12.30.2016 Chiang mai Thailand

I woke up inside a van that was headed towards Mae Taeng District. We started our day at 7am this morning after not sleeping the night before until 2:00am. I was exhausted from the night before. 

Today we will be spending time with the elephants at Ran-Tong Elephant Rescue Center. 

At the elephant rescue center we got to play with the baby elephants....

.....we made food for them.....

.....made them vitamins....

......fed them....

......had lunch made for us (Khao Soi)....

......gave them a mud bath....

......bathe them....

......gave them a mineral spa treatment....

......and finally said goodbye to them. 

We met some pretty cool people on this trip. It was a great experience!

By now my back was hurting again. It hasn't been like this since leaving the states. When we got back to our room and I immediately took a bath. 

For dinner we ordered room service. We ordered 4 plates (they are small) to share. Katie got a beer for herself. I traded my beer for a delicious Flexeril. I went to sleep at 11 while Katie stayed up looking for a place for us to stay in Phuket for the next day.... New Years Eve.

(See my previous post if you missed it. It was posted very late PST)

12/29/2015 Chiang Mai Thailand

Today we woke up and had breakfast. We got ready for a long day. By 9 we were off to see the Tigers.

....stopped of at the PooPooPaper Park. This is a place where they used Elephant Poo to make eco friendly paper. 

.....we also stopped at a few of the villages on the outskirts of Chiang Mai. 

.....and finished our trip at Monthathan Waterfall Thailand. 

(Yes I packed a tri-pod)

By now it was 5:30pm. We were both hungry. Not hungry enough for a full dinner though. At a local food stand we purchased some grilled pork belly for 50bhat ($1.38). The flavor was out of this world. We showered and rested a bit before going out to get our much needed couples massage. 2 hours later, we were at the night market once again. 

At the night market I purchased a few shirts and Katie bought a pair of flip flops. We sat and listened to a local musician perform to a crowd full of people. Music from Nirvana, Radiohead, and such were played. I grabbed us a few beers while we ate freshly grilled squid & clams. It was amazing. So fresh you can definitely taste it!

12.28.2016 HK to Chiang Mai

The alarm on my cell phone begins to chime at 7:30. It was time to wake up. Today was the day we leave Hong Kong to go to Chiang Mai, Thailand. We woke up to take our finally shower here in Hong Kong. Our bags were already packed from the night before. We had a flight to catch at 10:30am but I had one final thing I had to do. Find Crispy Pork Belly!

Long story short I never got my crispy pork belly. It gives me something to look forward to the next time we decided to visit. We did stumble across many street vendors selling everything from fruits, vegetables, food, meats, flowers......etc. You name it, they were selling it! 30 minutes later we ended up catching a taxi that took us to the Airport (HKG). At the airport we walked everywhere trying to find customs and our gate. The airport was a town in its own. 

With minutes left we hopped into our plane to Chiang Mai. Once we landed in Chiang Mai and got to our hotel we were exhausted. Katie ordered a little something for both of us to eat. It was amazing. Being so tired we both took a little nap to get ready for the night market. 

At 9:00pm we headed out to the night market called Kalare Night Bazaar. The market had people selling food, clothes, shoes, and all that good stuff. Punch line there was "I give you good price."  Pretty funny. In the middle was a little square filled with food/drinks vendors and live local musicians/bands. We purchased a few beers and a good variety food and called it a night.