Family. Hiking. Animals.

This past weekend consisted of a lot of all three. Over the weekend, we had family visiting from Bangkok. An Aunt, and an Uncle and his daughter.  This made for a full house!

On Friday, we hiked up a mountain just outside of the city.  After the first hour or so, we reached a beautiful wat located in the heart of the forest, overlooking a waterfall.  It was so peaceful, I loved exploring, with the added bonus of finding a pile of adorable puppies to hold while waiting to get picked up for lunch.

After lunch, we hiked the rest of the way up the mountain, stopping a couple times to take field notes about our surroundings.  It was pretty steep in some places...but we made it through.  We ran out of time to visit Doi Suthep, a wat located at the top of the mountain.  Luckily, I went with my host family before, because it is really an amazing sight to see.

On Saturday, we paid a visit to the Maesa Elephant Camp. It was incredible.  First, we saw the elephants taking a bath in a river before heading to the show.  The elephants played soccer and basketball, and some painted surprisingly adept artwork, mostly of flowers.  After the show, the elephants went to the outside of the ring to interact with the people.  I got to pet and feed elephants bananas and sugarcane.  To top it all off, the smallest of the elephants put it's trainer's hat on my head! Elephants are such intelligent creatures.

Sunday was another animal-centered trip: we went to a small farm.  The workers were all wearing plaid shirts and cowboy hats, which is an outfit I was not expecting to see in Thailand!  We rode in a horse drawn carriage around the farm, fed alpacas, looked at ostriches, and took a whole bunch of pictures.  It was a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

 My host family and I before heading out to the farm

 A baby horse peeking around a post

My host mom and I in the carriage

That evening we had grilled seafood for dinner--yum yum! I had fish, crayfish, and squid for the first time.  Didn't taste bad although the texture was not my favorite. Rubbery.

This is my last week with my host family.  On Thursday we have a farewell dinner with all the host families, and on Saturday morning, we move to apartments.  I will be sad to leave my host family--but I am looking forward to the freedom of the apartments.  I will definitely be visiting my host family for dinner while in Chiang Mai though!