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The train to Chiang Mai seemed okay, the chairs were simple and comfy.......when they stayed in one position, they appeared to recline alot. When we booked the tickets we oppted for air con, as the open window and fan option we had on the previous train trip was slightly unpleasant. Eventually the air con lost its icey coldness and we had to turn the fans on too. The journey was nice and we got to see alot of country side, rice and corn fields, jungles and watched the sunset over the mountains. Inside the train is a different story, various creaks, squeaks, bangs, groans and ticks made it seem like we were in the jungle.
In typical thai fashion we arrived in Chiang Mai an hour late. We got in a songakeaw, (like a tuk tuk but made from a pick up truck) to take us to our guest house. Its called the Panda House, the room is huge and has a tv with english speaking channels, the downside is you had to share the bathroom with a colony of ants.
We had a day to chill out on and do a bit more exploring. looking at the map we picked the closest temple and headed out. after walking down numerous back allys, some back tracking and stopping for lunch, in a cozy coffee house, we managed to find the temple. Wat Chiang Man houses a crystal buddha, after all the buddhas we had seen we were slightly disappointed in its size, about 20cms tall and was hidden behind much larger buddhas. All was not lost the temple had a saving grace in the form of a monument, a golden spire supported by elephants. Maz also managed to find the illusive jade elephant charm for her bracelet.
The next day we headed off to the Elephant Nature Park for 2 days. This is an amazing place that rescues old, injured, retired working elephants. most of the elephants have a sad story. Two came from burma that had stepped on land mines, some came from the logging industry that is now illegal in thailand. One elephant inparticular had a sad story. she used to work in the thai logging industry, she was pregnant and gave birth whilst walking up a steep hill, she was unable to save the baby as it rolled down the hill, from there she decided that she wouldnt work. Her owners tried to froce her back to work by using slingshots, aimed at her eye. this blinded one eye. when she still refused to work they stabbed her other eye. Jokia was luckily rescued by Lek (founder of elephant nature park). she was instantly befriended by Mae Perm who became her eyes, to this day they are still inseperable.
If anybody visits thailand, a trip to the elephant nature park is highly recommended. Not only do you get to feed, bathe and observe all the elephants in a natural habitat, you are also supportting an amazing project.
Whilst we were there we had an amazing time, Maz got a slobbery kiss from one elephant and Ryan got sneezed on by another. We also discovered that whilst elephants may appear to be graceful, majestic creatures they make hideous noises whilst eating. We stayed over night, to maz's delight her best sleep ever but Ryan's worst. We put this down to the noisey elephant neighbours. although we had a mosquito net around the bed we were bombarded by bettles, one managed to find maz's belly button for an early morning cuddle, how it go under the covers we dont know!!!.
The second day was equally as amazing as the first. In the morning we headed out to feed some elephants in the park before the tourist groups arrived. Armed with a picnic basket loaded with bananas and an entourage of dogs it didn't take long for the elephants to find us, eat all the bananas, search our pockets and any where else a banana may fit, snot on our backs and walked off in search of more treats. We also saw how intelligent the elephants are. The vets loaded pineapple halves with tablets but the elephants some how managed to eat the pineapple and spit out the tablets, all intacked. Vitamin balls suffered a similar fate, cleverly crumbled apart. However one elephant wasn't so picky and ate the tablets left behind by her friend. In the afternoon we got to bathe the elephants, and any one else nearby. We went for a casual tubing adventure, advised by the park staff to keep an eye out for crocodiles. We didnt get off to a great start, ryan got wedged between 2 rocks whilst the others floated easily away. The river was slow and shallow in places which meant either being beached in the shallows or having your bum scraped over sharp pointy rocks. Dispite this it was a lovely trip, relaxing with picturesque mountain views, with a couple of elephants thrown in. Ryan even managed to keep his sunglasses. We arrived back just in time to see the baby elephants play in the river. Not all the elephants like the dogs, we discovered this as we had to run out of the way as the baby elephant chased them into our path. Unfortunately Ryan ran in the opposite direction than the rest of the group and had to do a quick two step to get out the way again. After this little incident we made it back to the main building to beat our first tropical storm.
Woweee the trekking was a crazy idea but turned out to be an amazing experience. Setting of from the hostel we got picked up by Jungle Man.........his real name............we'l never know. Before we headed into the jungle we stopped off at quite litterally an elephant layby. Grabbing some bananas we climbed onto the back of an elephant, luxury seating is definately not inlcuded and the safety bar wouldn't be allowed even on theme park ride. Going down hill was a joy trying not to slip under the bar, knocking the guide off in the process. Every so often we were able to feed the elephant some of the bananas, only because he stopped and wouldn't walk any more until he had some. The others in the group seemed to enjoy it, even with one elephant sneezing on them and another stopped to scratch its belly on a termites hill, rocking them back and forth, we laughed very hard.
