One Night in Chiang Mai and the morning after...

After exploring Chiang Mai during the day, I strolled to the Night Bazaar in the evening. There, you can find the typical Thai souvenir offerings and a huge food street.
So, I indulged myself... Red Curry with duck, grilled chicken skewers, and finally, fried chicken legs 😇

While eating, I also met a group of backpackers. They were from the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and there was even a German among them.

We all got along great and decided to go to a Muay Thai boxing match later that night. So, we quickly bought tickets and off we went.

At the Muay Thai boxing match, I was initially shocked to see children beating each other up and fighting over their lunch boxes.. That's at least what it looked like 😝 They couldn't have been older than 10 or 11. Probably driven by their fathers, they tried to do their best. I bet with one of the Dutch guys every time on who would win. And what can I say... I definitely didn't have to pay for beer that night 😜 Girls also fought, and there were some older fighters too. In total, there were probably 6 fights.

Afterwards, we went to the rooftop of a bar with a great view. There, they had those infamous buckets again. I would call it bucket drinking 🤣

Unfortunately, the bars in Chiang Mai close at 12 o'clock, but we were allowed to continue drinking outside or finish our drinks. Two more Dutch guys joined us in the meantime. Somehow, there are so many of them here in Thailand. Well, they don't need to watch football anymore and have plenty of time 😅 By the way, the joke didn't go over so well, even though I found it funny 😀

At least I eventually made it home. My alarm was already set for 6:30 am because I had booked a trip to the Elephant Farm.

And of course, it had to happen... I overslept and was woken up at 7:32 am by the hostel reception with the words... HELLO, YOU BOOKED THE ELEPHANT FARM...

Luckily, the night before, I had packed everything so that I was ready to leave within 5 minutes... Fortunately, the driver waited for me 😇

There were still two French guys on board who were also in a great mood. After half an hour, we arrived at the camp. There, four English guys were waiting for us. So, we were a cozy little group.

And what can I say except..... It was sooooooooooooooo incredibly amazing. We fed, covered the elephants with mud, and bathed with them. It's just crazy to see such huge animals being so gentle. A thousand thanks to Sandra for the recommendation 🙌

We then went through the jungle to a waterfall where we could swim, and then we had a delicious meal. Afterwards, we were shown a hill tribe and shown some plants and other things. As a final activity, we took a bamboo raft for half an hour downstream through the jungle.

An incredibly exciting day is coming to an end. Although it is 5 pm and tonight we are heading back to the Night Bazaar... Let's see what else awaits 😉

Tomorrow, we're definitely starting the cooking class at 8 am, hopefully without oversleeping 😛