Last Wednesday was an early start as I had a full day of exciting adventures ahead of me. I was invited to visit the Suan Thai Cultural Village in Pattaya. We were greeted by the management and staff of the village upon arrival and they explained to me how they work and what they do. The purpose of the day was for me to experience a small taste of Thai culture while being filmed and taking part in a photoshoot.

Before I had to change for my first shoot, I got to check off one of my bucket list items. I got to “meet” an elephant in real life. Elephants and giraffes are my favorite animals, so this was a dream come true. The baby elephant was so adorable and I could not get enough of hugging him and feeding him. They are incredible creatures and it made me so happy to be close to one.

Changing into Thai traditional wear is always an experience and I had a whole team who helped me to get ready. After starting the shoot, we headed to the theater to enjoy a traditional Northern Thai lunch while enjoy their spectacular cultural show. It was great to get a taste of so many different dishes with unique flavors.
The rest of the afternoon we spend filming around the cultural village and I got to go on stage with the performers in my second outfit of the day. In Thailand, people really know how to put on a show. It’s very theatrical and colorful and I was honored to share the stage with the amazing performers. In between, shoots I ran back to my new love, the baby elephant, every time I could. I also got to spend time with some of the bigger elephants. It was important to me to know that they are loved and well taken care of like all living beings deserve.

After tasting some of the delicious Southeast Asian fruits, like mangosteen and durian and lots of mango (my favorite), we headed to The Glass House beach club in Pattaya to enjoy the beautiful sunset there. I am a true island girl, so it was great being close to the ocean again. I love nature and it was a bit sad for me to see some pollution, especially plastic pollution there. I hope to return to Thailand to do a project to help conserve the environment for our future generations.