So only 4 days after our return to Singapore from the US, Jay set out for 8 days of Boy Scout summer camp in Chiang Mai. After a AM Cub Scout hike with a few monkeys, tea at TWG, and a trip back to Istana ( White House of Singapore which had cool Merlion statues everywhere) Bee spent the 1st half of the week at computer camp and he and Dad even made a quick to the former Ford Factory- where the surrender of Singapore to Japan was signed during WWII .
Then on Friday, Mom, Dad and Bee went up to Chiang Mai to catch up with Jay and have our own adventure ….we weren’t quite roughing as we stayed in a gorgeous colonial style hotel built to recall the days of logging trade in Chiang Mai with stately white decour and a gorgeous swimming pool! Even got to ride in a classic car back and forth from the airport! We went to a cool high tea restaurant overlooking the river with amazing orange passionfruit smoothie! we then hit up Bee’s top selection, the Grand Canyon of Chiang Mai! they had transformed an old mine into a water filled wet & wild adventure with crazy inflatable obstacle courses, huge water slides, wake boarding ( Bee rocked it), giant inflatable towers to climb ( and jump off of) and a zip line all around the park! back in town we tried a spicy Chiang Mai dinner with local favorite Kao Soi- egg noodles in a spicy yellow coconut broth. As Bee crashed out right on the bench of the restaurant, Mom and Dad enjoyed a few drinks on the deck overlooking the streets of Chiang Mai.
Day 2 started out bright and early for our trip to the Kanta Elephant Sanctuary. After a 1.5 hour drive, we arrived at what they described as a retirement home for elephants – where the elephants away from hard agricultural work to allow them to relax and enjoy the care in the huge sanctuary. We first got decked out in our cool elephant gear- and then ventured down to meet the big guys and gals! You get to hand feed them sugarcane, which they absolutely love. They use their tusks to grab the pieces of sugarcane – many at a time if you let them – and then use their tusks again to poke at you and your bag of food- even after it is all gone 😀 It can get a bit intimidating as at times 4 or 5 elephants are standing within a few feet. After the sugar cane was all gone, we fed them some large grasses- and we were just feeding them a morning snack as they can consume up to 10% of their body weight- so anywhere from 200-600 pounds a day! Some interesting features you notice when you get up lose to the elephants are their orange and gray coloration- unique for each elephant; short somewhat spiky hairs and little tiny tusks even for the females. We also learned that left in the wild there is only 35,000 – 40,000 Asian elephants left.
After feeding the elephants, we prepared their vitamins – consisting of banana, tamarind and a vitamin pack for elephants. with these you try to feed it right into their mouths so the sticky balls don’t fall apart. The final activity was bathing the elephants in the river. They lie down fully in the river and love getting their bodies scrubbed. Of course they have some fun- squirting and splashing all around! After a goodbye photo, we had a quick snack and headed back to town.
Jay also had an up-close experience with the elephants and got to feed them, learn all about them, made paper from their poop, and see a show put on by the elephants and their trainers
Mom found us a great little spot for lunch, where we sat on cool cushions on the floor in the backyard of an old house – more great Kao Soi and some very authentic pad thai for Bee. Then a self guided walking tour of Chiang Mai- saw the entrance gates of the old city wall and two awesome temples- Wat Phra Singh and Wat Chedi Luang. What Phra Singh was the more modern temple- with towers of Budha’s, hige gold stupas, beautiful sets of bells, golden elephants statues and tons of monks. Wat Chedi Luang was the more historic temple, a huge old tower with more elephant statues and one giant reclining Budha.
jay, on the other hand, was definitely not sipping cold drinks with little umbrellas during the week. I was off camping in a nearby scout camp. Every day me and my troop would wake up at 5:45 to get to morning flag ceremony at 6:30 then shoot of to breakfast and go right to our 4 merit badge sessions. after 4 and a half hours of merit badges, we would go to lunch and have 3 hours of free time, to continue working on merit badges, getting awards like knot ninja and king cobra, and having fun at the archery and tomahawk throwing range. after that we would have evening flags and dinner, and then the activity of the night, whether more merit badges, playing in the field, or a huge cobbler bake off (witch we tied second in)! then we finally got some rest at 10:00 and got ready to do it all again. For the week Jay earned 7 merit badges, his knot ninja award, got to do some serious adventure mountain biking, and was the head of honor as his troop lifted the goofiest headgear trophy.
Mom, Dad and Bee went off to camp Saturday night to meet Jay after his week of roughing it in the wilderness. We saw the huge field where over 150 scouts from Japan, China, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia, Indoensia and of course Singapore camped out for the week. Our night consisted of the closing ceremonies, a meal from the cafeteria and skits at the closing campfire.
On Sunday, we fought off the rains to travel up the mountain top to see Wat Doi Suthep- Chiang Mai’s most famous temple. Surrounded by a cool Asian market (we tried some banana treats), the most interesting feature of the temple was the high staircase with dragon handrails. Inside the temple, there were a ton of intricate Buddha statues, including ones made out of amber and jade. The royal slug statues were also very different. On the way down, we went to a temple straight out of an Indiana Jones movie- one partially overtaken by the jungle- Wat Pha Lat. Awesome statues and towers with plant life were growing everywhere, and we also saw a nice little waterfall and a large elephant looking emblem. After a nice lunch with a crazy salad and huge fruit juices (Dad tried a blue berry type drink), we did a bit of shopping for elephant statues and headed to the airport to meet up with Jay for the flight back!
If you liked this blog and want to see a more in-depth video of all Jays activities with the Boy Scouts or video of any other of our travels, head over to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqVkaSL-nVw for our latest video
