Lots of Elephants and a Novel Use for Bamboo!

From Sukhothai we stopped off at Lampang for a night with the purpose of going to the Elephant Conservation Centre the next morning.  We really enjoyed wondering around Lampang and soaking up the relaxed atmosphere in our half-day there. We saw some impressive Wats which a helpful man came out of his house to point us in the right direction for, got some free coconut, poppy seed wafers from a street stall that we bought a drink from and had a fantastic meal at Aroy One Baht which does lots of small Thai dishes for dirt cheap prices!

We arrived at The Elephant Conservation Centre the next morning in time to see the Elephants bath time and we both received a kiss or two from one Elephant! It was just like having a hoover attached to your cheek! Once they are all scrubbed and clean the Elephants then put on a forty minute show which began with an Elephant raising a flag and ended with three of the Elephants painting! As part of the show they demonstrated the more traditional uses for trained Elephants in the logging trade and all the things they can do with logs which included carrying them using their tusks, building pyramids with them, pushing them about using their feet or trunks, balancing on them and dragging them behind them with the help of a harness. In 1989 the logging trade was banned in Thailand. As a result of this ban a lot of trained Elephants and their Mahouts (trainers) became jobless and this is why these Elephant rescue centres now exist to provide for the Elephants through tourism.

After enjoying the Elephant show we then waited over an hour on the highway to Chiang Mai for a bus to pick us up in the scorching mid-day heat. Upon looking up we saw a fairly rare occurrence called a Sun Dog which we initially thought was either:

A) The end of the World by giant asteroid

B) A huge gap in the O-Zone layer

C) A UFO

A Sun Dog

Luckily Google later proved it was none of those things but it is a phenomenon caused by sunlight hitting atmospheric ice crystals at the right angles which then creates bright spots of light in the sky. In this case it looks like a circular rainbow!

Upon reaching Chiang Mai and checking into our Guesthouse we were overwhelmed with the choice of jungle treks, hill tribe visits, white-water rafting trips and other activities on offer. We could have even fired a shotgun at a shooting range if we’d have wanted to! Eventually we decided upon a two day jungle trek which was recommended to us back on the Nepal Kayaking course by Andrew and Shereen who did a very similar three day version. The trek included a 40 minute Elephant ride, a night in a hill-tribe village, a ‘White-Water cruise’ and a bamboo raft ride down the river.

Trekking through the jungle was spectacular, although it got very, very wet! Trekking through sheets of rain in the open rainforest made me feel like I was in an episode of Lost! Our guides were great characters who made us all laugh and we were with a really fun group of people. The Elephant ride wasn’t as good as Nepal’s Elephant safari however it was still fun to go on a 20 minute circular route (extended to 40 minutes with long stops in the mid-day heat due to somebody complaining it wasn’t long enough before our trip). We were on the biggest Elephant who was so greedy! Four bananas, five bananas, six bananas all eaten in 30 seconds! His trunk just kept appearing and if we tried to space the bananas out he’d start snuffling other Elephants riders to get more! It was really funny to watch.

The overnight stay in a bamboo hut was lovely; drifting off to sleep with heavy rain drumming down on the thin roof was a great experience.

The next day we went on a downhill walk for about an hour from the village then went swimming in a waterfall and river. The waterfall was really powerful and did feel like you were getting hit by hail stones as but it was worth it to cool down! Another hour’s walk brought us to where we would be doing the white water rafting from.

After a brief safety talk we boarded our rafts and set off! It was a great introduction to white water rafting and was so much easier than Kayaking as the leader does most of the work by steering or so it seemed! I very nearly fell out at one point as the raft quite severely bent in the middle but both Kat and I managed to stay in for the whole trip. Unlike the group of Germans and there leader who were determined to go in the water as many times as possible much to the amusement of the rest of us! Once the river became a bit calmer we swapped to a bamboo raft that seemed to sink a few inches below the water with five of us on it! It was buoyant enough to get us down the rest of the river though where we then disembarked and had lunch before being driven back to our guesthouses. All in all it was a brilliant two days we had in the jungle.

The same evening that we returned to Chiang Mai we went to the Sunday Walking Street where they close a massive street in the middle of the Old City from 4pm till midnight and thousands of stalls get set up. We spent about four hours wondering around, buying bits here and there, trying food whenever we felt like it and watching the street performers! In the end we got driven off by extremely heavy rain but we had great fun there.

Yesterday both Kat and I got tattoos done in the traditional Thai way using bamboo instead of a machine. What this involves is a very thin piece of bamboo with cotton and wax holding the needles in place then the ink is gently tapped into the skin. It was a real experience! Kat’s took about 25 minutes and mine took around 2 hours. We’re both very pleased with the results!

Bamboo Tattoo

Today we’ve just arrived in Chiang Rai where it’s rained heavily so far. Tomorrow or the day after we should be heading over the border to Laos! We’ve certainly had a great time in Thailand so far and can’t wait to come back and see the south in just a few months!

Love Chris & Kat. xxx