The Last Few Days in Chiang Mai // All words by Caellum, Photographs by Theresa or Caellum

When I was in Chiang Mai, I got to do Muay Thai kickboxing. The second time I went, we arrived 30 minutes early. That meant I had to warm up for 30 minutes. I did 155 tire jumps and then spent a lot of time stretching.

We punched the bag for one minute, then had to do 10 pushups and situps. We had to do that 3 times. My stomach muscles hurt the next day.

I got to share a bag with the owners son, who is good at kickboxing. He has won many fights. He is 10, I got to train with him today. It was a lot of fun.

The next day, I got to learn how to cook Thai food.

My mom and I made green curry paste, which we used to make our green curry. Mine was delicious, and mom’s was spicy. Then we made prawn and coconut milk soup. My mom did not like hers because it was too hot. My Dad made spicy chicken soup. He put 15 chiles in his and he said it was very spicy.

We made a lot more food, and it was a lot of fun. This was my second favourite thing we’ve done. Hong Kong Disney was my favourite so far.

My last day in Chiang Mai, we went to an elephant rescue centre. The bring elephants that have been treated badly here, so they can live free.

I got to feed the elephants watermelon. They were very hungry, we fed them more watermelons than I have ever seen.

We then got to tour around where the elephants live.

One of the elephants that was rescued had an injured food because she stepped on a landmine. I didn’t know what a landmine was until now. Another elephant we saw had a broken hip and walked weird, it was used by people to ride on.

We then went for a vegetarian lunch, it was not good at all. My mom bought me a bag of chips instead.

Our guide Dino wrote my name in Thai on my arm, that was pretty cool.

Mom got lots of mosquito bites, she was scratching like crazy and she even used bug spray.

After lunch, we got to see the elephants bathe in the river. It’s weird that they bathe, then get out of the water and throw mud and dirt on themselves.

Then we went back to the hotel.