Gardens and Elephants and Tigers... CHANG MAI!!!

We finally went to Chang Mai!

It's a large town up north about an 8-9 hour train ride away. The first train to get up there left at 11pm Friday night. We were expecting to be able to sleep on this train, since it was an overnight ride. We thought wrong. The train was so cold, it was all I could do to not beak out into violent shivering. They did offer us complementary blankets... about the size and texture of a towel. Let me just say, it ranks up there in the top 5 worst nights of my life.
We were overjoyed when we stepped off that train and into the hustle and bustle of Chang Mai. It was beautiful! Nestled in the hills of northern Thailand, and, in my opinion, it was cooler than Phichit. :) Jack, Tang's cousin who lives there, told us that we would not want to go back. I believe him. It was hard to say goodbye, but I'm jumping ahead of myself.

Our first stop, after that insane train, was to our hotel to drop off our bags. It was quite nice.

Probably the most comfortable bed I have slept on this whole trip.

Our royal carriage

We sure got a nice breeze in there.

We then had the opportunity to see an elephant show. They were funny and clever. Some a bit sassy. They each did a cute bow while trumpeting after each trick. It was awesome!

"Welcome to Maesa Elephant Camp"

Follow the leader

Play dead!

This was the baby of the group. He kept hitting other's with his trunk, and didn't always want to do what he was told. I liked him :)

This one wouldn't give it back. She would get close, then take it back and waggle her ears as if laughing. Her trainer would nod, and she would shake her head. Quite hilarious!

Professional painters (their artwork was amazing!)

Then, what do you know... we got ON the elephants and trekked through the jungle! A bumpy ride, but so much fun! We got to see the jungle from a different view. Amazingness!

Alisha, Whitney, and Sarah as our journey began

AH! Don't lean too far!!!

Alisha and Whitney had a particularly bumpy ride. Their elephant was a young 25 year old! So young to my 27 year old mama elephant. But Sarah's out aged us all, with a whopping 51 years old!!!

Our Regal Sarah!

When we asked to take our driver's picture, he agreed, then became very serious. I guess he needs to look tough for the camera.

We caught him a few seconds later. He laughed at us all the time.

It was beautiful country!

The end of the trek landed us in a village of long-neck women. If you don't know who they are, the pictures will explain. From what I have gathered, is that long necks are a sign of beauty. They start lengthening their neck at an early age. It soon gets to a point where their spinal vertebrae aren't connected any more. They are completely dependant on the rings of brass around their neck. Without them, their necks would break and they would die. Kinda crazy! The things we do for beauty...

A woman weaving silk.

They start so young!

Everything there was hand made.

Two little girls skipping along on an errand.



Then we went to see some snakes, but when we found out what it cost to see a show, we decided tigers were much cooler. We chose the BIG cats from the list of small, medium and large. Let me tell you, they were big! We paid a little extra and had a photographer come in with us and take our pictures. Here are some of my favorites of all of us. :)

The group

 right before this tiger dashed off unexpectedly (which scared the living daylights out of all of us)

Alisha looking like a model

Sarah lookin' pretty with the kitty

Lovely Laura

I love Whitney's smile. She conquered the tiger!

I tamed the beast ;)

These pictures were taken one after another very fast. Those teeth are kinda intimidating.

He liked the belly rub I was giving him. (or her)

Something tasty on his paw (fortunately better than the thought of me)

After our incredible time with the tigers, we went to visit a temple way up in the hills (I don't remember its name). 303 steps this time to get to the top.

 

The outside

Many bells of different sounds

The beautiful view from above

Gorgeous Chang Mai

see the clouds? About 10 min. later, a massive storm hit

Reflections after the storm

 We wrapped up our day with a visit to the "walking market" and the "night bazaar". They were fun, but my feet hurt. I bought so much stuff! Cool thing about Chang Mai is that most of the goods they sell are hand made. I loved it!

After some much needed sleep, it was an exhausting adrenaline filled Saturday, we had the opportunity to go to church. There is a wonderful branch in Chang Mai and the people are so loving. Hearing all the talks and the prayers translated exactly was a blessing and I felt the spirit so strongly. The Elders in our branch are wonderful, they just don't always translate for us and they ad lib most of the time. After the last fast and testimony meeting, the Elder translating confessed that 90% of what he told us was just his own testimony. It's completely understandable, but hearing the Sacrament prayer in English was incredible! I love the church so much!!!

Then, we had the rest of the day to kill, so we did the most peaceful thing we could find, we went to a garden. This was no ordinary garden. There were hundreds of gardens of different types throughout the place. It was amazing. I took so many pictures, it would be impossible to upload them all. (I found a new love for photography and I might want to look into studying it) There was a beautiful temple right in the middle of it all. Here are a few pictures.

The Gardens are nestled next to the beautiful hills of Chang Mai

It was all made of flowers!

I fondly named "Turtle Hill" ;)

The temple

Stairs...everywhere...

View of the land beyond

Consider the Lilies

We made a cool beat with the drums

The train ride home was sooooo much better!!! It had BEDS!!!!! I got top bunk! There is a fist time for everything and sleeping on a bed on a train is a first for me. :)

I'm so glad we went to Chang Mai! I had experiences there that I don't think I'll have anywhere else.