Cooking School and Elephant Trek

We are back in Thailand now…but this time we are in Chiang Mai, the northern tip of the country.  We’re spending 5 days here before we head to Bangkok. So far it has been incredible and full of activities!  

Day 1: Cooking Class

We signed up for a cooking class at Sammy’s Organic Farm. In the morning we went to the local market to learn about all the different herbs and spices, then we drove into the countryside to this small organic farm. We spent all day learning about how make homemade thai food from scratch.  Between Briana and I we cooked both green and jungle (red) curry with chicken, coconut and vegetable soup, cashew chicken, pad thai, papaya salad, chicken wrapped in pandanus leaves  and coconut sticky rice with mango. By the way, the answer is yes! If anyone wants us to show-off our new found thai cooking skills when we get home haha. Overall it was very relaxing and enjoyable day. There was even an allocated nap time, where we got to hang out (or pass out) on hammocks over-looking the rural paradise.  It is safe to say, that the cooking class provided us with the best meals on the trip thus far. The bonus was that we were so full that we couldn’t even eat dinner so we were able to save a bit of money lol.  We REALLY enjoyed our day with the cooking school and would highly recommend it to anyone who travels to Chiangmai in the future!

Bri's greem coconut curry

my jungle curry

our massive lunch

nap time

wrapping chicken in pandanus leaves

sweet sticky rice with mango

Day 2: Elephant Trek

We took an hour and a half truck ride to the thai jungle/mountains as far as we could where we then trekked 20 minutes through the bush to a campsite called Ratong. There were 7 elephants including a little 4 month old baby that were all one herd/family. They provided us with a set of “elephant training clothes” and then let us spend some time feeding and playing the elephants. After we acquainted ourselves with the friendly animals, we were taught how to ride and command them; everything from moving backwards/forwards to turning left/right and mounting/dismounting. We were very impressed with how obedient they were.

A little bit of information about the Ratong campsite…

Although we met with these elephants at a campsite and they were fully accustomed to people, these elephants were not captive. When people are not visiting them, they roam freely in jungle (as we witnessed during our trek). I suppose I can understand that they enjoy the free food and baths that they get when people come to visit, I mean who wouldn’t?! haha It was nice to know that they were not prisoners. The Thai trainers seemed to have the best interest of the elephants in mind.

During our trek through the jungle on route to the campsite, we spotted this little guy roaming the jungle

ready to go in our uniforms

little munchkin

Bri riding the mamma elephant followed by the baby

view from on top Tao (Tao is the name of the elephant I was looking after for the day)

its bath time!

Bri getting soaked by the all natural organic water gun

I can't tell if she was more grossed out by me or the other guy

They loved the water

this guy really wanted a kiss

I'm prepping for the circus

nap time

this guy was pro hoola hooper

Below is a video of us playing in the water with the elephants. Notice how big Bri's smile is after the kiss ;) ...sorry for the shotty camera skills it was hard to stay still with so much going on