Elephant trekking in Chiang Mai

The elephant tour was absolutely amazing! And because of the helpful lady who worked at our guesthouse, it only cost $30...instead of the whopping $120 we were about to spend booking through a private company before coming:0 Well, it was a full-packed day of fun. We were picked up in the tour van at 8am, with about 10 other tourists. After arriving at the elephant camp, we first saw the elephant show. Keith and I had expected a circus type of act for kids, but we were honestly very impressed and awed by each act. The elephants did everything from carrying the trainers in cool ways, walking over them, to giving them massages, playing hoola-hoop, the harmonica and every sport you could imagine. They played golf, soccer, basketball, bowling, and even painted a picture (more artistic than I could even paint). The elephants had skill, that’s for sure! After the show was over and getting some great pictures of the elephants and also of the mother with her baby, I was able to hop on the back of one of the elephants who performed in the show for a quick picture. The elephant was so smart that he was tickling Keith for a tip! It was cute

The next part of the tour was taking an oxcart ride to the elephant that we would be trekking with. The ox’s had a camel-like bump on their backs which made them seem unique. The oxcart ride took us through the beautiful country area where you could see fields of grass and mountains in the background.

Next, was the elephant trekking which was so much fun! We sat in a very secure seat that was strapped to the elephant. It was so high up, which made for amazing sites of the Thai country area. We trekked through the jungle, through water, and through the country area for about an hour. We bought mini bananas to feed the elephant…and the elephant ate all 20 of the bananas one-by-one with us feeding them to him while we were on his back (so he had to move his trunk up to our seats). He must have been hungry...he ate all of them so fast! I couldn’t imagine how much they eat each day, but it was nice knowing that nearly all the money earned from the tours went towards feeding and taking care of the elephants.

After elephant trekking, we ate a Thai buffet-style lunch, relaxed for a bit, then headed down to the river for bamboo rafting! This was also a cool experience. We were given the traditional Thai style straw pyramid-shaped hats, and had a small group that we shared a raft with. We shared with an Australian family (originally from Malaysia) who we had met throughout the tour. We spent the afternoon with them learning about their huge family trip they were taking through SE Asia and also hearing stories about their country of Australia. They were very nice and a fun group of people to meet. The raft was very smooth riding and a relaxing way to see another part of the jungle and some Thai-style homes off the river. Keith was even able to try steering the raft, although it looked pretty difficult to do since the river was flowing pretty quickly and it was narrow as well.

The next part of the tour was taking us to visit a village that had the Padong, Lisu, and Karen long-neck tribe. The women in the tribe wear heavy golden plates around their neck, which stretches their neck over time. We were able to see pictures of other tribe members wearing very long golden plates, and then a picture of when they had taken it off (to change to a new golden plate). It was unbelievable how long their neck looked! Here at the tribe, the women were stitching scarves and other clothing, so we bought a beautiful multi-color (dark blue, orange, and black) scarf to hang as a decoration in our apartment. There was even a young tribe member there who I took a picture with. Although she was not wearing the golden plate around her neck, some traditional tribe members will begin to wear the decoration at a very young age. All of these tribe members are those who escaped Burma and are now living in Thailand. We also saw a type of monkey and some sleeping pigs at the village.

After visiting the village, the last stop was at a flower orchid. When I think of Thailand, one thing that comes to mind is all the beautiful flowers that are everywhere…on the streets, in hotels, restaurants and other businesses, in and around temples and parks, etc. Here are some pictures from the orchid that can illustrate the gorgeous flowers they have in Thailand.

After the amazing tour, our tour guide dropped us off at the train station, where we took an overnight train back to Bangkok. At the train station we saw the sweet lady we had seen earlier where we grabbed some food, so we chatted (as much as we could with the little English she knew) and gave her an orchid flower we had received from the tour. In return she gave us water bottles...what a kind lady. She's in a picture below with Keith. Well, when we got on the train, we were so tired from the day that we had no trouble falling asleep, although we did meet a German couple near our seats/beds who we talked with most of the night. We actually ended up meeting up with them again in Bangkok for the nightlife the next night. The couple was so much fun and even helped me finish the lines of the German children’s songs that my Oma had taught me when I was little. One thing I love about traveling is how we meet people from all over the world! It helps us learn about other cultures, even if we are not in the actual country yet!