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Our night bus wasn't too bad as the seats reclined very far and we had a cushion and a blanket, the only problem was the crying baby on board and the Thai horror film that was playing. We were given breakfast; a nice cake and then a roll filled with curry sauce, which both of us left. It was 6am and our hostel wasn't open yet so we got some rest on the street before being let in and shown to our tents - our home for the next 3 nights!! The tent was comfortable and we had our own fans as it was indoor camping, the hostel was lovely and had the nicest owners who learnt our names and it was a family environment, they were even cooking for everyone later that evening. We needed to make to most of our time here so after brunch we hoped in a taxi and headed to Tiger Kingdom! You could chose to pay to have your pictures with a big, medium, small or baby Tiger, we were feeling brave so paid for the big Tiger. We then saw the tigers and they were BIG, despite them being very sleepy/drowsy they wern't chained up and it didn't feel too cruel but didn't help us with how safe we felt.
A guide took us in and we took it in turns to pose with 4 different big tigers, it was amazing to stroke them and lay on them when we were allowed. I was very aware that it was a wild animal though so didn't completley relax and neither of us particularily enjoyed laying on the tiger with its tail draped over us, which was very heavy!! It was a great experience and we spent the rest of the afternoon watching them from a safe distance, the babies were very cute and there was even a lone lion in the complex too! The journey through the night was catching up on us so we headed back and the food they had cooked for us was amazing, lots of variety and they only asked for a small donation. We then went to our favourite location, a night market and had some gelato whilst watching Thai dancers.
Another early morning for us as it was our day trekking with the Elephants. We were picked up at 8.30am and given and sheet of paper so we could learn the Elephant language for our Mahout training. A stop was made to show us how they recycle Elephant dung to make paper products, which was very impressive, and then a market stop to buy bananas and pineapple for the elephants so that they would be friends with us!! When we arrived it was amazing to see the Elephants and one very cute baby so close up and we were given a change of clothes for the day. After learning about the Elephants we got to feed them briefly before spending the morning in Elephant School. Our guide brought out 3 elephants and we went through the different commands of how to instruct the Elephants, we learnt stop 'Yood'' first of all! Then it was our turn to practise getting on and off them, first up by making them lift their leg for us to stand on, holding onto their ear and pulling ourselevs up. The other alternative, which was much easier, was having them bow down their heads holding onto the ears and then when they lifted their head with us on it we coud use the trunk to climb up. Hilarious and very unladylike but it was amazing that they listened and didn't mind any of it as we literally grabbed onto what we could and used the trunk as a slide on the way back down. We were assured this didn't hurt them at all and they can carry 2 tons so I doubt they could feel us anyway! We mastered the commands of left, rigth, forwards and back and had them turning in circles and got used to sitting on the head of an elephant, we should probably point out that we had no harness or rein and anything to hold on to apart from balancing on it's head!! We rewarded our elephants with more fruit and the guide made us both keep our hand inside the elephants mouth as it used it gigantic tongue to squash the banana and our hand. After washing our hands we had a great lunch and were eager to get going again as we were riding the elephants and washing them down in the afternoon. We managed to wait for the best elephant and both got onboard, the people there were very chilled and when it went off for a stroll with us they didn't mind at all, we were not as calm!! Riding through the beautiful scenery so high up was absolutley amazing, we tried to take in the fact that we were sitting on an elephant's back and both felt incredibly lucky and happy to be doing it. We learnt that our Elephant had a mind of its own and liked to wander and eat lots along the way but we made it eventually to the river, where we slid off its back and into the not so clean and cold water. Our group on the trek had 4 elephants and guides and we cooled them down by throwing buckets of water over them, the guides found it hilarious to do the same over our heads too! One elephant even blew the water out of its trunk and we loved it, they use a plant to scrub them down to so we gave her a good beauty session! Back on the elephant we were soon being taken into a mud pool to do more beauty treatments, again the guide loved getting us just as muddy and we let our Elephant go off after a sad goodbye. After washing off the mud, in the poo infested river, we both said that this was one of the best experiences and the best day we had ever had, and the more we look through the photos the more we love them!
Our last day in Chiang Mai was spent looking around the temples which were impressive but it was very hot so we rewarded ourselves. We went to the ladies prison where they train the women Thai massgae for their rehabilitation and they were all lovely and very sweet. We paid about 2 pounds for an hours massage and it was amazing, both of our backs cracked and we felt so good after and another buffet dinner was served up. We spent our last evening in a rooftop bar talking about how much we both love Chiang Mai and the time we spent here.
We hope to have an Elephant waiting for us at Heathrow now as well as the 4x4, Lots of love Amy and Megs, and our new wild friends!! xxxxxx
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