A routine challenge to myself is to keep an open mind and an unwavering sense of adventure. This has ultimately lead to the development of a quite the long bucket list of exotic destinations I want to travel to. People often ask, “why would you want to go there?” and I simply respond with, “well why not?” Relatedly, the older I get, the more I realize that the ‘apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree’ and much of my adventurousness and “always yes” attitude can be attributed to my mother – so who better to travel the globe with?
In this past year, I decided my next trip was going to be Southeast Asia and there was not a question that part of my travels would be spent alongside my mom. I knew having my mom as a travel buddy was going to be the best for a variety of reasons, but what I couldn’t have predicted was just how open to everything and downright adventurous she would be. While our trip had too many highlights to count, some of the best moments were the ones where I looked over at my mom, seeing her out of her element, taking on adventures and loving every second of doing new things side-by-side.
1. Climbing the Dragon Stairs to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep — Fighting the tiredness of 30+ hour travel day and jetleg, my mom and I started our trip with the climb to the top of the 306-step staircase leading to Wat Doi Suthep. Even though there is the choice of a lift to the top, we didn’t want to miss the experience of climbing the Naga staircase.
2. Trying “Thai Hot”, thanks to the Birds Eye Chili — My mom always jokes that I don’t cook and… she is a little right. So we took on the Thai Farm Cooking school, which picked us up in Chiang Mai and took us to the markets to buy ingredients, and then to the farm to gather organic Thai herbs, including the spicy birds eye chili, before jumping into cooking a multi-course Thai meal.
3. Swimming in the Mork Fah Waterfalls — On our drive from Chiang Mai to Pai, we stopped at the Doi Suthep-Doi Pui National Park and hiked to the waterfalls. After the hike, we immediately jumped into the pools under the waterfalls for a refreshing swim before starting on the rest of the dizzying 762-turn drive to Pai.
4. Riding a Bamboo Raft through the Caves — Following our guide with a small lantern, my mom and I traversed through the Tham Lod Caves outside of Pai. It’s safe to say that I was definitely more scared than she was, with fish the size of my thigh bumping against the bamboo raft and the small scraping noises of bats hanging overhead. When hiking back to our car, we crossed a bamboo bridge that was not for the faint of heart.
5. Exploring the canyons and streets of Pai — One of the highlights of our trip was hands down the town of Pai, in northwest Thailand. In our time exploring Pai, we hiked canyons, swam in hot springs, flew on a giant swing and more.
6. Riding an Elephant — The bucket list experience of a lifetime: riding through the jungles of Thailand on an elephant with your mom by your side. Through Patara Elephant farm, we signed up to be elephant trainers for the day. Throughout the day, we were given an elephant to interact with and take on the responsibilities that their owner would complete on a daily basis. Even though my mom was nervous at first around such huge animals, and even though she was the oldest person in our group, she and I both jumped right in and embraced the experience.
7. Riding in the back of a tuk tuk… to a Secret Beach — Not many moms that I know would haggle with a tuk tuk bus driver, then hop in the back to have him take you to the secret beaches of Koh Samui. We spent a day on this beautiful island toting our beach bags, hopping from beach to beach, and stopping at small restaurants to indulge in local eats.
8. Kayaking and snorkeling in sea caves — We took a boat out to Ang Thong National Marine Park where we explored hidden lagoons and snorkeled into secret caves filled with schools of fish—the natural light shining down exposing life below the surface.
Having my mom as not only a travel partner but a full-on adventure partner was an experience that will provide stories for the rest of my life and an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything. I can’t emphasize enough the exhilaration of choosing a destination, getting out there, and exploring the unknown with your mom by your side.
This article was written by Lindsey O’Connell, see more of her photos on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/lindzococo/.
This trip looks wonderful! Are you able to share your itinerary?
I was really enjoying this article until I came to "riding an elephant." Having recently seen the wonderful documentary film "Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story", I’ve become aware that riding elephants is always and without exception a bad thing. Contrary to public opinion, elephants are wild animals, not domesticated, and must be "broken" at a very young age in order that they will allow a human to sit on their back. They are broken, as tiny babies, with a sadistic contraption called a "Crush Box". Please, please watch the film and do some research about the use of elephants as tourist attractions. ANY elephant that allows a rider or performs an act such as painting a picture, has been cruelly treated behind the scenes to do that activity. There is a great deal of money at stake for the elephant handlers and therefore it is in their best interest to hide the cruel reality from the public. There is a WONDERFUL true elephant sanctuary in Chiang Mai called Elephant Nature Park. It is a "true" sanctuary…the elephants there have all been rescued from the riding camps, logging trade, circuses, etc. and are NEVER ridden by tourists or asked to perform work of any kind. Partly because of the success of Elephant Nature Park, many fake "sanctuaries" have popped up all over Thailand and they seem very legitimate until you dig under the surface a bit. The reality is that an elephant can only be ridden by a human if it’s been sadistically broken as a baby. If you ride, you perpetuate this cruelty.
Shannon and Dina,
Prior to taking this trip, choosing an elephant sanctuary was a huge decision that my mom and I went back and forth on on several occasions. We were between visiting Elephant Nature Park as you mentioned, and Patara. We ended up choosing Patara for several reasons.
They adopt/rescue elephants from living conditions such as circuses and illegal logging camps.
They focus seriously on health recovery for elephants and natural breeding management to increase the elephant population. (Nearly half of the elephant population disappeared in the last 40 years, which is half of a generation.)
Seventeen of their elephants were born in the last nine years and most of their female elephant are now pregnant. (Seven babies were born between 2011-2012.)
They’ve been operating for ten years with no deaths on record because of their healthcare program and daily elephant activities.
Eight of their elephants were set free into a natural habitat and they are all doing well. (elephantreintroduction.org)
They provide more open land for elephants than any other place. (Highest area per elephant population.)
They are the only elephant place in Asia that, everyday, has less visitors than their elephant population number.
They provide upscale interaction with elephants in terms of quality and flexibility in length of time for their guests.
Their program is well established and 100% self-created while many other elephant companies recently opened and try to imitate them.
Riding an elephant is safe when done correctly, however in most areas of Asia it is NOT done properly. Behaviors unnatural to the elephants like painting or tricks like you mentioned are ones that perpetuate this cruelty, however I did not see this or experience this being at Patara. I encourage everyone to research and make an ethical choice when visiting any elephants in Southeast Asia, which I feel that myself and my mom did.
I urge you to do just a little research into how bad elephant riding is and please put a disclaimer in that part of your article so others can learn from your mistake. Other than that it was a lovely story.
I encourage you to read my response to Dina on our choice!
Your trip with your mother looks amazing. Thank you for sharing.
Looking forward to visiting some of the same places.
I apologize for saying anything negative and I don’t voice my opinion online but I agree with Shannon and Dina. Please help the Elephant population.
I encourage you to read my response to Dina on our choice!
Aww! How wonderful that you could take such an amazing trip like that! I am going with my son and daughter in November and can hardly wait! Groupon had such a sweet deal, that I couldn’t resist! Thank you for sharing those great pictures too!!