Today I got out of the city a bit, taking a shared taxi up to Doi Suthep, a temple on a mountaintop. Interestingly, there was a sign for all foreign visitors to proceed this way to pay an entry fee, but Thai nationals get in free. Hmm... yeah, I just went in anyway. Granted, it was only like a dollar, but still. Anyway, this is not a Thai concept; in India it's common for Indians to pay one very low price for entry into things while foreigners pay way more. I'm not sure how I feel about that.
Anyway, tomorrow is the big day I've been waiting for in some ways. One of the attractions here in Thailand is the elephants, so tomorrow I will spend the day at the Elephant Nature Park, walking with, bathing, and just generally hanging out, up close and personal, with them. I'm so, so, so excited, as elephants are by far my favorite animal. I'm hoping to get some amazing pictures of this experience. Apparently we need to bring a change of clothes as well, since you understandably get pretty wet when bathing an elephant.
There's another attraction up this way that I'm debating doing, and that is the Tiger Kingdom. Here, too, you apparently can get up close and personal with the tigers, except that they are essentially drugged up, to what extent I'm not sure, so that they don't, ya know, eat the tourists. Ha. So therein lies the controversy - sedated tigers. I've heard it's pretty amazing, though, not surprisingly. So we'll see. I expect I'll be heading out of Chiang Mai in the next 2 or 3 days, however, up to Chiang Rai and then crossing the border into Laos as my 30-day visa will expire shortly. From there the trip is up in the air - cross back into Thailand? Head south through Laos into Cambodia? Any thoughts?
I believe these are lotus flowers. They are for sale outside the temple for people to give as offerings.
Why do people do this to their dogs? Paris would never put up with this.
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