Chiang Mai and Eco-Tourism

We are already in Luang Prabang, Laos, but we have to catch you up!  Chiang Mai was a whirlwind of fun and adventure.  Thanks to our friend Trey, who spent time with on Koh Phi Phi Don, we stayed at the Green Tulip House, a very clean, very beautiful hostel located in the heart of Chiang Mai.  The women who run the place were beyond wonderful and very helpful, we miss them already, Nine and Stella.  If you go to Chiang Mai definitely stay at the Green Tulip-just 6 bucks a night! We also met some wonderful people from all over the world that stayed there too. Shelly and Nick from Bristol, England were a riot and we spent time drinking Chang beer and whisky late into a few of our evenings.  We also spent time with a sweet and hilarious Canadian couple, Stacy and Tyler.  We also befriended Gavin, an observant, proper young man from England with whom we went to the Natural Elephant Preserve.  We had an amazing night going out to a restaurant on the river and eating on a boat and then listening to to some live music with the two couples, Gavin, and a handful of other travelers we met at the Green Tulip. 

We also made a great connection with the woman, Nine, who ran the place and she showed us some interesting Thai cultural videos and talked about her Theravada Buddhist religious beliefs and the famous tattoos of the region.  We learned a lot.

The second day in Chiang Mai we took an all day cooking class at Nine's friend's place.  It was amazing and we are now "certified" Thai chefs! The food we made was so fresh and some of the best we have had here.  Breen is stoked to make his own Pad Thai and glass noodle salad-two of our favorites!  We burned ourselves with chilies and almost burned ourselves with flame too.  First, we went to the market and learned about the fresh, fragrant roots and herbs they use in pretty much everything.  All of which provide health benefits.
 

Then we went back to their home and chose dishes to make and dove right in.  It was such fun and very educational.  We also learned how to carve fruit, Breen was the star of the class and made some works of art with a potato and some carrot. The couple that run the small school, Nancy and Port, were funny and very sweet.  It was a fabulous day that we ended later by enjoying the amazing leftovers that we made ourselves!

We also took advantage of a few of the activities offered in and above the rain forests surrounding the small city.  We went zip lining for a day.  It was called the Flight of the Gibbon, but the only monkeys we saw were our rambunctious, jokster "sky rangers" who made us all laugh and freak out a fair amount.  It was thrilling and fun.  But not just that.  Of the money we paid to do it, 20% goes to supporting the local village, ensuring the safety of that part of the rain forest as well, which was adjacent to a Thai nature preserve and in effect expanded the nature park. Also, none of the zip lines were attached to the trees themselves, but to wooden slats to ensure as little damage to the majestic Banyans and other rain forest tree giants as possible.  It was such fun whizzing through the air over the top of the rain forest canopy together and we supported a very sustainable enterprise! We had a great group with us and took a liking to an adorable, quiet couple, the woman was Thai and the gentleman was Taiwanese, both living in Singapore.  We had a nice talk over lunch and then they bought us tee-shirts, so sweet!

Our favorite (and most emotional) day, by far, was the day trip to the Elephant Nature Preserve.

We learned about the exploitation of the Thai Elephant, smaller than it's African cousin.  We learned that there used to be 100,000 of them roaming the rain forests and the number has dwindled to a mere 5,000; 3,500 of which are owned and used for tourism, and even for street begging (the worst for the dear beasts). Only 1,500 remain in the wild!  The numbers are still dropping rapidly.  The nature preserve saves elephants.  Some have physical deformities from bad breeding practices or being hit by cars when street begging, one even had her foot blown off by a landmine, others have mental problems from facing much abuse over many years.  A few have been saved from the wild as babies when their mothers were shot for grazing on farmers' crops, these most assuredly would have died on their own.  At the preserve, they all get to roam free-with Mahouts (gentlemen trained in caring for and guiding elephant behavior) lingering not too far off to keep them from hurting each other or leaving the preserve.

There are 32 elephants there and they have formed naturally into 5 families.  One was even pregnant.  We were able to feed them, hug them, watch them, and bathe them, but not ride them or watch tricks as that is considered unnatural by the amazing woman who founded the preserve, Lek (it means small in Thai).  She has been a pioneer of a new way of understanding elephant training and treatment.  The villages of Thailand have used brutal training techniques over hundreds of years.  Lek, though born into the that culture as the daughter of a Shaman that supports these techniques, has begun a positive reinforcement reginen and campaign, using love and treats to train them much like we train our dogs, and is helping a new school train Mahouts to treat the majestic creature much better.  We saw evidence of the positive reinforcement when they had one give us a big, wet  kiss on the cheek and was rewarded with bananas and sugar cane.  It was an incredible day and the money we spent to go goes directly to Lek's campaign and to feeding the elephants and rescuing more from brutality or abandonment.  We both cried a lot and hope that we can use our new skills to help Lek's endeavor in the future.

It was hard to leave Chiang Mai, but now that we are in Luang Prabang, we are content and looking forward to exploring this old royal capital of Laos...

Sending love,
Devon and Breen