Chiang Mai - Highlands of Thailand

Sara and I spent our first week in Thailand in Chiang Mai. The weather was great (if a little cold at night) and the scenery was even better.

Here is a shot of Sara enjoying the flowers at Mae Sa Valley, where we stayed for three days.



Here are more photos of Mae Sa Valley:






The Queen Sikirit Botanic Gardens were right down the road from our bungalow. The vegetation was a nice change of pace from Bahrain, or Brohwnrain, as I have come to call it.













One of the highlights of Chiang Mai was our visit to the Mae Sa Elephant Camp - a preservation-minded habitat for Indian elephants. We were able to feed the elephants, ride them, watch them put on a "show", and see the paper that is made out of elephant poo.

Sara soon learned that elephants don't care if you leave the peel on the banana.





































Here is one of our elephant friends. Sara wanted to name him "Stampy" - (see Season 5 of "The Simpsons").








Our visit to Chiang Mai also involved a visit to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep - a famous Buddhist temple in the mountains that requires climbing a multitude of steps to reach. The temple holds all sorts of sacred Buddhist artifacts and is surrounded by a sizable community of food-sellers and amulet dealers.

This is a shot of us at the foot of the steps leading to the temple - ahhhh, I can smell the incense now . . . .

The structure you see below is the "Golden Stupa" - you need sunglasses just to look at it! Next to that is a picture of Sara standing next to one of the retailer stalls near the temple grounds. We grew accustomed to hearing the proprietors saying "have a look, sir-mam".

Buddhist artifacts in the temple, along with people burning incense and offering flowers.

We followed the visit at the temple with a visit to a Hmong hilltribe further up the mountain. Below is a shot of two Hmong girls in the surrounding village, and also a shot of me chilling with the folks from whom Sara bought some jewelry.

Enjoying the view of the mountains. Cheers!

After our stay in the mountains, we packed up and headed to the city of Chiang Mai. We visited the ruins of the old city (about 600-700 years old), enjoyed Christmas Eve dinner in a German restaurant, and celebrated Christmas morning with a sunshine-bathed breakfast next to the Chiang Mai river, followed by a trip to the zoo.