There is 10 days to go... 10 days to finish all my work, pack, provide key details to those at home looking after my cat from hell, my little beach cottage house and all my worldly possessions. \240

About 1.5 years ago I started watching a show on Netflix - Travels with my Father - and Jack Whitehall was on a gap year with his 77 year old father. \240They went to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. \240I just loved the scenery and culture. \240I thought why cant I go to Thailand. \240I found a travel tourism group that didn’t require a single supplement and costs were lower because you donated time to work while traveling. \240I quickly signed up with “Bamboo”.

Leaving at the end of January 2019 seemed so far away. \240In September of 2018 I was starting to think how close it was getting... then out of the blue my Mother, my “77” year old Mother said she was coming with me to feed and bathe elephants, teach English to children, wander cities and temples and enjoy the beach.

This is my travel blog - \240Travels with my Mother.

T-28 hours

Everyone keeps asking me “are you excited?”... I answer with my standard reply “I cant let myself be excited yet or I will not be able to focus on work and all the things I want to do before I go.”

My real answer is YES YES YES YES ... but I am also scared. \240What if I get sick or worse what if my Mom get’s sick. \240What is something happens at home, what if they don’t need me at work? \240What if my 18 year old cat dies (I would miss the champagne celebration - yes I would celebrate her life and the fact that I don’t have to wake up to screaming, puke everywhere and litter tracked all over the place - don’t judge people).

Seriously, I wanted an adventure. \240I am 54 on the downward side of life, closing in on my 60s! OMFG. \240I am old AF. \240I need to do this now, I need to do this now, I need to do this now... just tap my heels together and wake up in Bangkok. \240Bon voyage.

Stuck in Taiwan

Arrived at Pearson so excited on Wed night but our flight was delayed 3 hours due to weather! We tried to sleep in the cold airport but on a good note I saw my first Budist Monk in Toronto!

Briefly in Bangkok

We finally arrived in Bangkok on Friday February 1st at 1030 at night and had some mix ups with the tour pick up as we were so late arriving. \240We ended up taking a taxi to our hotel. \240We were dropped off on a busy street corner and our drive pointed down a little street filled with vendors and carts and drunken kids and music! \240He said “down there” pointed and left! \240It was 12:45 pm and we were running on the little 45 minute naps on planes since 40 hours earlier when we left Toronto!

We grabbed our “rolly” suitcases and wandered down the busy Bangkok street trying to find Villa Cha Cha. \240It was not too far and carried our suitcases up some stairs to check in - finally SLEEP! \240The nice lady gave us our key and said we must be back in the lobby at 3:30am. \240OMG !!!

Chaing Mai - Feb 2

Back on a plane! \240Air Asia to Chaing Mai at the crack of dawn, really don’t know how we got up and made it to the airport!

Landed and went to our hotel, got a second wind and visited a famous Temple - add name -. \240Mom hung a blue kite to bring good luck to her family and I bought a blessing for the Monks.

The colours are amazing, blue, red, yellow, gold - everywhere!

We continued in our truck up the mountain to see a strawberry patch with the most amazing view!

After wandering around the strawberry patch, looking at all the souvenirs for same from the vendors, we drove down the mountain to stop for lunch by the riverside where Mom had Tilapia and I had Calimari. \240What a pretty little restaurant where you could eat while dipping your feet in the river!

After lunch we made elephant poo paper! It was crappy work... sorry could not resist!

Home and dinner at a local place in Chaing Mai with a trip to the Flower festival - an unbelievable array of float after float of fresh flowers! \240Our Aussi friend Ann and Mom and I ventured out of the festival down some side streets in search of a beer. \240We came to a little local bar that seemed like it was built in the garage of a house. \240It was called “BTK” for Before the Kickoff and has soccer on a big screen. \240We order three beers and they brought each of us a 1 litre Chang beer! When in Rome...

