Day 3 Tues Chiang Mai

This morning’s visit to an elephant training camp was great. It was a bit touristy and not something that Ross normally takes his tours to but worthwhile. We arrived after about a 45 minute drive through fairly affluent countryside – large farmhouses, rice fields, military camps etc -. The first thing, once we were there was some members of our group bought bananas to feed to a row of waiting elephants. My friend, Mr DW, tentatively approached an extended trunk but before he could separate a banana from the bunch, the trunk whipped away the whole bunch. You could easily imagine the glee in the elephant’s eye. We then went to watch some elephants have a wash in the nearby stream. They were scrubbed by their mahoots. Some of the younger elephants delighted in rolling around and playing, just like little kids. We then went up the hill to an arena like space with tiered seating. There were other tourists, but not too many. It never felt overcrowded. We then watched some elephants doing all sorts of things – the things related to their life as working animals in the jungle were good. We watched some hauling and stacking large heavy logs, lifting different limbs on command so their mahoots could easily climb up. That was ok. We watched a few playing ‘soccer’ – kicking balls, 1 throwing darts and a few similar activities that looked like they might be having fun but we were not sure about watching some elephants paint pictures. Their mahout would put a brush loaded with paint into their trunk and then the elephant would put paint onto some paper on an ease, making quite recognisable pictures. Maybe it was OK as an exercise in showing how ‘trainable’ asian elephants are, but I hardly think that at the end of a day hauling teak logs in the jungle an elephant would relax by painting a picture.

Then came the best part. Another lady in our group and I climbed up into a wooden box-like seat on top of Noi ( 14 years old) and went off in a line of about 8 elephants up the hill into the jungle , down again and back along and through a river for 1 hour. The path was narrow ( elbows in or a tree would take some skin off) , muddy and steep ( hold on). Once I got used to the rocking and rolling motion it was lovely. It was very peaceful, we could have been miles from anywhere, travelling in the same manner and at the same pace as people have for many centuries. Noi was very obedient and seemed to obey the mahout, unlike the elephant in front of us who seemed hungry and would sometimes take a few steps off the path when he spied some particular leaves he fancied. He would stay there till he had finished eating despite the protestations of his mahout. Apparently another of the elephants’ mahout also saw some leaves he fancied for ‘medicinal’ reasons and stopped to collect some, asking his passengers to carry them. Apparently the place runs a breeding program and we saw a group of about 10 young elephants we were told were 5 years old.

We went to a local restaurant for a good cheap lunch and then to Wat Doi Soi Thet on top of a hill about 30 minutes drive from the centre of Chang Mai. This temple complex was similar in atmosphere to those we saw in Burma last year. – lots of little buildings with different shrines and statutes around the place, with tourists walking around respectfully ( usually) but with just as many Buddhists sitting quietly at different places. Our local guide looked up in a book to remind me that I was born on a Saturday and hence the Buddha image that was of particular relevance to me was 1 with a snake coiled around on which he was sitting, with the snake coming up behind him. I was told that people born on a Saturday can often appear aggressive, powerful and angry on the outside but are quite soft on the inside, like a snake. My friend, the wife of Mr DW, thought this was very funny. I wonder why?

We had another cheap delicious meal in the evening at the local equivalent of an outdoor food court before buying some souvenirs. The stalls in the night markets are quite close together but there is little aggressive selling.