Travel diary #5: The one when we said goodbye to Thailand and the elephants
July 13th, 2016
We arrived in Chiang Mai on June 19th, after spending 3 days in Bangkok. And the only thing I wanted to absolutely do in Chiang Mai was to go to an elephant park.
The first two weeks, Davidson and I were busy working on our online business. And actually, we’re not into touristic stuff.
It’s only on June 29th that I started to check for an elephant park. The first park I checked had no spot available before July 13th. Which was the date of our trip to Siem Reap.
I checked a second one called Elephant Jungle Sanctuary. I sent them an email asking them if they had a morning package before July 13th.
They sent me a message less than 24h later and told me that the next available date was July 13th.
We agreed to do their morning package and asked them to drop us at the airport before 2PM. Our flight was at 4h30PM.
We woke up at 6AM and waited 30min before the truck picked us up at our hotel. We were a group of 10: 6 American, a couple from Mexico on a honeymoon and us.
The morning was divided in 4 parts:
- Feeding the elephants with sugar cane and bananas
- Scrubbing the elephants in the river
- Massaging the elephants with mud
- Having lunch
The whole experience at the Park was one of the best moments I had in Chiang Mai. And for sure, it was a great way to say goodbye to Thailand.
Once the lunch was over, the truck drove us to the airport. While on our way, people started to talk about their activities in Chiang Mai.
In 3 or 4 days, they did more activities than us in 3 weeks.
I felt ashamed.
At that time, I was still not sure if what I was working on would be worth it someday. And if, instead, it would be better to just do like tourists. But now, as I’m writing this text, I know I have nothing to feel ashamed about.
Lessons learned
- Don’t feel inferior nor superior than people surrounding you
- Do what feels right for you even if it means questioning the status quo
- Elephants are so cute