June 4: Last day in Chiang Mai

This day started with a gorgeous breakfast at a hotel near our homestay:

Then Laini and I walked around for a bit, exploring more of the city.

We thought this looked like the Northern Lights

Good things always happen to those with positivity and caffeine.

I got a matcha latte at a cafe where they gave me the milk and ice separate from the matcha, for me to pour in myself. Also a small bowl of red beans to me to enjoy as an accompanying snack!

Our lunch^^

I spent the afternoon working on my blog back at the hotel where we'd had breakfast, because they had my two favorite things (a/c and wifi). Honestly don't remember what we did that evening, but my camera roll tells me I ate papaya salad and mango sticky rice—which I very happily ate just about every day in Thailand.

June 3: Elephants!

Laini and I were picked up very early, loaded into the back of a pickup truck, and driven about 90 minutes to an elephant sanctuary! 

My first glimpse of the elephants:

This sanctuary was a private initiative where the owners bought elephants that were being caged/neglected, and brought them to this remote area to roam free and live happily on a diet of whatever they normally eat plus a plethora of bananas being fed to them by tourists like me.

After we each fed our respective elephants an entire basket of bananas, we went on a little hike through the jungle to observe the elephants in their semi-natural habitat.

Our guide immediately perched on this vine:

Then we watched the elephants! They were so giant and funny. They would ram against a small tree to knock it over (ostensibly for fun), rub against bigger trees to scratch an itch, and roll around in the dirt (maybe for both reasons?).

Then our guide found a giant spider, which he put on his face.

I tried to hold it but couldn't handle the pinchy feeling of its feet on my skin.

Please excuse the screenshot; I'm too unbothered to crop it. 

Then we ate lunch on a big wooden deck from which we could still watch the elephants. It felt like a very typical Thailand tourist experience!

The elephant sanctuary also had some gorgeous flowers.

Later, Laini and I found this giant snail while walking through town:

We ended our day with a delicious dinner, as per usual.

June 2: Cooking Class!

The cooking class was a highlight of my entire trip, up there with the two days in Ha Long / Lan Ha Bay. And one reason it was so fun is that my friend Laini was there!!! She arrived late morning and we went straight to lunch.

I found out the restaurant washed their vegetables in filtered water, so I felt obligated to order a salad!

tie-dye flowers!

Our cooking class started with us getting picked up in a pick-up.

We were driven to a local market, where our guide showed us the ingredients we'd be using.

I also wandered around and took photos of all the fascinating and beautiful foods:

Then we were driven to a farm where we harvested the actual ingredients we'd be using!

While staffed prepped our ingredients Hello Fresh-style, we relaxed with butterfly pea flower tea and cookies. It came with lime, because adding lime juice to the blue tea turns it purple 🤩

Our first step in the cooking process was grinding spices together with a stone mortar and pestle.

Then we did a tiny amount of chopping to help us feel like we contributed to that process, but it was mostly for the pictures:

This is how the ingredients were presented to us.

Then we cooked! I made pad thai (of course), a classic Northern Thailand soup called khao soi, green papaya salad (my favorite), and a vegetarian tom yum soup (which I think was actually tom kha because it had coconut milk in it).

Aaaand mango sticky rice! With butterfly pea flower decoration!!

They prepped the base ingredients like this.

We cooked the rice with coconut cream and butterfly pea flowers for color, and assembled the final dish. The crunchy mung beans on top truly make the dish.

Along with the other two people in the class, it was a truly incredible spread.

tom kha! sooooo delicious.

After dropping off our leftovers at the homestay, Laini and I set out again to visit a massive street market in the Old Town. I bought a few souvenirs and these crispy sesame balls with sweet mung bean paste inside:

This is my favorite souvenir from the whole trip!