A mini bachelorette with a fellow bride-to-be. We flew north, ate our weight in Esarn food, bathed rescued elephants and chased waterfalls up a mountain.
By Dee Gerodias Gilbert · Oct 10, 2026 · 7 min read
July 2018. I’d just flown back to Bangkok from an Ed Tech summit in Hong Kong, still running on conference coffee, when my friend Kimy and I decided we deserved a trip of our own.
Kimy had recently got engaged too, and was living in Bangkok like me. Two brides-to-be, one long weekend, no wedding talk allowed (mostly). We flew north to Chiang Mai, and it turned into part 1 of my bachelorette. Part 2, with the girls in Australia, came seven months later.
- Before · July 2018Hong KongAn Ed Tech summit for work
- Part 1 · July 2018Chiang MaiElephants, mountains and Kimy
- Part 2 · February 2019Australia →Sydney, Melbourne, Hamilton Island
Free to roam, free to play
Kanta buys elephants from camps in the area where they’re forced to perform, carry tourists on their backs, and are chained and whipped. Here they’re cared for and left to roam and play. Our entry fee to feed and bathe them doesn’t even cover the running costs, so every visitor and every donation helps them rescue one more.
Visit Kanta Elephant Sanctuary →Sugarcane for the gentle giants
We arrived at Kanta through a tunnel of yellow lanterns and went straight to feeding time. Did you know you can tell an elephant’s age from the brown spots on its skin? The more spots, the older they are. A little like us. One of ours was almost 60, and the youngest was a playful six-year-old.
Splash zone
Then into the river with buckets and brushes. The elephants loved it. They loved it even more when they got to spray us back. There was no staying dry, and nobody wanted to.
Cold peaks and waterfalls
Next we went up Doi Inthanon, the highest peak in Thailand, where two beautiful shrines honour a king and his queen. We came down through the jungle: slippery slopes, muddy feet and happy hearts. Add a grand canyon and more waterfalls than we could count.
Esarn food and old walls
In between, we ate. Som tam, crispy pork and sticky rice, Esarn style, plus morning coffee at the rice barn where we stayed. Then a wander past the old Tha Phae Gate for a few exotic trinkets to take home.
We flew home muddy, sunburnt and full, with a bag of exotic trinkets and a lot of elephant hair on our clothes. It was the gentlest possible start to a very busy year of wedding planning.
If you’re heading to Chiang Mai, please choose a sanctuary where the elephants are free. You’ll leave with better memories, and so will they.
Warmly, Dee ♥︎
