Meet Us In Munich!

Christina with Celine, and Isabelle celebrating the sunshine

We woke up that morning to a beautiful clear sky. Full from breakfast, we started our walk down the mountain towards our pickup point. The trail was still muddy from the previous days of rain, so we had to trod carefully not to fall on our butts.

We saw some giant rubber trees that towered above the forest canopy.

We also shared the narrow trail with some villagers that were heading into town on their motorbikes.

By noon the sun really started to shine on us, and the blessing of the sunny morning turned into a curse. I was really hot, sweaty and getting smellier by the minute.

To keep us cool, Dang decided to make us hats from some giant leaves.

It took us about two hours to get to the pickup point.

Buffalo Bill

This is Buffalo Bill, the son of the elder in the village from the previous post. He decided to name himself that because he worked so much with water buffaloes. He walked with us down the hill to run some errands in town. Oddly enough, just as Buffalo Bill arrived a pickup truck came down the hill carrying his namesake animal.

The transport vehicle soon arrived and we made our way to see the elephants. The elephants were part of a local cooperative that took care of them. The elephants were also used to provide rides to tourists in a short trek through the forest. Dang told us that the government limited the number of elephants allowed in the wild because of the damage they caused to the already dwindling forest. As a result, most elephants were found in these type of cooperatives. The decline in the logging industry has forced people to find ways of funding the care for these creatures. Most cooperatives have resorted to use tourism as a way to be able to fund and feed the elephants.

We had reservations about participating in the elephant ride. Using the elephants for rides is a little touchy subject for us. We didn’t want to use them in that way. In the end though, we took part in the elephant trek. My final argument to myself was this question: If it’s a controversy with doing so for the elephants then why not the horse? Where does it end? But still, we promised ourselves to come back to Chiang Mai someday and give our time to the Elephant Nature Park.

Being in the presence of these elephants was amazing. We bought plenty of food to feed our good elephant. Giant, strong, and intelligent are a few words that could be used to describe them.

Dang told us that their trainers spoke to them in Karen. Our trainer treated the elephant kindly and even got off to remove some of the weight to burden. The elephant listened to his commands from the ground as we we rode atop the magnificent animal.

The view while riding from above

Our trainer took this photo of us

Christina feeding the elephant

Christina says goodbye to the beautiful animal. Notice the other trunk in the foreground. I think another elephant tried to say goodbye as well.

We had lunch shortly there after and had our first bottle of coke in a while.

It looks better in Thai.

The final part of our trekking tour involved making our way down the river on a bamboo raft. It was a fun way of finishing our adventure around the hills of Chiang Mai.

After not showering for a few days we were ready to be clean. We made our way back to Chiang Mai, bid farewell to our new friends, and to our great guide Dang. At our guesthouse we cleaned up, grabbed some dinner, and went straight to bed. Unfortunately there would be no early sleep for us that night. More about that next time.

Jay