Chiang Mai jungle, Thailand.

The elephants! We came to Thailand for the elephants. It was an auspicious and memorable 9th and golden birthday for Ari, on January 9th.

We learned from our tour guide, Minty, that nine is a lucky number is Thailand. In Thai, it sounds like the words for “moving forward,” “rice,” and “let’s go eat.” At 9:09 on 9-09-09 the whole country stood to sing the national anthem. On New Year’s Day, it’s popular to go 9-temple hopping for good luck. The license plate number 9999 sold for 11 million Thai baht (over $300k USD).

We felt like Spiderman, climbing the sticky waterfall. Minty surprised us with a luscious, orange sponge cake for Ari’s birthday. Our souvenirs are bookmarks we made from elephant poo paper.

But it was the elephants that blew us away. Massive in size, with personality, they flap their ears with delight. Their trunks are as nimble as fingers and they eat 10% of their body weight in bananas, sugar cane, and rice balls each day. Touching them, walking with them, feeding them, bathing them; every moment was a thrill. And the one-month-old elephant’s name? Lucky.

Making vitamin rice balls for the elephants

Cooling off in the river

Baby Lucky

Leo at the sticky waterfall