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Day 1 - 24/03/09
After a 5 hour journey in the local bus, we finally got to the Riverside guest house. We freshened up and went to the restaurant owned by the guesthouse owners that was 5 mins away. After dinner we all got back and played cards overlooking the river.
Day 2 - 25/03/09
After an early breakfast we headed to the elephant conservation centre. We watched the elephants bathing. After that we watched a show, where they explained how elephants are used in the logging industry and also demonstrated the elephants agility and intelligence. Elephants can turn around on a log without stepping on the ground. We also saw the elephants playing instruments (they played the elephant song, we could barely even remember the first line!!!), turning on and off water pipes and painting!!! I still say that humans can't be taught how to paint, so how do they teach an elephant??? The paintings were amazing, Matt and Anna are the proud owners of one of them!!! After the show we fed the elephants bananas and sugarcane. Then we went to the Elephant hospital, run by a charity - Friends of the Asian Elephant. This was very emotional - we saw Mosha, a 2 yr old elephant who had been brought here after steppping on a landmine, she has now got aprosthetic leg and is doing very well. Motala is an adult elephant who stepped on a landmine, she is in the guiness book of world record as having had the longest operation, she now has a prosthetic leg but she's not getting used to it.
There was one female elephant who lost her baby giving birth to it on New Years eve when the umbilical cord broke. She was in the hospital as the placenta was still in the womb :(
After the hospital visit and seeing a video, we went back for an elephant ride. I had the pleasure of riding with Terry from Rockferry. It was one bumpy ride and very discomforting as there is just a rope that secures us on the back of the elephant, if that snapped it was quite a drop!!! We were behind Jemma and Lisa and their elephant was pretty excited whilst ours was suffering from flatulence lol!!!
We went to see how they make elephant dung paper, it was pretty interesting, but luckily the dung is washed and sterilized hence no smell!!!
After lunch we went to the Sankhampang hot springs, we dipped our feet in the water - the guys being guys went for the 45 degree hot water whilst the girls being sensible opted for cooler water! Then we went to the pool and swam in the hot spring water after which we got foot massages.
From here we went to Aoiy's homestay, abt 35 kms away from Chiang Mai. We were treated to a homecooked Thai meal which was so delicious, whilst we had dinner we had the local school band come play us thai music. After dinner Ae taught us Thai dancing and then we had a go at playing the instruments, they look a lot easier then they were. Gone are my dreams at ever having any hidden talents of playing any form of musical instruments!!! We then went outside where we watched traditional Thai dancing whilst we got neck and shoulder massages (all these massages were fab!!!) after the dances we all signed and let off a chinese lantern into the heavens above!!!
Then we went to the front room where Matt, Lisa, Dave and I started playing Jenga, some of the others played dominoes and uno and the Terry and the Rockferrians got the guitar and continued writing the second part to 'Fly fly fly Singapore, egg noodles and so much more......'
Day 3 - 26/02/09
We were up early to go to the local temple to give the monks food. Aoiy explained what we should and shouldn't do. After giving food, we received blessings from the monks. Went back to have breakfast and went on a cycling tour of the village. It was brilliant seeing rural Thailand!!!
Went to the local Wat (temple) where Aoiy told us about the culture and way of life, traditions, western influence etc. Went to a mushroom farm where we were shown how they grow mushrooms and got to pick our mushrooms for lunch. Then we went to the local kindergaten, where Boi (Aoiy's daughter) studies. We played with the kids for a while, sang nursery rhymes and taught them the alphabet the ferrang way!!! it was so much fun.
We stopped at a women's handicraft centre before heading back for lunch and then heading to Chiang Mai.
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