Thailand Vacation – Part 2
I’m wrapping up sharing about our trip to Thailand. See my previous post HERE for pictures from the first half of our trip.
We arrived in Chiang Mai after a 9 hour-long train ride – thank goodness for audiobooks! Our first full day there we attended an all day cooking class at a local farm. We were introduced to the herbs and vegetables used in traditional Thai cooking during our tour of the farm and local market. We then spent a full day cooking and eating. Could life get any better?
We each made our own curry paste and chicken curry, topped with basil. It was so fresh!
We made spring rolls, stir fry, sticky rice, pad thai, and two desserts. This was my dessert option – mango with pink sticky rice topped with coconut milk. Yum!
Our last stop in Chiang Mai was to spend a full day at an Elephant conservatory. All of the elephants on the property were rescued from labor intensive “jobs” and the conservation works to give the elephants the lives they deserve. We were able to learn about elephant’s lifestyles and appetites, feed them, give them mud baths and wash them in a local spring!
This little guy was adorable – 2 years old!
They were certainly not afraid of stealing bananas from our hands.
Or sugar cane!
The conservation does not allow any riding, but elephant hugs were perfectly legal. So sweet!
Isn’t he cute?
We loved getting to know the 5 elephants we were “caring” for during our day there.
After a romp in a mud pit, we jumped in a freezing cold spring to scrub the elephants down. They were absolutely in love with it, rolling around just like little puppies do. Admittedly, I was much quicker to back up when elephants flop on their side than I do with my pups!
After enjoying our time in Chiang Mai, we took two plane rides and a boat to the beautiful island, Koh Tao.
The hotel was absolutely fabulous, with our own private infinity pool that overlooked the ocean. Does it get any more luxurious than this?!
We certainly weren’t starved for beautiful sunsets.
Or delicious food – even if it had eyes. Eek!
The majority of our time on this island was spent diving. We took an open water diving course in order to be certified divers which included several hours of academics, several hours of practicing skills in shallow waters and four dives.
Traveling through the coral was like seeing another world. Check out this sea cucumber!
We feel so fortunate to have had such a long time to travel and spend quality time together, which seems like such a privilege after spending most of last year apart. The world is a truly amazing place and we’re ready to start planning our next big adventure!
Our trip was strategically planned to allow me a visit to the Tokyo International Quilt Festival – I’ll be posting about that soon! I hope you’re all excited to see some stunning quilts.