Aubrey, Pam and I woke up freezing in our home stay room under mosquito nets. We were each huddled under piles pf blankets, not wanting to get off our mattresses to go to the bathroom outside. We finally mustered up the courage to go brush our teeth, pack our bags and bid farewell to the wonderful family we lodged with. We took a taxi from out humble home stay in the Mae Kampong to stay in a slightly different lodging-the Chedi Hotel, a 5 star hotel (http://www.chiangmai.bangkok.com/chedi/). This hotel left Aubrey and me completely awestruck; from the minute you are warmly greeted by the bellman, to the first class accommodations, The Chedi pampers its guests. Our current room is enormous, complete with automatic blackout curtains, balcony with a lounge area, and more amenities than I could ever begin to list. Simply put, this is by far the nicest hotel room I have ever stayed in and we have been treated so well by the staff. Reluctantly, we didn't get to spend much time in our new digs and we rushed off to the next item on our itinerary, the Maesa Elephant Camp (http://www.maesaelephantcamp.com/) . The elephants are trained by mahouts (elephant keeper or elephant driver) in the camp since birth and they put on a spectacular show. The sheer power and skill of these large animals is something to marvel at; people in attendance are treated to elephants kicking a soccer ball into a goal, lifting huge logs, and balancing on their front and hind legs. The most amazing, however, is the elephants that can paint pictures by holding a paintbrush with their trunk. The elephants can literally paint better than I can! For those of you who don't believe an elephant can paint, we have some video to show you soon.
To rub in the fact that the elephants paint better pictures of me, we took a trip to the Bo Sang Umbrella Village to try our hand at painting an umbrella. For hundreds of years, Bo Sang has been a craft-making mecca of Chiang Mai, especially umbrellas. We met some of the ladies who make the umbrellas by hand and watched the umbrella-making process, then we got down to business. Aubrey's strange obsession with pandas was revealed when she painted not one, but two panda umbrellas and one panda fan. I made a SWEET umbrella and it is debatable whether I am better with the paintbrush than the elephant (elephant is better). The paint shop owner put the finishing touches on my umbrella with a very artistic waterfall, it is definitely a keeper.
As darkness crept in, it was about time for one of my favorite activities in Chiang Mai, the Sunday Market. This market is teeming with people, homemade crafts, and skillfully crafted art. I bought a BUNCH of great gifts; everything from silk scarves to some odd antiques from Myanmar that my dad will love. There is something for everyone at the Sunday Market and the atmosphere really is magical. We even ran into our new friend Linda from the Baan Thai Cookery School while we were in the midst of hundreds of other shoppers while filming some footage! Pam wanted to see how adventurous I could be and bought a Northern Thai delicacy, and omelet-like dish containing bee larvae. In case that wasn't enough, she also bought another one complete with ant eggs. I actually ate both dishes and I have video to prove it-and it wasn't bad! The bee larvae were actually spicy and made my tongue tingle, appetizing huh?
After the Sunday Market, we headed back to The Chedi, where we had a three course dinner overlooking the Ping River. The atmosphere was incredible, with candles lighting all of the tables and floating in the nearby fountain. My dinner consisted of Ahi tuna appetizer, red snapper, and black sticky rice, mango and coconut ice cream. W-O-W, it was fantastic! The entire meal was expertly prepared and presented and the service was top-notch. It is time to retire to our amazing luxury hotel room right now; I have to say, we deserve it after all of the filming, photography, sightseeing and hard work we have put in! Chiang Mai Zoo tomorrow to hopefully meet the baby panda Linbing!
Sawadee Khrap,
Aubrey and Parker (AubParkThailand)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment