I took a three night Birthday trip to Chiang Mai towards the end of my time in Thailand, I would absolutely go back in a heartbeat and would highly recommend it. I went specifically for and Elephant experience but there is a lot more to do there.

Arriving

I took a Nok Air flight out of Bangkok.  Arriving is pretty easy and there are plenty of taxi places inside the airport - I recommend either pre-booking a transfer with your hotel/accommodation or book and pre-pay with one of the agents inside.  This way there is no room for negotiation and you can ensure they know the address in advance, it also prevents the drivers from taking advantage by taking you to a different hotel or driving a longer route.

I managed to get grab to and from the main city but it was a little tricky, booking a driver with the resort to be dropped off and picked up was much easier.

Accommodation

I booked the Cools Down Resort after some extensive time on trip advisor, booking.com etc. As I work in 5* hotels I wanted something a little smaller and was also looking to be closer to the elephant place and a little more in the country side.

Its a solid 45 minute drive outside of the main City but the hotel is lovely. Relatively new and in really good condition, the rooms are modern and simple and very clean, there is a small pool, again very clean and perfect after a day out exploring. I ate inside the hotel two out of three nights and the food was pretty good, authentic Thai food and some okay western food.

Eating and Drinking

I did a little research for my trip and found a few options;

Thong Tem Toh: I chose Tong Tem Toh for dinner and was absolutely not disappointed.  I ordered about six dishes (four too many for one person) but I really wanted to try as many as possible. Chiang Mai sausage is delicious, spicy delicious!  I had omelet, curry and two large Singh and it was about USD 20.  The atmosphere is lovely, indoor outdoor seating, busy and plenty of twinkly lights.  As promised on some of the reviews there was a line but you simply take a number and wait. I waited for about five minutes which was absolutely worth it.

Huen Phen restaurant was another option that was actually my first choice was closed but I read similar reviews so I feel like it would be worth a visit.

The other evenings I ate in the hotel and the food was pretty good.

What to do

On day one I rented a motor bike and just set of exploring the area around the hotel. There was a butterfly farm, local ecological/ethnic villages, waterfall treks and an abundance of strawberry farms.  I stopped at a few Strawberry farms, bought strawberries and sat by the roadside to eat and watch the world go by.  The roads are windy and hilly but quite quiet and nice to explore.

The night market around the walking street is nice, a little similar to most of the night and tourist markets in Thailand but there are some Chiang Mai specific items and has a great atmosphere. Grab a seat and an Ice cold Singha and kick back and people watch for a few hours.

I met people who had done temple tours, and even visited the water park and said good things, having lived in Asia for 7 years temples aren’t usually top of my to do list however.

To do it again I would probably stay closer to Chiang Mai city centre but if you aren’t fussed about that and want some serious peace and quiet then Cools Down resort will definitely work for you.

Elephants

On day two I had booked a full day excursion with Elephant nature park.  I spent a long time researching the various Elephant activities as there are plenty of parks and camps that are not ethical and treat the animals poorly. There were various options and I chose to do a full day including walk, feeding, bathing and lunch.  I was picked up at a meeting point in the early morning and it took an hour to get there.  Once you arrive you’re given a brief introduction and overview of the day and then put to work preparing food for the Elephants.  There is a warning that the animals are not forced to partake and if they decide they don’t want to then it will be more of a day observing rather than interacting.

The guide brought in four Elephants and gave us a brief introduction explaining where they had been rescued from and what their stories were.  We then fed them bananas, watermelon, turnips and one of the newer Elephants who was underweight was given special power balls.

Once breakfast was over the animals are let out and we took a walk through the jungle feeding them bananas as we walked.  There are no ropes, no sticks and the elephants choose how fast and if the even walk at all. At one point one of them ran off just because he wanted to and was allowed to do so. Walking through the jungle having an elephant reach over your shoulder to try and steal bananas out of your satchel is quite the experience.

Once we reached a spot at the river it was time for lunch which was local food and pretty tasty. Then back to the river for bath time, which basically turned in to a big water flight and was a lot of fun. Again, if the elephants didn’t want to join then they didn’t and they were free to wander off in to the jungle.  Then it’s a leisurely walk back and the last stop is to the park head quarters to meet some of the elephants that are under treatment as well as some of the orphaned ones.  

The above doesn’t do this experience justice, it really was amazing in the kind of way that it feeds your soul.  I recommended this to a friend who was going through some hard personal times, she went on her own and agreed that this helped her soul, I am trying desperately to figure out how I can do this trip again this year as I really enjoyed it so much.