Chiang Mai, Thailand: Meeting rescued elephants and cooking Thai food

Initially, I wanted to venture up to the north of Thailand because I'd heard that it was the perfect place to meet elephants - and also that it was friendlier, cheaper, less touristy and more laidback than down south. Luckily, in Chiang Mai, all of this has turned out to be true!

Everybody we've met in Chiang Mai has been really friendly and welcoming, the landmarks have been beautiful and I've also been able to tick some really exciting things off of my bucket list while here.

The Elephant Jungle Sanctuary

My favourite thing we've done in Chiang Mai has hands down been meeting the incredible elephants at the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary. I've always wanted to see elephants up close but the day was still even better than I'd thought it would be!

Sadly, there are still quite a lot of places around this area which let tourists ride elephants (which is extremely bad for their backs) and don't have the elephants' health and happiness as their first priority at all. Because of this, Ben and I tried really hard to research and find an ethical (but still affordable) place to meet elephants in Chiang Mai. We ended up going with the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary because they say they provide an 'ethical elephant adventure' for tourists but also aren't as crazily expensive as some of the other rescue sanctuaries we'd seen.

I think we definitely made the right choice because from the moment we arrived, I felt like the owners of the sanctuary really loved and knew all of their elephants - who had all been rescued from backgrounds of abuse or circus training - and wanted to keep them safe and happy.

When we first arrived at the sanctuary, we had to get changed into traditional karen clothing (stripy woven tops) so the elephants wouldn't get confused by any strange sights or scents. Before we met them, we were also given a talk by one of the men who worked there about the elephants' backgrounds, diets, behaviours, personalities and what the sanctuary were trying to do for them.

At first, I was a bit nervous about getting up close to the elephants (especially after one of the teenage ones made a big entrance with a fast, heavy gallop and a huge roar!) But it wasn’t long before I felt really comfortable with the beautiful animals, who all had big personalities and were really friendly, fun and sweet.

After gaining the elephants’ trust by feeding them bananas (which they ate whole out of our hands with the skins on!), we had a chance to stroke and take pictures with them.

Once all the elephants had been fed, we also got to join them in their mud bath and help wash them (and ourselves) off in the river afterwards!

Splashing around with the elephants

We were especially lucky with the camp we went to because there was a baby elephant in the family we met, who was really playful (and really cute!) There was also a grandmother elephant in her seventies, who was much calmer, so we got to see a big range of different personalities in the elephant family.

Up close with the baby of the pack

I would definitely do this experience over again and would recommend it to anyone who fancies spending their morning in the Thai jungle stroking and washing some beautiful elephants.

Sightseeing in Chiang Mai

In terms of sightseeing in Chiang Mai, my favourite landmark was a golden mountain temple called Doi Suthep. We had to climb a lot of steps in the heat to get there, but the temple was really beautiful - and we also got an amazing panoramic view of the whole of Chiang Mai from the balcony outside it.

The view of Chiang Mai from the top of the Doi Suthep temple

That evening, we went and explored the city's colourful Night Market; a busy lantern-lined market full of pretty handmade souvenirs and delicious street food (which we haven't got ill from yet!)

In Chiang Mai's famous Night Market

Learning to cook Thai food

Considering how good the food here's been, we couldn't leave Chiang Mai without going to the Siam Garden Cooking School to learn how to make some delicious Thai meals for ourselves.

With a lot of help from the cooking teachers, Ben and I made spring rolls, chicken salad, pad thai, massamam curry, tom yum soup, fried bananas and mango sticky rice. The best bit was getting to eat everything at the end, because it all tasted amazing (thanks to the teachers' help!) I'd love to make it again but the ingredients might be a bit harder to get hold of in the UK.

After being really impressed by the beautiful places and welcoming people in this part of Thailand, we're now heading to a nearby town called Chiang Rai for a couple of days, where we'll hopefully see some more amazing landmarks and keep enjoying the laid-back, friendly vibe of northern Thailand.