Day 2 Chiang Mai: Elephants and white water/bamboo rafting

After reluctantly leaving Daniel, the folks from Israel, and the village behind, we trekked back down the mountain and into the elephant camp.  

Because I’m still not sure how well the elephants are treated at these camps, I stayed behind while the rest of the group went on the 45-minute elephant ride.  I instead chose to spend most of that time feeding and interacting with the elephants (as well as playing a couple games of checkers with some of the elephant trainers back at the camp). 

Time to state the obvious:  Elephants are REALLY big. 

They’re also magnificent creatures.  It was great to finally meet one in person.

We ended the day with some exhilarating white-water rafting and then some relaxing bamboo rafting.  The former looked pretty intense, but turned out to be a lot of fun.  I would recommend either type of rafting to anyone who gets an opportunity to try it out.

Overall, best weekend so far.  Chiang Mai was amazing.