The Quinn Family Excellent Adventure: Lets tour Chiang Mai - Khao Soi, Muay Thai, Hikes, Waterfalls, Elephants and more

Chiang Mai is a really cool city. It's temperature is cooler than Phuket being further north and surrounded by mountains and forest. We spent a few days becoming familiar with the local sites, sounds and flavours.

Khao Soi is a famous local dish we could not get enough of.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khao_soi

We soon met our 4 bed roommate Daniel and we together went to dinner and enjoyed a traditional Muay Thai boxing match https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muay_Thai. at the Chiangmai Boxing Stadium http://chiangmaiboxingstadium.com/

As there are many Muay Thai clubs, they have multiple matches each night of the week. The tradition includes mindfulness, prayer, and thankfulness from the fighters and the teams. I was very impressed.

We booked a tour that included a rain forest hike, temple cave walk, lunch, and a visit to the famous Sticky Waterfall. Later a friend of a facebook friend assisted us with getting train tickets, a visit to the Wat Phra That Doi Suthep temple.

In the evening we met Adrian from the Churro Gato Cafe. Adrian is an organic chemist who amongst many talents creates amazing vegan items including the best Churro in town. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g293917-d13226232-Reviews-Churro_Gato_Cafe-Chiang_Mai.html

Our last big event in Chiang Mai was with Chai Lai Orchid offering Elephant Caretaker, Karen Homestay, & Waterfall Adventure Trek - 2 Days. https://www.chailaiorchid.com/2-day-amazing-trekking-adventure/
We did our best to research a place that was good with elephants. The company claimed to directly offer support for at risk girls to end sex trafficking and exploitation. I like that https://daughtersrising.org/. The tour included a fun bamboo raft wet butt river ride. That was cool. The day concluded with a longish and increasingly bumpy ride to a farmstay near Doi Inthanon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doi_Inthanon
That was epic.

Here are some movie clips

First, a fun Bamboo Raft ride
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1TZLVMKwvW8yrcqVyZwLOJuMnYBgcx0eT

Elephant sand exfoliation and wash
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LUFcA2yZHjdbhYPTDJQilYw1aJovFOE4

KT getting a Elephant head flush
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1CWPa2AyJLEkZyWZR1IJ-O71Kcaa9RJaA

Family Photo. I'm blocking purposefully. Gross water up your nose? Really?
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-dCGrSNIpEwutuWGevOJ2NXNM5s7YJ_b

Here is a short clip of the bumpy ride just before our farm stay
https://drive.google.com/open?id=110owCb5IYPxHEQTKJlgF1pm0j3n4bmsR

Here is a short clip of the waterfall alongside our farm stay property
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1VSs_8Nwt-rtpQsKR_6Z4XkfhxYSY0Za3

After a really nice dinner, great sleep and breakfast, our tour concluded with a pretty challenging 2 hour rainforest/jungle waterfall hike. Instead of getting a taxi back to Chiang Mai, Michelle had wanted to connect with Marco another social media connection she had made. I've made a separate blog page for that.

We were soon back in the traffic of Chiang Mai, back into the warm hands of Hostel Lullaby and enjoyed Adrians vegan food and cats. We each had showers and headed to bed. Up early tomorrow for the train to Bangkok, cool.

The river was decorated with lanterns.

In the hot season they have a huge city water fight here