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Oups, it’s been a while since our last blog. Totally my fault (Liz).

I’ve been having such a horrible time, what with the weather (hot), the coffee shops (cool) and the day trips (daring) that I just couldn’t face it. Ha, ha, ha, what a load of old rubbish! I’ve been too busy having fun.

We spent ten days in Chiang Mai and split our time between adventurous outings and lazy days of, well, reading, lazing, and playing pool on wonky tables. Oh and browsing through the city’s second hand bookshops - which do not follow the Dewey system and Philosophy books were filed under ‘Paranormal’ and ‘The Secret Diary of a Call Girl’ was filed under ‘True Crime’.

Good stuff!

On your bike

Chiang Mai sits in the shadow of a nearby mountain Doi Pui so we started our activities proper with a mountain bike ride to the top. When I say a ride to the top, I mean to say that we found a company who hired out all the kit and drove you up there.

Making our way back down through the jungle (on existing tracks) was probably some of the most beautiful surroundings that we’ve come across on the trip. What a shame then that this idyllic scene was shattered by the piercing screech of my front break- a feature which was fully applied whenever I was in the saddle. In fact this brain splitting noise was interrupted by only two things, the ‘uff’-thud of me falling off and the muttered curses when I walked- which was often. Suffice to say that the route was not as easy as the salesman had promised.

Ho hum. Luke had a great time but I had… well lets just say it was less good. Fortunately my torment wasn’t for nothing and I spent the next few days furnished with some lovely ink blot bruises. [I]I told you it hurt![I/]

Luke even went back and did an even more difficult route.

Ah but enough of that, to the main event. Trumpets please (this pun will make sense in just a second).

The Elephant Nature Park

The Asian elephant is synonymous with Thailand and this is especially true in Chiang Mai; where unfortunately they are also big business. We spent quite a lot of time picking somewhere to go to see them. Here’s a list of things that we didn’t think elephants should be doing for our amusement:
- playing the xylophone
- playing football
- begging on the street
- painting pictures
- giving rides
Of course if they want to do these things in their own time, all to the good.

After much searching we found a really nice place that rescues elephants from logging, or begging on the streets (yes really). You can volunteer at the park helping to develop new sites for the elephants or, like us, take a day trip- and volunteer your cash. We learned a little about the animal’s individual stories, the plans for the park, took lots of pictures, fed he elephants and went in the river with them.

Ok, so I know you are thinking to your self ‘hmm elephants aren’t usually hand fed in the wild’, but almost all of this group has been rescued after they were ‘broken in’ (usually a pretty a unpleasant procedure in this part of the world). As a result they are not wild animals and the way that visitors interact with them is restricted to things they need to do in their daily routine. Moralizing over.

It was kinda fun but some of the animal’s stories were pretty heartbreaking. One elephant has been blinded in both eyes by her owner when she refused to follow his orders. Another was in a breeding programme and chained up next to a bull elephant, the bull was on heat while she was not, and as a result her back was crushed. Harrowing stuff.

There are over 30, unrelated, elephants in the park and they are free to make their own groups/bonds. Five or six herds have formed and the ones with babies in them are so sweet. When they get into the river at least one older elephant will stand downstream so that the babies wont be taken off by the current. Healthy elephants seem to adopt the sicker ones so that the blind elephant, for example, is accompanied everywhere she goes.

The lady that runs the park - a woman called Lek (worth a Google if you have a few minutes) is passionate about rescuing animals and the park is also home to a large number of rescued dogs, cats, cows who went crazy at the abattoir and a donkey. Best of all she runs a very good veggie restaurant in town (Taste of Heaven). Brilliant, we could once again stuff ourselves with yummy food safe in the knowledge that the profits were helping the elephants. It’s not for us you understand…


Siam Rice Thai cooking class

After a few days rest (and in my case ice packs) we enrolled ourselves on a Thai cooking course. We did a tour of the market where we learned about the different ingredients and cooked lots of food- strange to think that it’s the first time we’ve made a meal since Bergen (ten weeks ago). It was good fun (and surprisingly tasty) and you can expect us to make you a big Thai banquet next time you come round for tea. We’ll buy the food and drink, you just buy your ticket ;-)

And from cooking to Salt

With so much time in one place we were also able to do a few more ‘normal’ things and so we ventured to the cinema. ‘Salt’ was the only English language film playing so we picked that one. At the end of the trailers everyone got up, I thought I’d missed a fire alarm but no, queue the national anthem and lots of adoring images of the king and queen. Everyone took it really seriously too- thank goodness they don’t do that in the UK (sorry Heather)!

On the way out I thought I recognized a voice behind us and sure enough I did. A girl we had met in Vietnam nearly a month ago randomly happened to be in Chiang Mai and went to the same showing of the film (hi Gigi).

So in conclusion

It’s a small world, but a big trunk is always a good thing.

P.S. Happy anniversary Mum and Dad.

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