Day 30, Summer in Asia, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Breakfasts at the At Ease Hotel often involve a new fruit, like this morning.
We saw this.
Which turned out to be this, the queen fruit of Thailand.
And of course our favorite stand-bys.
After breakfast we spend a fair bit of time looking at Elephant experiences. Chiang Mai must have about 20 options for this, it’s a huge tourist industry here. After extensive research, we decided against it. Even though it’s disappointing, it felt like the right decision for us. The Elephant Nature Park seemed to be a true sanctuary in which the elephants aren’t forced to interact with humans in the way many other parks, they are. But the fact of the matter is that overall, this industry is plagued by many unpleasant realities. Baby elephants being stolen from their mothers to be sold to these parks, many harsh methods to break and bend animals to interact with humans appropriately (I won’t list what they are, but they are horrific), many of the elephants are chained or roped at night, so they have no freedom. The huge metal rigs for riding elephants are becoming less acceptable, but that doesn’t address this industry as a whole, and how our fascination with these gentle giants end up enslaving them for their entire lives. Wild animals should not be kept solely for tourist folly. For those who are providing a safe haven for elephants, my hats off to you. For those who keep this lucrative industry alive with selfies and happy pics with elephants, I’d encourage you to read up on all the facts, and then decide if you can stomach it. Every visitor has an option of how they want to respond to this industry, and we’ve chosen ours. Must say that now we know more about the underside of the elephant tourist industry, we have more mixed feelings about all the elephant tourist trinkets.
The girls were given the option to move across the hall from us to this two story room, with two sinks, toilets, showers, and a terrace, but opted to stick with their two-living room situation. Unique room, and nice to have the option!
The Chiang Mai night bazaar is low key and extremely pleasant. We caught a red truck tuk to and from the Bazaar.
It wasn’t overly crowded, vendors were attentive but not overly pushy, except for the woman who sold Paul a t-shirt. He ended up with two instead of one, so I suppose her tactics worked. The food court had lots of whole fish being fried and sold.
There were live bands everywhere. One was playing jazz, another American classic rock covers. We stopped for a French Nutella crepe and the best mojito in town, made with alcohol vapors.
We took a truck-tuk to and from the night bazaar.