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Day 6
30th July 2013
Today we head off to Chaing Rai which is Bonds home town. On our way we have a stop at the Elephant conservation centre. We arrive at the elephant centre and are taken but giant golf cart to the platform where we will get onto our elephants. Each one has a wooden bench on its back for two people and one by one each couple get on their elephant and start heading off towards the jungle. I'm the last to get on and as our group has an odd number I get one all to myself, sat in the centre of the bench I'm like some kind of Indian king lol. We head down into the river and each elephant stops to have a photo taken. Then it's over to the other side and back up onto the bank and into the Jungle. The ride lasts about 20 minutes with everyone taking photos of each other as we head along the trail. When we disembark the photos of us are for sale for 200 baht ( £5 ) and everyone buys there photo. After we head across the road to another group of elephants and for 20 baht you can buy a pack of bamboo to feed to them. Some of the group do and whilst Tracey is standing looking at then one of them wipes his nose on her arm. Once every one has had photos of them-selfs feeding and striking the elephants they are taken into the river to be given a bath. The people who are riding them are tourists who have paid to stay at the centre for 3 days and learn how to ride and control them. After there bath every one heads off to the show area where a show is put on with the elephants doing different tricks like bowing, putting a hat back on someone's head and the most impressive part is painting pictures. These are better than I could do although that doesn't say much!
After the show its off to see the bay elephants and then onto the hospital before getting back on our mini vans and heading to Chaing Rai.
We arrive at our hotel and check in before heading out for a walk around the town and to visit the local food market. Hundreds of stalls selling all kinds of foods from fruit to pig noses. We head back towards the hotel and it starts to rain so we pop into a bar to have a drink and hopefully let the rain pass. We sit there with a nice cold beer chatting and Bond offers us some cooked chicken liver that he brought at the market to try. There was only one taker for this which was Francesca who gingerly takes a bite and starts to chew. She says its ok and tastes of chicken! Bond says he has to go and get a birthday cake for the Swiss girl who is 21 today, and borrows the bar owners moped and goes leaving us all at the bar. Before long everyone decides to go back to the hotel to get ready for dinner but I say I will stay and wait for Bond as he has left his beer and food at the bar. They all head back and I sit watching the world go by. After about 15 minutes Bond arrives back and sits down to finish his beer and then whilst we are chatting the heavens open and it pours down with rain. We decide to have another drink and see if it eases off. We sit chatting for sometime and finish our drinks and its still tipping it down so we borrow an umbrella from the bar and head back. The streets are starting to flood and I'm slowly getting wetter and wetter. By the time we get to the hotel iv given up standing under the umbrella as I'm pretty sure I can't get any wetter. As we arrive the group are all waiting in the Lobby in there rain macs waiting to go to dinner. I quickly go upstairs dry myself a little with a towel and grab some money and go back down. As I'm already wet it doesn't seem a lot of point putting my rain coat on so we all head out. The rain is still pouring down and I walk along ducking from the canopy one one shop to the next. We arrive at our restaurant just as the rain comes down even heavier and the lightning starts. We order out food and whilst eating Bond tells us that the street outside is flooded where the night market is. Some of us get up to have a look and the water is about 6 inches deep up to your ankles. The stall holders are all rushing about clearing their stock from the stalls and shutting down early and we return to our meals. After dinner some of the group go back to the hotel and the rest of us decide to have a wander around the stalls that are still open in the night market. We then decide to go for a drink before turning in for the night and decide to try the bar outside the hotel so if it starts raining again we don't have far to go. We get there and it's closed so head down towards the bar we had been at earlier. As we get down towards the end of the road we find it flooded and even the paths here are under water so we turn round and got to a bar called " Hangover corner ". This bar is owned by an English guy but with Thai staff. We are given the drinks menu and we try and order some of the cocktails from it. Every one we ask for we are told that they don't have so in the end we ask what they do have the answer is beer or spirits. I opt for a beer and we all sit chatting. Whilst Jackie is chatting to Francesca I take the rubber cockroach out of my pocket that I had brought to scare Tracey with and flick it across the table. It lands on top of Jackies phone and Francesca points to it. Jackie looks down gives a little scream and slaps my arm. We finish our drinks and go back to the hotel for a good nights sleep before our long multi country trip tomorrow.
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