Have you hugged your elephant today?

Warning: there are a lot of pictures in this post, so you might want to go get a cup of coffee while it's loading.

It looks like I'm doomed to be at least a country behind in my blog for a little while, since I'm sitting in the airport waiting to go to Cambodia from Malaysia and just now writing about Thailand, but when I'm having this much fun, it's tough to find the time to edit photos and sit in front of a computer. But I had better start getting caught up, because Thailand was a whirlwind and it's already getting a little blurry around the edges.

I was lucky enough to be joined by a couple of friends from DC, Erin and Jason, in Thailand and we had a blast jumping between three cities, zipping around on scooters, and eating a lot of very spicy food. 

Nothing says "Welcome to Bangkok" like a 4 foot long monitor lizard, eating garbage out of a downtown canal.

We flew Nok Air, or as I started calling it "the Chicken Plane", to Chiang Mai.
It's like flying a real-world version of Angry Birds, except where nothing crashes.

Those lazy tuk-tuk drivers, always sleeping on the job.

Doorway guardian at the Royal Palace

We kicked off in Bangkok, which to be honest I wasn't expecting much from, but it turned out that it has a lot of character and I enjoyed it quite a bit. There's amazing shopping at the street markets (it really pained me not to be able to take advantage of some of the bargains), an awesome Chinatown, and some really interesting historical sights. Plus, you have to give credit to any city with over 6,000 restaurants reviewed on TripAdvisor - that's my kind of town! We spent most of a day looking at the Royal Palace, checked out a couple of temples, took the obligatory long-tail boat ride, and I made friends with our waitress at a waterfront dive bar (see picture below) after she took my wallet out of my hands, laid out all my money on the table, and showed me how I should be carrying my money to hide it from thieves. You know, all the standard tourist things.

Making friends in Bangkok

Fried Chicken Knobbly Knees??! What is that? And who would order those?!

Uhhh, me, of course! Near as I could tell, they were in fact, fried chicken knees. Not a culinary experience I would recommend.

After about 3 days in Bangkok, it was time to head for the real highlight of the trip, Chiang Mai, but not the city itself, just one incredible day at the Elephant Nature Park. The sanctuary has almost 40 elephants that they've bought/rescued from various begging jobs, forced breeding programs, or unhealthy and cruel work they were being forced to do. Once the elephants come to the sanctuary though, they are rehabilitated and re-socialized with other elephants, and their lives become primarily occupied with doing whatever they want to do, and having the daily batch of tourists come and cater to their every whim. We fed elephants, learned about their habits and past lives, washed and scrubbed elephants, massaged elephants, and pretty much did whatever they seemed to enjoy for about 7 hours, with a break for a delicious lunch. It seems to be a pretty good life for the elephants in a country that doesn't have enough wild space to release them in, and a lot of fun for the tourists.

Just a guy, taking his elephants for a walk.

One of the blind elephants at the sanctuary. She has an elephant friend who leads her around.

You just knew there had to be an unbelievably cute baby elephant, right?

Of course there was!

Our interactions with the elephants, by the way, were loosely supervised by trainers, but elephants are really big, and I definitely had the impression that if one of the elephants had taken a disliking to one of us, there wouldn't have been much anyone could have done before serious injuries would happen. On a related note, it's truly amazing how quiet elephants can be walking around, and once you have an elephant or two sneak up behind you and grab food out of your hand, you don't forget to pay serious attention all around. My way of coping with all of this was to stay on their good sides (literally in some cases, since many were blinded in one eye), and do whatever the trainers told me they liked, up to and including attempting Thai massage on a grandmother elephant. It's a unique experience I think everyone should try. 

Gotta scrub the undercarriage too.

Good thing they aren't shy...that's a lot of attention.

More baby elephant photos!

After leaving Chiang Mai, we flew to Ao Nang on the western coast for some beach bumming. This area is pretty touristy, but it's also easy to see why: white beaches, towering limestone cliffs, and rainforests all in the same area means everyone can find something they like to do. In our case, that was kayaking, renting scooters, and drinking. Please note that we were not drinking while doing the first two, but you could be forgiven for thinking so if you had seen us flip the kayak twice (once unintentionally, at least for Jason), and me crashing my scooter while pulling out of a parking lot. The scooter and I both only suffered minor scraping, although my glasses were run over by a passing car, which means I got to go shopping for new glasses in Malaysia - only $150 for new prescription lens and designer frames! I might have to come back to SE Asia every year with a couple of empty suitcases and just go wild shopping for clothes and new glasses.

Limestone islands and cliff of the Thai coast

Kayaking near Railay Beach

Lovely Thailand

Sadly, Erin and Jason had to head back to the States all too soon, leaving me to catch a bus for Penang, Malaysia. On a side note, it's funny how my tolerances have changed on this trip; previously I would have considered a three hour drive to be a long trip, but now a seven or eight hour bus ride is average, and only when do train or bus rides get into double digits do I have to brace myself. And I won't even get into how far my standards have fallen in lodging; I would have thought hot water for showers was essential for me, but lately it's just "a bonus feature." Next up, Malaysia! ...and Cambodia! ...and Indonesia!!

Out to sea

Sunset in Ao Nang

Panorama of Railay Beach