Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Early start for us today, trek bus picked us up at 8.30! We didn't even have time for breakfast L We were driven outside of Chiang Mai, one hour to the south, to an elephant trekking camp. We got on a mummy elephant and her baby only 6 months old followed us all the way as we went on a short trek through the jungle.
It was a wonderful experience as I've always wanted to ride on an elephant- at times it was a bit scary though as the 6 tonne elephant descended river banks. The elephant guide let me sit in his place on the elephant's neck, it was amazing!! I had to cling on for dear life and I apologise to the elephant for squeezing my legs so tightly but it was a long way to the ground.
The only thing we didn't like was the use of a wooden stick with a metal hook used to direct the elephant, I think it's a culture thing but we felt uncomfortable at the idea an animal might be caused pain for something as trivial as a tourist trek. We bought some bananas from a lady back at the camp and I made sure all the elephants got a reward for having worked so hard.
Thankfully it got cooler the higher we got. Next visit was to a hill tribe, the Karen tribe. This was the part we both hadn't wanted to participate in and it was probably worse than we had expected. The camp looked like a set and not lived in and the people were trying to sell you their goods and loads of them were obviously not hand made as we were told by our guide so it was a bit like a Disneyland moment.
The next part of the trek was nice, we walked alongside rice fields and saw water buffalo, and stopped at a waterfall to swim under it. We needed it just to cool down! Then lunch at a nearby restaurant where I befriended a nice Thai dog by giving him some chicken, he looked so hot and bothered.
Lastly, we finished the day bamboo rafting down the river. It was great even though the river was still very low at the start of the rainy season. Our guide even fell in!
In our search for a nice restaurant we passed a temple and I stopped to look, a nice Thai man with excellent English told us he lived there with his uncle and that he was studying economics at Chiang Mai University. He recommended we eat in 'Thai Hut' and go to the tailors to see the suits. Minutes later he'd hailed us a tuk tuk and we were at the restaurant being shown traditional thai dishes by the English speaking chef. I had a delicious red thai curry and Tobes had some sort of spicy shrimp and mushroom dish. Just down the road (Shridonchai Road) we went to 'Supreme Collection' tailors and ended up buying 2 suits for Tobes and one for me! We also visited the night market which is famous here but it wasn't a patch on the Sunday market. I did buy some nice jade earrings though. No street food though much to Toby's displeasure!
- comments