Good morning to the last day in Chiang Mai!! Let’s say today is a lot more relaxing than the day before!! And there’s still one thing left to do.. feed the elephants!!!! Today I booked a half day tour to one of the elephant sanctuaries where you go and feed them and bathe them and play with them. I’ve been feeding myself good food so why not feed the elephants also?! Plus they are sooo adorable. I’ve always wanted a pet elephant when I was a kid!

This is a bag to hold off of the sugar canes to feed the elephants with.

And here is me petting an elephant while feeding it sugar cane too! At first I was frightened by their huge size and being so close to them, but after a while, they are completely harmless and friendly!! When they flap their ears, it means they’re happy. 🙂

After feeding time, it is bathing time! It was so fun! I literally got sprayed in the face twice from their trunks. I know it’s all fun and games to them but still! A little warning would have been nice baby elephants! :p

Some tea and refreshments after elephant bonding.

And now it’s lunch time. Now I am always the type of foodie where I want to take advantage of what thailand has to offer. That means good cheap street food. Please, no sit down restaurants, please!

This is called pink milk. To be honest, I was hesitant to order it but I saw it on one of they street carts randomly and was curious to see what it tastes like. With the language barrier, I couldn’t get an idea of what kind of drink it was so off to ordering random things I did! It was almost like a really sweet bubble gum flavor. A bit too sweet in my opinion!

Okay so I kind of got separated from my friends for a few hours, which I actually really appreciated now because for the first time in my life, I explored the unknown by myself and I absolutely loved it! I was able to walk up and down the streets of Chiang Mai, wander aimlessly in the neighborhood. And now I was able to try delicious and cheap Thai food that I’ve always wanted. Because no one held me back.

This cart is all skewers!!!! The first half on the left was 10baht per skewer. The second half on the right was 5baht per skewer. That is super cheap. It’s like 15-30 cents per skewer in American dollars. So cheap right?! I was seriously having the time of my life alone right now.

The lady at the cart was pretty nice too!!! I get to choose as many skewers as I want, put them in the plastic basket and off she goes frying them for me! Probably not the healthiest thing, but hey! When in Thailand..

While I was waiting for my skewers to be cooking, I ordered some street iced milk at the cart right next door. For 25baht only! And it was a large size and freshly brewed right in front of you too! These people don’t have pre-made tea like America does.

Yay for my plastic baggies of skewers! I hoped they tasted good and they were good! They were so good that after walking up and down and eating skewers, I decided to walk back to the same cart to buy more. But it was gone… that lady cleaned up already!!!! Why!!!!

And here’s my big cup of milk tea in a plastic baggie for easy carry and easy drink.

Yummy and creamy and sweet in every way!

YAYAYAYAY! This was soooo fun!

I forgot what each skewer was called but it was all so delicious! And for that cheap, even better!!!

Walking about holding my tea cup via small grocery bag in my hand, I realized this was a thing to do in Thailand. One of the vendors told me this was a cup holder. They use plastic bags as cup holders!!! How brilliant!! This is way easier to hold by the bag straps than to actually use hand grip to hold cups like we do in America. Brilliant! I love his way!!! And when you want to take a sip, just spread the plastic handles, the cup gets closer to your mouth and drink!!!

I got two plastic baggies of 8 pieces of shrimp filling and 8 pieces of pork filling for just 40baht total. So cheap!

Yummy in my tummy! These were just as good too!!!

On our last night in Chiang Mai, we ate delicious street food for one last time. The first thing we ate was a cheese egg wrap. It was the first and random street food cart we saw and it looked and smelled amazing!!!

And you know what?! These cheese egg wraps were delicious!!! Topped with some sweet cream sauce! You can just taste the sweet and savory crispy egg wraps. Full of flavor and warmth and satisfaction.

Now let’s eat some street pad Thai for 40baht, which is equivalent to more than just $1 in US. WHAT! And the serving was huge!! All this for just one plate?!?! One huge heaping plate of delicious noodles, chicken and tofu!

I love Chiang Mai food the most! I love phuket too. And I loved Bangkok. But Chiang Mai is hands down my most favorite city!! It has a little of everything: nature and adventure, delicious street food and probably the most culture!

Thank you thailand for opening my eyes to a lot more than I knew and realized. With this only being the second trip for me outside of the country, I learned even more than Europe about how naive and sheltered I am. I learned so much about myself and the world last year during Europe. And now I’ve learned and my eyes are even more open to the world from Thailand.

Now back to America! For once, I am excited to come back home. It’s been a good trip, but America, I really appreciate you.