With the riding over we headed off to a waterfall. It was nice to jump into the cold water in the mid day heat and sitting under the waterfall getting a nice watery massage before heading into the jungle for 3 days. After a rice lunch we adventured off into the jungle, our guide Jungle Man stopped every so often picking fruits, berries and leaves for us to eat and smell, some leaves even produced bubbles if the stem was broken in the right way. Jungle Man always kept telling us "don't try try don't know". After we were half way up the first hill we looked at each other questioning whether this was a good idea, hoping that the first 3 hours of walking wasn't going to be all up up up up up hill. We had a quick stop to drink water at a small shack, and a small snack of jungle mango, quite small, green and very sour. Pit stop over more trekking followed. We made it to our first hill tribe village. The Karen tribe. We were shown our luxury accommodation, a shed with 8 beds, well 8 thin mattresses on the floor drapped with a holey mosquito net. We were told "no shower no dinner", we discovered it wasn't a shower but buckets full of water and an ice scoop, the same scoop was also used to flush the toilet. Jungle Man cooked us a basic but beautifully made green curry, which suprisingly had chicken not something he had caught on the way. Once dinner was out of the way we enjoyed the company of the group under candle light, no electricity out this far in the jungle. Our group compromised of us, 2 french girls, 2 austrian girls and a french canadian couple. We were informed earlier in the day that kids from the village would sing us some songs, which they did, all in Karen tribal dialogue, we were then sprung with the suprise of having to sing back to them. Not as a group which but in our home languages, luckily the french and the canadians spoke the same language so they got away with it lightly and sang as a quartet. We sang (or shouted) row row row your boat, possibly not the nursery version as we both sang different endings, followed by wheels on the bus. The kids applauded, although we don't thnk they were that impressed. When we had all finished the kids shook ours hands and we said tablou kado, very big thank you in Karen. We had a rap party to celebrate our musical on the spot genius, luckily they had beers and cokes available on site. During the celebration, the conversation stemmed around tribal life, how they lived, the kids had to walk 3kms to school and the same back. Out of nowhere a tribes man joined us, with a birds head in his hand, offering us a piece of brain. We all had a piece, some looked slightly disgusted, some not so bothered, some one asked what bird it was and he replied "owl", followed with a "hoot" just to make sure we knew which bird he was talking about. We then discussed what else they eat, the response was "any thing that moved" and how much of it they eat "everything, bones too, lots of calcium". To prove a point they then shook apart a red ants nest "the eggs are the best" apparently. They were cooked over the remains of the fire, no marsh mellows on offer, just ants, lemon tasting ants. Jungle Man took some of us hunting, armed with a head torch, empty water bottle and a knife "for the monkeys" we headed into the rice padi's below. Jungle Man excelled at catching frogs, crickets and even an eel. After the hunting was done he then prepared the frogs claiming they were for breakfast.
He handn't lied about the frog breakfast, acompanied by toast and a boilled egg, some had all but some could only manage the toast claiming it was too early to eat the wild life. After the hearty breakfast we headed off out to help planting some rice seeds in a freshly cleared plot of jungle. Apparently there's 2 different types of rice, field and padi. The field is also used for vegetables as self sufficency is the main goal of the tribe. We did our part in the planting of rice and were told to come back to help again next year. We said good bye to the workers, headed back to the shed collected our bags and headed back off into the jungle. We walked for a few hours over streams and through rice padi's, using thin planks of wood or rocks as our bridges, picking berrys, eating leaves, making hats and fans before we got to out lunch site, noodle soup was on offer another delicious meal. We had time for an impromtu nap before the rain started and our trekking continued. Eventually we made it to a clearing, next to a small waterfall. This we found out was to be our camp for the night. Another shed, this time no mattress, or pillows, just blankets with some more holey mosquito nets. We also had a jungle shower, a bit more 'showery' than the previous but even more refreshing. The evening activites included, hand-foot-ball, a sling shot shooting range, bottles and cans on sticks planted into the river bank, lazing in hamocks and the austrian version of uno. After dinner was duely dispatched the camp fire was lighted and we all grouped around it. Jungle Man kept disappeared off into the darkness returning with speared crickets, a crab and another eel, once bbqued claimed "everything tastes like chicken" followed by a cheeky, infectious giggle. Another hunting party ensued returnoing with more frogs to bbq for breakfast. Luckily no frogs apeared for breakfast, but we were told we had to cook our own breakfast jungle style, over the fire. We didn't have to go off and catch the bread though thankfully. The final walk was mostly down hill, a relief after 2 days of up hill. We had another short stop at a waterfall, not as amazing as the first waterfall but still very impressive. Fuelled on even more frogs we carried on to our pick up point, a jungle 7 eleven. Cramed into the back of a pick up we headed to the last part of the trip, bamboo rafting. The captains no more than 14 years old found it amusing slapping the bamboo steering pole on the water soaking his pasangers, claiming it was crocodile, or leaning over in an attempt to capsize the raft, followed with an "oooops". We had to get off half way along the river so they could guide the raft through some rapids, we had to scrammble over some rocks to meet the rafts on the other side. Once back on we floated past other river users, saying "sawadee ka", we seemed to be the afternoon entertainment. With that we disembarked the vessels, waved bye bye to our young captains and headed back to Chiang Mai............tired, achey, worn out and wet.
To use Jungle Man's favourite phrase, "Oh my Buddha, i need an elephant massage"
- comments
Anne Thomas Enjoyed reading your blog. What a great experience you are both having, wish I were young again
Tim Williams Hey you two, looks like your both having a good time, we're enjoying your blogs and photo's, keep it up please. By the way you never mentioned wether either of you had tasted any the Thai jungle delights xxxxxxx
Kudret Elephants, like most herbivores, have syiotbimc bacteria in their gut that helps them break down their food. They are not born with these bacteria the only way for a calf to get them is to eat the faeces of its mother or other elephants. Some of the bacteria are excreted with the faeces, and by eating them the calf acquires the essential bacteria.Also, an elephant's digestive system is not very efficient. What comes out is not that much different from what goes in it still contains some nutritional value that the gut failed to extract. Therefore, an elephant can eat another elephant's (or its own) dung and gain some good from it. In order to compensate for this digestive inefficiency, elephants have to eat almost round the clock to ensure they get enough nutrition from their food.