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Published: September 7th 2007
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Day 159
Today was going to be a bits and pieces day. Keely and Mark drove into town on her moto (Keely's place is about an hour out of Chiang Mai) to get us a moto for a few days so we could get around easily while we were staying in Mae Rim.
Once this was sorted they came back to collect Chrissie and Kristel (who had been chilling all morning) and we all went back into town. It was the moment Chrissie had been waiting months for - a haircut! She had been waiting for somewhere she knew would be able to give her a good cut and Keely had recommended the Hair Pro shop that she goes to. Her and Kristel decided to treat themselves too, so all three ladies went for a pampering whilst Mark wandered around the town.
A couple of hours later, three total fitties left the shop (having paid a bargain fiver each for their cuts) and subsequently had to put their moto helmets on and ruin their hair! We picked up a few essentials (including a new phone for Keely) at a local shopping centre and then went back to Keely's
via a supermarket. We had decided to have a really good homecooked meal and picked up everything we needed.
The evening was spent enjoying a fantastic meal which we all mucked in and helped to create. It was nice to be cooking again after so long!
Day 160
For today's activity we have to thank Mark's Granny and Grandad, Sadie and Arthur, as this was part of their wedding present to us - thank you both, we had a fantastic day!
One of the main things we wanted to do in Chiang Mai was to have an 'elephant experience'. There are many ways to do this in Thailand eg. riding an elphant, watching elephants perform tricks in shows etc. but we had been concerned about the way the elephants were trained/looked after etc. for these things. We then heard through Kate and Danny and also through Keely about a place with a completely different type of experience. The Elephant Nature Park was set up a few years ago by an amazing Thai lady who began to rescue mistreated/ill/orphaned elephants. She now has around 30 elephants that have previously been used as logging elphants, street entertainers or
trekking elephants. You can visit for a day or volunteer for a week or more. Here the elephants are allowed to roam freely around the park (only being stopped by their mahouts (handlers) when they roam out of park boundaries!)
We all rode out to the park on our motos and arrived to see several elephants wandering around the park. An amazing sight to start the day. We met our guide for the day, Michelle, who has lived and worked at the park for 4 years and shared so many fantastic stories about the elephants and her time in the park with us throughout our visit.
The elephants soon came up one by one to the platform we were gathered on as they knew it was their lunchtime. Each elephant is given a huge bucket of fruit and we fed BK the dominant male elephant. His trunk was incredibly strong as he took the food from our hands at a very rapid rate! So much fun!
It was then our lunchtime and we had a tasty meal before getting changed for the highlight of the day - elephant bathtime! We followed the elephants and their mahouts down
to the river and then were able to wade in with a brush and bucket and scrub the elephants down - what a fantastic experience! An up close moment that the elephants seemed to love (they are not made to go to the river or be bathed they do what they choose)
After bathtime we sat in a gazebo and watched the elephants in their environment while Michelle answered any questions we had and gave us some info about their backgrounds, the various social groupings and some of the elephant's personalites including little Hope, an orphaned elephant with a very cheeky streak.
We then sat down to watch a short but shocking film about the horrendous ways that elephants are often trained for the various jobs that they perform in Thailand (and other countries). It made us glad that we had chosen this experience and not one which would have put any elephants through this training for our benefit. Michelle then explained how the mahouts at the park are using positive reinforcement and reward training with the young elephants to prove that it can be done in a different way.
We finished the day with another bath
for the elephants although they only have a quick dip at this time as they know dinner is on its way and leave the river pretty quickly!
We had had such a fantastic day and were inspired by the work being done at the park. We were extremely tempted to stay on for a week's volunteer work but it's now a case of fitting stuff in before we fly to Australia next month - can't believe its come around that quickly.
On the way home we stopped at a market for some extra supplies for tea and found some bugs on sale - we bought a variety to try...bamboo worms and crickets etc - actually pretty tasty!
We spent the evening enjoying another fine meal and watching films before hitting the sack.
Day 161
A lovely lazy day. We spent the morning watching films, drinking tea and chatting. It has been lovely to stay with Keely and have more of a homely environment to stay in.
In the evening we drove into town to revisit the Sunday night market where we all bought gifts for each other to relfet our nicknames/names, Mark got a
model of a spider and a pig stuck together, Chrssie got a 'Potter'y elephant, Keely got a glass Bunny and Kristel a crystal dragon. We will miss these guys when we have to leave as we've had so much fun over the past couple of weeks.
When we got back we made some plans for the next day as we were aiming to get the train down to Bangkok in the evening and needed to get us and our bags back into town and take the moto back.
Day 162
Poor Keely had to go back to work today so the rest of us planned to go to a cooking course and learn to cook some Thai classics. We piled 3 of us onto our moto for a very uncomfortable hour's ride into town and were relieved to stretch our legs and give our butts a break when we arrived.
We were picked up by our chef/teacher and met the others in our group before having a trip around the local market to learn a bit more about the ingredients we would be using. Our teacher was funny and informative - a good start to the
day.
When we arrived at the kitchen we got aproned up and started the day cooking a Tom Yum soup - superb and so easy to make. Over the morning we also made stir-fried vegetables and created a huge flame, green curry, pannang curry, pad thai noodles and learnt to make sweet sticky rice. At the end of the learning we sat down to eat our lunch - fantastic food and pretty easy to recreate so get ready for some Thai dinners when we get back home!
We spent the afternoon wandering around town and chatting until Mark drove back out to Mae Rim to meet Keely from work and collect bags etc. leaving Chrissie and Kristel chatting over a delicious coffee. Mark drove back in with one bag and Keely drove her moto in with the other bag so we had everything we needed to leave Chiang Mai. We dropped off our moto and then the four of us went out for dinner and a drink for our last evening together.
We said our sad goodbyes as late as we could and then got into a tuktuk to the station. The train we had to book
on did not have any sleeper tickets so we would be in seats for the night, but as we boarded the seats looked comfy and pretty spacious so we weren't too upset. We'd just settled in when a hostess came around with trays of food just like on a flight. Very impressed (!) we tucked into some fairly edible food and then curled up under the blankets we'd been given (trains are air-conned to freezing point in Thailand).
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Hello Fitties
Hi Fitties!!!! Just a quick one to say hi! I hope you are well and all is good, I will catch up properly with the blog in a week when I am back from my hols, off to Corfu tonight with benji! Love you so much xxxx