Chiang Mai Part 3 of 3

The only thing we really missed in Chiang Mai was coffee.  Even the Starbucks there was terrible (or at least not American style coffee).  So when we stumbled upon this cute coffee shop Nes Coffee (right across the street and of course at the end of our stay) we were beyond excited.  Oliver had his usual morning chocolate milk from 7 Eleven.

Our big activity that really had the most impact on us during our stay in Chiang Mai was our visit to the Happy Elephant Home.  This is an elephant sanctuary/rescue home.  We did not ride the elephants nor were these elephants trained...as we would later learn when they saw some yummy grass they wanted to get into to eat.  The elephants were happily walking along when the baby and mom elephant all of a sudden changed course nearly bowling Carson over! Thankfully the staff are trained to handle the elephants when they do something no one expects.  The staff gently gives the elephants a nudge with their hands or shoulders speaking to them in Thai that they need to keep walking down to the river.

A little sidetrack there! Well, we were picked up at our guesthouse and driven to the elephant home.  Once we arrived we were given new clothes to change into (you will see our outfits below) since elephants can be a little messy.  Then we needed to prepare some food for the elephants (they are food driven, so as long as you have bananas in your satchel they will hang around to play!).

As our time with the elephants went on, I learned this would be Oliver's favorite spot.  And as big as even the baby elephant was, I wanted Oliver to stay up with me so he would be safe from any stray elephants.

Here is Aaron, with the baby elephant and mother elephant walking down to the river.  Even the baby elephant could push Aaron around when he wanted to.  They are amazingly strong!  Our host (in yellow) led the trip from the house at the top of a hill down to the river.  The other young man also lives at this sanctuary and helps guide the elephants while protecting guests.

Down at the river, we had a chance to interact a little more with the elephants. And the green scenery around us made for a great picture taking opportunity.  Here is the older elephant (we had 3 total, this one, a baby and his mother). This one was the least energetic and the most calm.

By the time the elephants were ready to get into the river, it had started raining.  Aaron and Carson both got into the river with the elephants but Oliver and I chose to huddle together to stay warm and watch everyone else work.  From there a truck came down to check on everyone and drove the boys and I back up to the house.  Which was good because I was freezing and we only had 2 bathrooms in which to change (among the 15 of us)! 

This gave the boys and I a chance to change and get out of the way as the rest of the crew hiked back up the hill.

Our last day in Chiang Mai, we took a picture of our guest house (pictured is one of the owners who is originally from Great Britain).  The boys loved their 2 dogs (Fat Dog and Mutley were their names!). We loved this guesthouse!  The owners were amazing and helpful and the location right across the street from the city wall made it easy to get to all the hot spots around the city.

After wandering around the city a little more, we took a taxi to the train station.  There was an old locomotive that was set up for the kids to explore. So while we waited for our train we took time to play!

My next post I will talk about the train 

(we rode 2 separate trains, both a different type of sleeper car).