viewing terrace was the most impressive feature. O, and the dozens of little stalls set up to sell goods to tourists. We had a well-deserved fruit smoothie.

This was Alex's favorite temple so far on this trip. It is small and modest temple beside the old Chedi Luang. It sports beautiful wood joinery and is one of the few temples we've been in where you actually see the geometry of the underside of the roof.

Here's a miscellaneous collection of photos that show the hectic, controlled, chaos we experienced. I couldn't capture the feeling totally but here goes…

This museum of abnormalities is known for being disturbing but it wasn't for the reasons I expected it to be. The museum itself was very gross. Dirty and not kept up. Mummies slouched against the glass case they were kept in. Fluids melting into a tray below them. The cases themselves were duct taped shut. So yes, definitely worth the visit!

The Grand Palace in Bangkok houses the royal complex and the Emerald Buddha. The detailing and hand drawn elements were completely overwhelming!

<

It's real. A magical place that far surpasses my expectations.