Home on a Tuk Tuk was so much fun, driving in the crazy streets of Chaing Mai weaving in and out of traffic with disco lights and the cacophany of street sounds to end a perfect night. \240So happy to see my bed.

Elephants!!!

Woke up at a normal hour to leave Chaing Mai and go to the Elephant Sancturary. \240Back in the back of a truck with our luggage pilled high on the top the eight of us bumped and bonded for 90 minutes.

We arrive to a quaint little village of huts and cabins with elephants in plain view across the river. \240Surrounded by mountains with a stream on one side it felt like we were in a different world.

After we unloaded the luggage we set off for our first close up interaction with elephants! \240They are big, but not by African elephant standards... there skin is rough and hairy! \240We each grabbed some bananas and said “bon bon” and they were not shy to come and eat from your hand or let you put it in there mouths! \240They are beautiful creatures...

Back at our camp we swam in the river and then had some Thai curry made by the locals - so good! \240By this time the jet lag had caught up to us and Mom and I went to bed at 8:30 completely exhausted!

Monday February 4

Working Day! \240Up early to eggs with hot sauce and hot dogs? \240Instant coffee that Mom ended up on the ground after she took one sip however she had no problem eating a bbq cricket the day before! \240“I cant do instant coffee”.

Off to the Elephant Camp to cut grass for them. \240Using machettis we worked in teams to cut the tall grass, bundle and tie. \240It was hot! \240Another 34 degree day with us in long pants and long sleeves because the grass was prickly. \240We finished this job and played with the elephants while waiting for lunch.

Before our second job we got to meet a six month old baby elephant! \240At first the other 3 elephants would not let the baby come close but after a few minutes they were okay and the little elephant was too curious not to come visit with us!

Second job for the day - no beer till the work is done - was filling bags with sand to help build a new clinic for sick elephants. \240Hot and tired we stopped at a little village and promptly bought some Chang beer to cool off! \240Work done for the day it was “beeroclock”.

After a long day of work in the hot sun we had dinner and hit the sack very tired!

One of the best mornings ever!!! We woke up had breaky and crossed the river to start our jungle walk with elephants. \240As we walked up a path a huge female elephant and her Mahoot joined the path in front of us... I was admiring her when just a few feet later a smaller younger male joined the walk... there were 5 elephants hiking through the forest with us. \240The young male was having fun just breaking branches for the hell of it while his Mahoot tried to get him to behave. \240We spent two hours side by side with the elephants in the jungle. \240I just cant describe how peaceful it was... best hike ever.

The afternoon was spent up close and personal with more elephants - first feeding them and then we walked to the mud pool to go in with them and rub mud all over their head and back to cool them off! \240A short muddy walk to the pond to swim with them while cleaning the mud off there backs.

The Internet cafe in town was a nice break, coffee and a cool breeze with 5G internet!

Back at camp a few of us walked through the village playing music on the iPhone while picking up litter to keep the streets clean. \240Hot and sweaty we got home to cold Chang beer, dinner and a quiet night in the camp. \240Amazing.

The Facts @ Elephants

Wednesday’s first activity was a class with a Professor / Vet from Thailand. \240He went over many facts about elephants and differences between Asian and Indian elephants. \240Some sobering facts - there are only 8000 elephants left in all of East Asia and none of them in the wild. \240The Bamboo camps rescue them from logging camps and entertainment jobs. \240They have holes and rips in their ears from the ropes used to steer them. \240They are NOT meant to be used for riding on their back - please do not ride elephants it breaks down their spines and they eventually die early because they can no longer walk. \240A single Mahoot riding on the neck is okay as they have strong necks. \240 \240Banhai was a 71 year old rescued lady from a logging camp... she let us measure and weight her as well as look for scars and count her toes. \240It was nice learning about these magnificent intelligent creatures.

