Abroad Trip Day 7

Today was our free day! Our day to sleep in, to walk around town, to do whatever we want! 21/22 of us decided to go on an elephant day. On the bus by 6:45, at the place by 8. However, when we go there, we have to cross swaying wooden footbridge with bamboo railings. I, with my bridge phobia, sucked it up and went across, grabbing the railings. Of course, I didn't notice the railing was covered, swarming with ants. Gross and icky and still on the swaying bridge. Eventually got across, but it was very unpleasant and not fun at all.

Then we walked through the elephant village where they bathe and perform, and where locals sell elephant souvenirs. We rode on the elephants 2 people per elephant, on a small bench with a safety belt on the elephants back. Emily and I rode together. It was a lot of fun! Except downhill areas, during which we had to cling to the back of the seat so we would stay on. I now have a bruise forming on my bicep. Wonderful!

Lunch was good. We sat at tables of 4, and were served 5 different meals to share: sweet and sour pork, hot and sour chicken soup, pad thai, spring rolls, and cashew chicken stir-fry. The vegetarian kid got a table all to himself, so the tour guide, Arty, ate with him.

We then went down to the river bank, and got on bamboo rafts. It was a very Huck Finn moment. The rafter let us push the raft with the poles. It was a lot of fun! Very relaxing to just chill on a sunny river for an hour.

When we got back to the hotel, a few of us decided to go to the Chiang Mai Zoo. We flagged a seelaw, told him where we wanted to go, he told us 20 baht each, which was reasonable, so we got in and were proud of ourselves for doing it on our own. Anyway, we got to the zoo, which is 100 baht for entry, and another 100 baht to see the pandas. Of course we wanted to see the pandas! So we walked around a bit, and looked at the animals. There was a big Ovaltine party happening. About 100 feet of Ovaltine booths, playing happy pop music for “Obartine.” It was a very odd moment. Also odd, you can pay 150 baht to go inside the Snow Dome for 5 minutes. It's pretty much a big freezer with manufactured snow, and you put on a big parka and take your picture inside “Xtreme Alaska!” which is approximately -7C. I suppose if you live in the tropics, snow doesn't happen, but I was not willing to pay $5 to go and sit in a cooler for 5 minutes.

The pandas were adorable. They were all in separate enclosures, but they were still adorable. The third one was a little sad. He was pacing and pawing at the door. He also took a poo in what seemed to be a designated toilet area, and then went to his pond and cleaned himself off. Very civilized. His poo is orange, by the way. There is a Mom, Dad and Baby panda at the zoo. The pictures on the walls showed in great detail how the baby was made by artificial insemination. They showed pictures of someone gathering the semen, and another putting the semen into the female panda. It's a little awkward and undignified for the pandas.

The zoo is on a mountain, so we got a workout. The funniest animal we saw was probably the Malayan Sun Bears, which look dopey, and have turned-in front feet. They just looked silly. The cutest we saw were the hippos. There's a little hippo family, but the baby hippo can't reach the top of the water without jumping and getting a quick breath, or standing on one of the parents. It was very playful. The enclosures there are not so secure. Not much is keeping the animals in, or out of reach from people. I could have pet one of the hippos if I had leaned in a little bit. The lions were just really far away, with two small pits in between us. At least they were just asleep the whole time.

We started walking back and stopped at CMU to see if their cantin was open, because they have meals for 15 baht. Alas, it was a Sunday, so only the dorm cantins were open. Instead, we took a seelaw back to the hotel to meet everyone going to the Sunday Night Market, in the old city. To get there, all 18 of us got in a seelaw. Two people on laps, 2 on the floor and 3 hanging on the back. It was fun, but hot.

The night market was insanely crowded. I got a pad thai omelet, which is some pad thai in the center of an omelet, and a papaya smoothie. Delicious, and surprisingly easy to eat with chopsticks. We walked around for a little while, but it was so crowded, it was impossible to get around. So we tried to find a seelaw to get back. Several tuk tuks offered to take us back for 50baht per person. Nope, so we kept looking and eventually found a seelaw, for 20baht per person. We hopped in, and a British guy was already there, who looked very uncomfortable to be sharing a seelaw with a bunch of loud American kids. He got out at his hotel, and then a bunch of Chinese women got in, all laden down with several bags and popsicles. They chattered a while, and didn't realize the seelaw had stopped at their hotel until the driver told them to get out. Finally we got back, and I had time to do homework for tomorrow.