All posts tagged: thailand

Anything unrelated to elephants is irrelephant. (Day 2)

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I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard horror stories about elephants/tigers/etc being mistreated in their parks for the enjoyment of tourists and visitors, so aside from looking for an elephant park that had a lot of fun activities, I also made sure to look for one that treated their elephants well. Yes, Baan Chang Elephant Park (tripadvisor) was a bit pricier than other fellow elephant parks, but all their reviews were stellar, and they were very clear in disclosing why they chain their elephants during feeding times and at night (so they don’t fight for food/hurt each other, and so they don’t wander off, possibly hurting themselves). Overall, good vibes all around from Baan Chang Elephant Park. Our guide Chi picked us up from our hostel at 6:15 in the morning. We were exhausted! They also picked up 4 other people on the way, but it was mostly all of us. After an hour of deep slumber in the car, we arrived at the park and were given scrub-like denim outfits to wear. They weren’t …

Cooking in Chiang Mai (Day 1 cont..)

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After looking up a ton of places on TripAdvisor, Facebook and just general google searches, I found a pretty swell lookin’ cooking school called Basil Cookery School that not only had a ton of great reviews, but had 7 courses that were part of the cooking menu. We would each also have our own wok/cooking spaces. Sammy picked us all up from our hostel at promptly 3:45pm and then we were on our way to the market to learn more about Thai ingredients, their uses, and to just pick up some ingredients on the way to the school. We also got to try a ton of cool fruits like mangosteens, rambutans, and fresh coconut! (I only tried the mangosteens though, as I’m allergic to everything else.) What I found really cool was how you could buy bundles of herbs/vegetables to make certain soups. Tom Yum Goong (hot and sour soup) uses a certain set of herbs to attain its distinct taste, so the vendors would pre pack those ingredients together so you can just pick …

The Land of a Thousand Smiles — Chiang Mai, Thailand (Day 1)

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In the 9 weeks that we’re in India, we’ve received one 4-day weekend off to travel and/or relax and of course, I chose travel (which relaxes me) so it all worked out. I was joined by 5 other co-workers for a jam-packed weekend of culture, delicious foods, wild personalities, and gut-wrenching adventure..literally! We arrived Saturday morning, July 26 to the Chiang Mai airport and immediately went to our hostel, the Green Tulip House, where were we greeted by our super enthusiastic host, Stella. Our day was supposed to be a very casual, laid-back day — starting with a traditional Thai massage, then a trip to up to Wat Doi Suithep, and ending with a 7 course Thai dinner cooking class. My first Thai massage was in Bangkok, January 2013, and I’ve been missing them since! Thai massages are a bit different from other massages, as the masseur or masseuse will use his or her whole body in massaging yours. They’ll massage you with their feet, elbows, forearms, and even knees — sounds bizarre, and it’ll …