After lunch we got back in our truck - 8 of us cozy in the back ... a little too cozy as we were now celebrating if one of us had a #2 ... all that rice takes some time to move if you know what I mean. \240We had an important job this afternoon to feed baby Charlie and his mama. \240Our driver Robert stopped on the side of the road with his machetti and cut down 5 huge banana branches... he loaded them on the top of the truck so that we could not see out the back as the leaves were hanging down... we made one more stop to pick up 4 bags of ripe bananas. \240The elephants were very happy to see us with all the food we brought! \240Baby Charlie was as cute as the last time we saw him!

I am so amazed at how close and intimate we were able to get with the elephants. \240Humbling...

The day was not over yet... another jungle walk with 3 elephants at a different camp. \240It was good we had a 4x4 truck as it was down in a valley with bumpy roads. \240We climbed up the mountain path with the elephants and then walked down to the river and waterfall below. \240My last hug with an elephant and again a magical walk in the forest.

How can anything else beat our time in Chaing Mai?

Goodbye Elephant Village

It was our last morning in the village, we took some final pics of our beautiful surroundings. \240Wow time went so fast... we jumped in the back of our Toyota 4x4 to our last adventure in Chaing Mai. \240Bamboo rafts were waiting for us when we arrived... Mom and I sat on very long narrow rafts and our guide used his pole to navigate down the river and between rocks and some mild rapids. \240It was magical, we pulled ahead of the crowd and it was just the three of us, the birds and the sound of water as we cruised down the river. \240

Off the raft we changed and got our take away lunch of fried veggie rice to eat as we bounced down the road in the back of our Toyota. \240The highways are wide with many motorcycles with people carrying just about anything you can imagine! \240We arrived at the airport - another flight... but it was uneventful and we were back in Bangkok and at our hotel in a few hours. \240

Dinner and drinks on the famously wild and crazy Khao San Road... a few too many Chang Beers, Mohitos and Vodka Tonics helped us sleep the night away.

Temples and Tuk Tuks in Bangkok

Hot, hot, hot... we started the day at the muesum learning about the history of Siam. \240The many kings of Siam were very wise striking bargains with the English, French and Japanese to prevent war. \240Free trade, gold, ingenuity and above all, humility served Thailand well over the years.

Democracy came in 1932 but the royal family is held in very high regard in Thailand. \240The monarchy serves the people by doing projects to improve living conditions. \240Education has always been a very important part of Thailand and each boy does one years in the army and 3 months at the monestary.

After we left the museum we had tiny pancakes filled with cream from a street vendor and then went to two temples. \240The first one had amazing architecture with four hallways off a center staircase going up to the top there were may hidden Buddha’s down narrow hallways. \240The next Temple - Bangkoks Temple in the Sky Golden Mount, was 344 steps to the top with bells all along chiming in the wind and many large gongs to ring - remember to hit it three times!. \240Mom and I bought golden leafs and wrote our family names on them to provide blessings and good luck. \240It was so hot and humid I poured my water over my head as the sweat was stinging my eyes. \240We were not discouraged by the heat dripping all the way to the top where we took in the Bangkok skyline.

Another crazy, fun Tuk Tuk ride home (price negotiated by our Thai guide Patty). \240A shower to wash away the sweat and then we hit the streets - Khao San Road and Rambuttri. Shops, street vendors, motorbikes, souvenirs, Tuk tuks, coconut ice cream, trucks delivering bags of rice and other supplies, back packers, cars, bars, laughing gas, tattoo parlours, restaurants, small shrines, balloons, lights, grafetti filled ally ways between Khao San Road and Rambuttri, buckets of alcohol, massage parlours (180 baht for 30 min!) deep fried bugs of all kinds and scorpions on sticks... the colours, sights and sounds of Bangkok. \240Mom and I split Pad Thai made fresh by a street vendor (much better than dinner!), had some vodka and tonics watching the sea of people from our air conditioned bar StrEATS. \240After dinner we walked around and took in the sights and sounds before heading back to Villa Cha Cha. \240The loud street music was our bedtime ambience - up at 5am to go to Cambodia!