Thailand: Monkey friend

Westerns - like myself - get so excited to see monkeys.  Its an animal we rarely see and from seeing them on TV shows like Friends, we think they are nice sweet creatures like dogs.  But while traveling in Asia, monkeys are often seen as pests rather than friends because of how mischievous and clever they are.  Below is a photo I took of a very clever monkey while traveling in Thailand.

Thailand: Elephant Sanctuary

The area outside Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand is well known for its elephants!  Unfortunately, there are many venues to visit elephants that are cruel to the animals and do not treat them ethically.  I went instead to an elephant sanctuary where the elephants were well looked after and had been rescued.  See below some of my photos of these happy elepants!

Thailand: Markets in Chiang Mai

While in Chiang Mai, we spent a full day wandering around the city center through what seemed to be a market that consumed the whole city.  There was amazing food on display, as I love Thai food, and I was able to sample loads of it.  Below are a few photos of the food from the market.  But note that I definitely did not sample the fried insects, although I did watch many others who did sample them and said they actually tasted quite nice.  I just couldn't go there!

Thailand: Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai is the largest city in Northern Thailand, with a great buzz of a fairly modern city filled with backpackers and hippy tourists.  Below is a photo from one of the many temples located throughout the city.

Thailand: The hilltribes

The hilltribes near Chiang Mai, Thailand are communities of ethnically Burmese who live moderately selling crafts to visitors.  They depict beautiful women as having very long necks and therefore women wear gold necklaces stacked to elongate their necks.  I took photos of these women and the village below.

Thailand: Orchids of Chiang Mai

We stopped in an Orchid Park over our lunch break outside Chiang Mai.  The park was filled of beautiful and vibrant varieties of orchids, my favorite flower.  Below are two photos of the orchids in the park.

Thailand: Monkeys of Chiang Mai

Below are photos of some of the exotic monkeys of Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand.  The monkeys in Cambodia definitely freaked me out enough that these monkeys seemed quite tame.