The baby elephants were so cute!  They had to be fed special food.  For example, their bananas get pealed for them.  Petting them was interesting.  Their hair is very course, like a wire brush.  At one point, one of the adult elephants made a very loud trumpeting sound that sounded like a warning.  We asked what it was all about and learned that the baby had been trying to nurse from the wrong mother.  She wasn’t too pleased.  Here’s the video.

I’m no elephant expert but one thing I learned is that they tend to make family groups which aren’t necessarily their biological family. This elephant had been blinded from mistreatment by it’s previous owner. Her best friend can always be found at her side, or within easy hearing distance, and he helps her to find her way around, keeps her out of trouble, etc. They are so intelligent, and kind. If you can’t see the embedded video above, click here.

My tolerance for spicy food has probably tripled since I started coming to Thailand.  I used to get heartburn when I would eat spicy food.  That never happens any more and I have come to LOVE spicy food.  I eat it at least once per day, often two or three times per day.  While I’m now a super-spicy-stud by American standards, I’m still a little girly-man by Thai standards.  My girlfriend’s sister, Nan, made a really spicy dish the other day that I used ultra-tiny portions of to season the other dishes.  I didn’t dare eat it by itself!

Click [...] Continue Reading…

We visited a hill tribe village near Doi Suthep called Doi Pui. They had a lot of handmade clothing, jewelry, art, fabric, and much more for sale.

One of the clothing shops allowed us to rent some traditional clothing so we could take some fun photos.

We walked around the village and explored one of the gardens.  I don’t think they expected us to stray so far from the shop in the rented clothes.

The villagers found me extremely entertaining.  I don’t know the significance of what I was wearing, but they thought it was hilarious.  Our friends Sandy and Tammy from [...] Continue Reading…

Halloween is not a national holiday here, but Thais love to celebrate and any excuse will suffice, so it wasn’t hard to find pockets of people celebrating around the city of Chiang Mai.  There are plenty of foreigners (”farang” in Thai) living and traveling here as well.  I threw together my chef costume on a whim.  It cost about $2 and took me about 5 minutes.  I was very popular everywhere we went.  Interesting how such a simple costume would get so much attention.   I think it was popular because it was outside the box, even though a chef [...] Continue Reading…

I’m about to head down and get a 2-hour Thai massage from one of the teachers at the massage school across the street from my condo in Chiang Mai. It will cost 400 Bhat. That’s about $12 US. This is on the high-end of what I usually pay for a massage here. The delicious green curry meal that I ate for lunch cost 40 Bhat ($1.33 US). I love it here!

A few things are actually more expensive. For example, I like to make a protein shake in the morning. Protein powder costs about 4 times what it costs in [...] Continue Reading…

Here’s a quick update on my transition into living in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The plane ride was pleasant and exhausting. I spent the first 3 days looking for an apartment. Nok and I drove all over the city on her motorbike, looking at condos and apartments in the best neighborhoods. We looked at more than 30 places and it was exhausting. While rents are very reasonable here, there isn’t much selection in the mid to upper range type of place that I was looking for. However, all the hard work paid off and I found a nice, clean condo, in [...] Continue Reading…