I intended to book an elephant camp excursion before we left for the trip, but things were NUTS! Then I fully intended to book it sometime before getting to Thailand, but the internet access was spotty at best. So needless to say the 2 camps that had been recommended to me by friends were totally booked. But I did find one, called Maesa Elephant Camp, that had room for this morning. So we went! The hotel booked a taxi to bring us out there, wait for us, and then bring us back to the hotel. This was about 5-6 hours of service for 1200 Baht ($40). We arrived at 8:00 just in time for the elephant show. Now honestly, for this adventure, I was imagining more of a hands on experience- getting into the river with the elephants, bathing and feeding them and experiencing what it would be like to be an elephant handler for one day. The other camps do indeed do this. Joe however was glad that this camp was less hands-on and more of a sit back and watch some elephants do stuff. Joe's not really an animal guy.
So we watched the 1 hour show (that the children also enjoyed) which included elephants playing soccer, pulling and piling logs, painting, etc... and then we went to ride an elephant.
All 4 of us sat in a seat (much like what you find on a ferris wheel at the fair) on the elephant's back while the trainer sat behind the elephant's head. We rode for an hour on a path that went up and down hills at a pretty steep grade, making our way to a village in the hills. The elephant moved slowly, stopping to eat, pee and poo whenever his heart desired or needed. At one point, Audrey felt a bug on her ankle, so she kicked her shoe off to scare it away. The trainer had to get down to retrieve it before it got squished into elephant poop and left behind. He was very kind and gave us an umbrella to shade the girls, stopped to take our photos for us (a service they were charging 200 Baht for back at the camp) and he chatted with us occasionally in his broken, yet reasonably good, English. 
We made it to this village in the hills where the Longneck People live. Now it obviously caters to tourists on a certain level as the women have their goods for sale in front of their houses and they are all decked out in their colorful outfits, jewelry and make-up. 
However, it is indeed a working village where people live, farm and make their woven goods. (from the internet: Long Neck people are a unique hill tribe in Thailand as some of the women choose to wear a brass coil that over time elongates the neck as much as double. Originating in Burma (Union of Myanmar) these unique peoples are a small minority of the Karennin or Red Karen people of Burma. There is much speculation about why the rings are worn by the women of this tribe but, when asked, most of these gentle and proud ladies will tell you it is simply tradition.) It was pretty interesting actually, but it was also getting very hot. The driver met us there and brought us back to the hotel around lunchtime.
We had lunch, put Scarlett down for a nap and relaxed in the room for a bit while it rained. Chiang Mai is positioned up against a mountain range much like the Denver/ Boulder area is. It also seems to have a similar weather pattern as Denver does during the summer with a regular afternoon rain shower.
We got Scarlett up and caught a Yellow Car around 3:00 so Joe could be in town for his cooking class. We booked Thai Cooking Classes through a place called Asia Scenic. I have one tomorrow morning. Unfortunately we had to split up so one of us could be with the girls while the other was cooking. The girls and I wandered around until his class ended around 8:00 pm. We had dinner at this place called The Riva, mostly because I could order pancakes for dinner, which is the one food we can almost guarantee Scarlett will eat on this trip. She has been unbelievably difficult with the food situation. I plan to stage a food intervention when we get home to get her eating properly again. But for now, it's pancakes for dinner.
We then took a tuk tuk to the Night Market, which opens at 7:00 pm. This is just a handful of blocks of people selling trinkets, tourist stuff, junk, and art. The girls REALLY liked this tuk tuk ride. Scarlett was woo hoo-ing and screaming happily as we bumped along the streets. Audrey loved checking out the sights and sounds and looked like she could be 19, holding onto the hand grip, her hair blowing in the breeze and soaking it all in.
We then went to pick up Joe. He really enjoyed the class! (See next entry for details) As we left the kitchen, we accidentally took a wrong turn and instead of walking 3 blocks before getting to a good spot to hail a cab, we walked a LONG way, carrying the 2 tired girls. (I have been telling myself that even though I have not been able to keep up with official workouts on this trip, carrying a 25 or 36 pound child around everywhere must count for something!). We saw NO cabs and couldn't quite figure out which direction we were walking in. A tuk tuk driver pulled over and said he would take us for free to a spot where we could find cabs. He drove us for about 4-5 minutes, found the cabs and got out to talk to the driver to make sure he knew where to take us. This is just a good example of the truly kind people we have run into on this trip. That man did not have to do any of that, but i think he saw us carrying the girls down a dark street and took pity. How nice! We are so grateful to his kindness and did of course tip him. There was some discussion between the tuk tuk guy, the cabbie and this lady who appeared out of nowhere. She insisted that it should cost 5oo Baht to get to the hotel, but I assured her it was 400. More discussion, but of course we agreed to 500, as it was late and we just needed to get the girls to bed. We got to the hotel and the cabbie realized it wasn't as far away as he thought it was. Joe handed him a 500 and he gave us 100 back. (Again an example of kindness) He didn't have to be honest, but he was. He even chatted with us a bit as we got out of the cab, helped us with our bags and showed us pictures of his baby girl. Kids down and lights out for me after midnight as I had to get the bags mostly packed for our departure to Hong Kong tomorrow.
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