Elephants, wats, and museums

Look at the baby elephant!

There are 30 wats in the old city, and another 300 or so in the rest of Chiang Mai.  In the last 2 days, we had ourselves a wat weekend and saw 17 wats within the moat and one outside of it, bringing our total to 22 wats so far this trip!  We also saw 2 of 3 history museums in the old city (we plan to see the third one the day after tomorrow) and took a trip to the Elephant Nature Park to feed and bathe and generally interact with adorable elephants!  Also, given that there are elephant figures at almost all the wats, and in the museums, I really could've just titled this post "Elephants."  As with the last post, we took a ton of pictures and I'm only including a few, so if you want to see more, head over to Mu's Facebook where many more are posted.

So many bananas, and it's only a day's worth

Us hanging out with Dani

Mu is feeding Lucky, a blind elephant

So, 2 days ago, we went to the Elephant Nature Park.  We wanted to see elephants, but we also wanted to make sure we weren't supporting animal abuse, so we researched ahead of time and found this place.  They focus on rescue and conservation -- all of their elephants (except the ones born there) are rescued from bad circumstances, such as logging, circus, trekking, or street begging.  At the nature park, they are taken care of -- fed, given medical attention as needed, allowed to socialize with each other, and generally made pretty happy.  They don't have to work at all, and their interactions with visitors are voluntary (the fact that food is involved probably helps).  If an elephant doesn't want to participate, it doesn't have to.  All the elephants we saw, including the one in the sick area (she had a skin abscess that was being treated), seemed pretty content.  There were also several adorable elephant babies!  Basically, this place is elephant heaven.  They have 37 elephants, mostly females (the males are more aggressive and difficult to keep around humans).  It costs a lot of money to care for an elephant, so while they're expanding, they're doing so cautiously.  They also have a large number of rescued dogs, cats, cows, and water buffalo.

The elephants have a routine that they're pretty familiar with and we got to participate in.  They are fed at 10:30 and we got to hand them food -- watermelon, pineapple, and sugar cane.  Each elephant gets a basket (though they would probably eat more if allowed to, the park tries to spread out their food over the course of the day).  On average, an elephant will eat 250-300kg of food each day!  That's a big part of the costs, along with staff -- each elephant has its own caretaker (mahout), plus vets and others.

This elephant had 4 hip/leg breaks in the past.  She's not very steady on her feet now, but seemed to be doing pretty well despite that

About to throw water at this very happy elephant.

Baby, mom, and family after a bath!

After the feeding, we wandered around and saw some elephants who were hanging out and not participating in anything organized.  Some of them were waiting for their pedicures (they get their toes cleaned every day), while others were eating away from the crowds.  There was a group of 4 elephants, mom, mom's friends, and baby, who were hanging out and munching in a field a little ways away.  We got to take photos with them and generally ooh at the baby.  He's only 5 months old and tiny compared to the adults!  They were totally chill about humans being around, though of course we didn't come very close.  We also got to pet Dani, a friendly elephant who was waiting for her turn at the pedicure station.

After lunch, a group of elephants went to the river to bathe and we joined in.  It was pretty great -- the elephant stood in the water and ate watermelon while we tossed buckets of water over her.  I think if this elephant were a cat, she'd be purring!  As it was, she had her eyes closed and ears and tail swishing (signs of happiness).  We all got a little damp in the process, but given the heat, it was rather welcome.

Super grand wat with a huge outdoor Buddha

In addition to bathing, we got to meet more elephants (including a large family group with another baby, some blind elephants who were injured or abused in the past, and the oldest elephant in the park, who's in her 80s), feed another elephant, and take lots of photos.  By the time we were ready to head back, everyone was exhausted and conked out in the van!  Mu and I had originally wanted to do an overnight at this park and couldn't due to lack of spots, but I think it turned out to be a good thing -- we felt like we got a good amount of elephants for the day, and more might have been overkill. :)

Surprisingly, this wat had horses rather than elephants

Mu in front of a stupa

Donation boxes based on day of birth.  Mu's is Thursday and mine is Friday.  Note the cool wall decorations.

Mu and a whole lot of Buddhas!

After several days with pre-planned things, we decided to spend the weekend wandering around and seeing wats and museums.  As I mentioned, we saw a lot of them!  Yesterday, we saw 9 wats all on our way from our guest house to a vegetarian restaurant that we really like!  Today, with a few detours, we saw 9 more.  Some (many, actually) were under construction so we couldn't always go inside, but we walked around where we could.  It's interesting how different they are, despite basic similarities.  There are always Buddha figures, but the number, size, and what they're made of varies a lot.  Some wats have stupas in the back (a mound in which a Buddha or respected monk relic is buried).  All have monk housing, but the size and elaborate-ness varies.  Inside the main structure, some have paintings and murals, others have carvings, and others just have blank walls.  Painting styles vary, as well.  One wat had what looked like enlarged photos instead! We saw several grand wats that are clearly rich and famous, but I think my favorites were the smaller ones that were more peaceful. 

Paintings depicting hell

As a way to cool down in AC, yesterday and today we went to a museum each after our day of wats.  Yesterday, it was the Lanna Folk Life Museum (the Lanna are the ethnic group who lived here before it became Thailand and who still are a large group today) and today it was the Chiang Mai Cultural Arts Center.  They were both really well done and rather informative.  We didn't take many photos because it just didn't make sense to, but we did rather enjoy ourselves.  We still have one more museum in the series, the Chiang Mai Historical Museum, which we will go to probably on Tuesday.

Elaine and a fake elephant. :)

I know I haven't mentioned any more food, but that's because we haven't had anything really new.  We did end up in a super adorable cafe today called "Into the Woods," like the musical!  It had a mural, books, and a general fairy tale theme.  The best part?  The doors to the bathroom looked like a wardrobe!  Mu and I want to do that in our future house now. :)  Oh, and the food was pretty good, too, and surprisingly decently priced, considering it was a touristy place.

Into the Woods!

Anyways, tonight we're going back to the Sunday market to eat more street food and maybe get souvenirs, and tomorrow is the repeat of Flight of the Gibbon, the ziplining adventure.  I can't wait!