Chiang Mai, Thailand

October 24 – 27, 2025

We flew up to Chiang Mai and enjoyed the slower pace of a smaller, northern city. We started exploring the first day with our roommate, Nourie, and walked between the temples in the old town. Lots of lanterns are out in preparation for the lantern festival.

Our hostel was fantastic – great for socializing and meeting new friends while having semi-private rooms:

On our first full day, we did a day trip to an elephant sanctuary. Joy Elephant Sanctuary was an hour or two bus ride into the jungle. The van woke up from naps and we were rushed into the back of a pickup truck for a steep descent into the elephant sanctuary.

There are five elephants in this sanctuary. The family that takes care of the elephants explained the difference between domesticated and wild elephants – my understanding is that since elephants have been domesticated in Thailands past, descendants of domesticated elephants cannot survive on their own in the wild. However, wild elephants still roam in parts of Thailand. We put on pink shirts, a tradition of the family that cares for these elephants, so as to make ourselves more identifiable and avoid spooking the elephants.

Thai elephants are quite a bit different than African elephants – they are smaller in size, their ears are smaller, they have two lobes on the top of their heads, and only males have tusks:

Unlike other elephant experiences that encourage touching, this elephant sanctuary is considered an ethical sanctuary as visitors can just feed the elephants. We fed them loads of bananas.

We then had to take them for a walk as walking helps them digest their food. They were more taking us for a walk as we followed them where they wanted to go.

Spicy pad thai lunch!

Afterwards we went on bamboo rafts down a Thai river (no photos) and headed to a night market for dinner:

The next day a couple of us from the hostel wanted to try out the waterpark. It looks like a normal waterpark, but it is definitely a bit more extreme than would be permitted back home. The pillow jump and speed slides were favorites – though we were all a bit sore the next day.