Zipwires and elephants

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Hi everyone! This entry is slightly wrong chronologically, as David has an entry he hasn't finished, but I want to publish it 😊

Well, we're in Phuket now, and I'm sad to say our time in Chiang Mai is over - I absolutely loved it there, and its actually the only place we've been so far that I would definitely come back to. We've had some amazing experiences and met some wonderful people - Mr Kem who owns the hotel is (as David has already mentioned) a gem of a man, he really treated us like family and made our stay as comfortable as possible, and I owe him one for helping me organise David's birthday!!

Aside from the markets (which were fab) and the millions of restaurants, Chiang Mai is almost like the Orlando of Thailand - there's a road that leads out, and every 5 minutes you get to a new adventure activity or animal experience. As we only had a week we had to pick and choose, but to anyone planning on visiting Thailand - give yourself plenty of time in Chiang Mai, you could be occupied for days!

One of the activites we chose to do was a treetop zipwiring adventure, similar to Go Ape in the UK. There's a few around Chiang Mai, we chose the Jungle Flight. We took a minibus up high into the mountains with a really pleasant Dutch family with 4 kids. The road was crazy, I sometimes thought the bus wouldn't make it! We arrived at a few bamboo buildings in the middle of nowhere and were greeted by some insanely cheerful Thai guys who strapped us into all our zipwiring gear - carabiners, pulleys, helmets the lot - and hauled us off into the trees. The first zipwire was short, but hey it was a LONG way down. No time to be scared, they just hooked you on and sent you off and... it was like flying! One of the similar companies is called flight of the gibbon, and that is exactly what it feels like, with an overactive imagination you could pretend you were a monkey swinging through those amazing HUGE trees. The views were beautiful too over the rainforest. It was great fun, some of the zipwires were double ones so David and I could jump together, and we also did a few 'abseils' where basically we were lowered down by one of the guys - 40metres though, it feels like a long way when you're suspended by a rope! It was fun having the children there as well, it made it that bit of a family atmosphere which was nice.
We were served a delicious lunch afterwards, and dragged out to a hot spring (which was definite cover for them wanting us to buy things, not that we did). A thoroughly enjoyable experience, I'd recommend to anyone because you get the adrenaline rush but none of the fear, good for wusses like myself.

The next day we had booked for the Elephant Nature Park, although we'd wanted to do it the other way around as we were flying that night and the Elephant Park finished later. We'd had a bit of a dilemma about this, because, especially after the monkey experience, we didn't want to see any more animals exploited, and at a lot of the elephant places they are not treated well. This one promised no tricks, no forcing the animals to paint, play football or carry humans so we forked out a fairly substantial amount of money to go and check it out.
It was an amazing place. On the way there we watched a National Geographic documentary about the owner (Lek) and her efforts to save abused and injured elephants and give them a home where they could be safe. It told about one elephant who had been left orphaned when his captive mother died and had to be rescued before he was forced to work, and another who had been blinded by her owners for refusing to work after miscarrying a baby whilst working for a logging company. It was so sad, but Lek has created this sanctuary for elephants, and they roam free, each with a designated mahoot who takes care of them when they need it, and one day she hopes to be able to reintroduce some of them to the jungle.

When you arrive you are struck by the sight of elephants just wandering around her acres of land. This isn't something you see anywhere else that we've been, and they just don't look real! Our guide told us some of their stories, one who sticks in my mind had a broken back from being part of a breeding program - she was tied still and male elephants were forced to mate with her. Now she is scared of male elephants, but another resident has adopted her, and the two are always seen together. It is heartbreaking what these majestic creatures go through, and being able to be close to them, and help out the shorthanded staff by feeding and washing the elephants was a great experience. They take on volunteers for weeks at a time, and I would love to go back. All the money goes to keeping the elephants fed, watered and medicated, and it is truly a worthwhile cause. It really makes you think as well about the other elephant parks, where the elephants are mistreated - they are trained with hooks, and it is so cruel. We will be avoiding these places like the plague now.

So that gave us something to think about, and was definitely the highlight of my holiday. Our next blogs will hopefully be filled with sun, sea and sand, although it is chucking it down in Phuket as I write! Catch you all later, Rachel x

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Photos

Feeding Time
David feeding an elephant

Bath time!
Me bathing an elephant, river was just as muddy as it looks! I threw my shoes out after.

Family
One of the herds that live on the property, heading to the river for another bath

Baby boy
This is the baby boy elephant. He was super naughty!!!

Comments

[Don]

Moving...
Hi Darling. The Elephant sanctuary sounds like it would be a bit heart wrenching. I'd love to go there though, despite that. Keep well love Dad xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx missing you.