Day 36 – Chiang Mai

Today we woke up night and early for our pre-booked tour. The pick up time was 7am which was before X Kingdom offered breakfast so we decided to discontinue our boycott of the McDonald’s Corporation and eat there, as unfortunately it was the only thing open. The boycott only started earlier this year after watching the Founder on Netflix and we were trying to be more healthy.

The charismatic tour guide came 10 minutes late and picked us up from the hostel and checked our ticket. We got into the half full van and continued picking up more guests around town until the van was full.

Elephant Care / Rescue

Then there was an hour drive to the elephant care sanctuary. Once there, a large elephant was just wondering around and it was walking towards the van. As we got out of the van, the elephant kept coming closer, and I was starting to get nervous. Up close the elephant was at least a meter taller than me definitely out weighed everyone there.

• 

• 

However, the tour guide went up and casually patted the elephant as we  got changed into the oversized clothing and we’re given bags full of bananas that we would feed the elephants.

Next we were taken to the elephant pens. There were 3 large elephants and 1 baby elephant. We were allowed to feed them directly into the mouth or let the elephant use its trunk to eat the food.

We started of quite nervous but soon realised that the elephants were quite harmless and started getting more confident.

• 

• 

• 

• 

As with a lot of these places you sometimes think that the elephants are mistreated. We asked heaps of questions to the guide, who sounded like he really cared about the elephants. He told us at night time they are let out and every morning the staff find the elephants and bring them back.

After feeding them, we had lunch and they sold us photos in photo frames made of elephant dung. They said it helps them to look after the elephants. After this we ended up making a concussion of vitamins for the elephants by grinding a variety of ingredients. It didn’t taste too bad.

We then fed the vitamins to the elephants before we were broken up into two groups and assigned an elephant to walk with. We walked for around 30 minutes, feeding the elephant sugar cane along the way. It was a cool and scary feeling walking so close to such a large animal.

• 

• 

There a few staff members who came with us, who were very stern with the animals. Not physically hitting them, but pushing them and yelling at them to make them move at times. It’s hard to tell if the elephants get treated differently when we weren’t there, but the tour guide at least was able to give us information that sounded good and appeared to care about the animals.

We stopped at a mud field along the way and gave the elephants a mud bath. This was messy but as fun as it sounds and the elephants seemed to love it diving into the mud as thought we weren’t doing a good enough job!

• 

• 

Then we walked down to river where we were able to wash up and clean the elephants too. The water in the middle of the river was so strong that the staff almost floated off, but one of the elephants just went and sat down there like the water was nothing. Them be strong animals.

• 

• 

After thoroughly washing the elephants and splashing each other we had to say goodbye to the elephants. However the day wasn’t over. We when took a zip line across the river!

It was an awesome day. Highlight of the trip so far. That being said there is a lingering hope that what the guide told us was true and the elephants are treated well.

We had showers and changed back into our clothes at the outskirts of a “long neck village”, which wasn’t part of the tour, so we were told if we went we would get charged by different companies.

Most of this is summarised by this video. Also guess what. I recently made a YouTube channel after discovering GoPro Quik!

Chiang Mai Night Market

We were dropped off at X Kingdom and we decided to book another tour for tomorrow. After that we walked down to the night market. Along the way we went passed heaps of bars. Definitely a party street.

At the market we walked around. Bought some small items, had dinner at a food court, went home and started getting ready for bed. After I came back from a shower I see a devastated wife saying she lost her phone!

After quickly searching the room, we were retracing our steps and the last time we saw it, which was in the food court. We took a Songthaew to the night market and ran through the crowded streets. Once there I was looking under the tables where we ate and J asked a stall owner. The stall owner went and got the cleaner. The cleaner took J to the bar and the staff member pulled out J’s phone!

I love this country. One of the best days of travel we have ever had.