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Published: February 20th 2007
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I don't even know if I spelled that right. haha
Dedria and I went on a day trip to do some elephant riding and bamboo rafting. It wasn't anything extravagant... no 4 days in the jungle, sleeping with the locals in a hilltribe type thing. Just the one day tour that takes you to the elephant camp and bamboo rafting. We got an oxcart ride out of it as well. After that they took us to a paper making factory... But this isn't just ANY paper making factory... I'll get to that though... We also went to an orchid farm and saw lots of beautiful flowers.
We got picked up from our B&B at 9:30 and headed straight to the elephant camp. When we got there, we walked up and immediately saw a male and female and their baby. We were in complete awe. These animals are spectacular. We all know the obsession I have with elephants, and this was the culmination of everything. It was more than I could have ever imagined it would be. We were bombarded by the workers to buy bananas and sugar canes for 20b. As IF we'd say no to that! We fed
Mama and Baby
Lookit how shy she is?? So cute. Just like a little human... the 3 that were right infront of us, then turned to see our tourguide asking us if we wanted to get on top of the huge male that was sitting there. We watched a few people go up, feed them their bananas, then come back down. He was HUGE! (I wish Dee had taken some pics with my cam, but unfortunately, we only got them with hers, and I can't upload without her cords... big hassle.)
After both going up separately on the male, we went down to watch the elephants bathe. They LOVED it. Throwing water out their trunks, running in and then FLOPPING down like a little kid might do. If I thought it possible for an elephant to do a belly flop, that's what I would have called it. What a show that was.
After their baths, they put on a spectacular show for us where they played soccer and basketball. They danced. The mahoots (the trainers) put on music, and they would all do their separate little dance. All very individual, just like people. They did a bit of acrobatics... dont' get me wrong, they weren't flying from the trapeeze or anything, but they
Swimming Swimming Swimming
You can just tell she's having fun! could stand on their two front legs, then just on their two back legs, etc. They were extremely smart. The end of the show was a beautiful painting... it was no mona lisa, but it was definately good for an elephant... I couldn't have done better myself.
When the show was over, we were escorted promptly to where you can go for a ride. Dee and I got on this MAMMOTH male Mammoth. Seriously. This guy was HHUUGGEE! And off we went. We went through the river that they had just bathed in, then we went through the jungle for a bit. In total, the ride was 1 hr.
Our mahoot was a hoot. He was really entertaining. We were on the "Chiang Mai express to Canada... 1 hr, 200baht!" We countered him... "One Fitty" we said. He laughed. Thought we were pretty clever I suppose. So after that, for the rest of the way, we were on the "Chiang Mai express from Chiang Mai Airport to Canada." Pretty cute actually. Dee got a good pic of him. Those will have to be added in later.
When we finally arrived back at the training camp, we were
FLOP!
She just FLOPPED over. lol Slow enough so the mahoot didn't go with her though. lol ushered down the lane to where we were to get on a ricketty little bamboo raft and raft down the Ping River. No big deal. That was fun. About 30 minutes of that and then we were scurried onto an ancient looking wagon pulled by 2 Ox (oxen?). That was something I could have done without... Not really my cup of tea, but it's done and over with now, isn't it?
From there, it was time for lunch. They took us to this cozy little paradise hotel in the middle of the jungle. Looked about 4 star to me if I were to guess. Buffet style lunch. I didn't eat much, as per usual. But they DID have the BEST coffee I've tasted to date. Yes Ash. The best coffee to date. Bold statement, I know. But it was true. I even went back for a second cup it was THAT good. I should have asked what beans they used.
From there, it was time to take a look at the paper factory. Now, like I mentioned previously, this was no regular paper making facility... When you walk up, you just really think you're going to the market.
Its' not like its enclosed in a warehouse like you might think. It's just open air with a cover IN CASE it rains (not that it has since we've been here) and they tour you through the different steps to make the paper... The interesting part about the whole thing was that the paper isn't made out of wood and trees and whatever you would normally think it was made out of... It was made out of ...
Wait for it...
Wait for it...
Elephant Dung.
Yup. The paper was made out of elephant dung.
(side note ashley: You know our photo albums that we like so much? Yup. Elephant dung. All of them.)
So they had a little store of all the things that you could buy that was made out of elephant dung. I bought a few things. I had to. I couldn't help myself.
From there we went off to the Orchid farm. Orchids are beautiful. They really are. They showed us how they clone the orchids, and how the hybrids are pollenated. Then they gave us some free time to wander around. I bought some perfume. It just smelled
Pachiderm Parade
Coming in Holding the one infront's tail! So cute! so nice. It wears off quite quickly though.
Then it was home again home again. We went for some dinner to the mall, then came back and read some of our books.
Yes, Dedria's reading now. I got her hooked on my trashy romance novels. She fell in love with the main character in the book, and didn't want the book to end. It was actually pretty cute. She couldn't put the thing down for 2 days. I had to drag her out of the room almost by her toes just to go for a walk into the old city so that I could say I did it. Unfortunately we missed the night bazaars here... Oh well. Maybe some other time.
We also got our laundry done. LET ME TELL YOU how nice it is to have clean laundry. It feels like its' been SOOO long since I had some really clean clothes to wear (AND! Side note Ash: They got most of the stains out of my skirt! It ALMOST looks new!... I say ALMOST. haha)
~Chief Chyarming
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~Squiggs
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Orchid farm...
Wow... some good pics there girl! LOve it! Hopefully you didnt pick me anything up from your dung store lol. K... at work right now. Blah.. Its midnight your time i believe. I was gonna make a long distance call from work, but decided against it! MIss ya... again.... let me know about your birthday. I was thinking maybe just get a hold of everyone and go to the landing on the saturday?! Its close for everyone, and it will kinda be like a B-day slash welcome home thingy? YOu like the idea??? Let me know. ~ L xoxoxox