Chiang Mai, Thailand

What is Thailand?: It is a place for adventures. A country of stunning jungles. A place with jungles of Elephants. A country with fruit smoothies, thai iced tea, coffee and pad thai.

Most people go to Thailand for the stunning beaches, but I stuck to the jungles for this trip and I will save the beaches for the next. There is so much to see and do in Thailand, that I quickly realized one week is definitely not enough.

We spent most of the week in Chiang Mai at the Thai Thai Hostel (10/10 recommend). Hostels are by far my favorite places to stay when traveling. It is a perfect opportunity to meet fellow travelers from around the world. We even got to do some our adventures listed below with some of the people we met from our hostel. For example, we had lunch with a mother and son from the Netherlands, explored the town and ate meals with a girl from Brazil and played cards with some people from France and England. The best part about all that, is their stories: why they are traveling, their life passions, who they are, where they are from, etc.

Elephants, being the highlight of the trip, was the first thing we did. We went to the HUG Elephant Sanctuary and gave the elephants a mud bath then washed them off in the river. The rest of the week was filled with ziplining (Dragon Flight), 4-wheeling (8 Adventures), hiking to waterfalls (Doi Inthanon National Park), wandering the town, visiting temples, shopping at the markets, and learning how to cook some classic Thai meals (The Best Thai Cooking Course).

PS: Click here to view my Bangkok, Thailand post!