Well we're back

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We headed back to our temporary home Chiang Mai, which is one of those lovely places that makes you want to stay. As we mentioned in an earlier blog, it’s really nice when in a completely foreign country the locals start to say hello and greet you as old friends and even the taxi touts sometimes leave you alone. Well that’s how it has become with us and Chiang Mai. We headed up here because, unbelievably, it’s nearly time for the adventure to end - shocking to even think about it - so we had to spend a bit of time looking at practical things like somewhere to live and employment. All the better to do this when there isn’t a beach or coral reef distracting you every waking moment. We were lucky because a few days after we left the Island the rains arrived and haven’t stopped for a fortnight; the beaches blog might have been different if that was the case. We settled into Mini Cost Hotel (again) and started browsing. We’ll see if anything works out when we get home.

Although this fortnight was mainly practical we still had a few unfinished sights. The first of these were a number of the wats and temples in the city that we hadn’t yet explored. To tell you the truth most were lovely, some new, some old but none worthy of special mention unless you believe that a hair at one temple or a tooth fragment at another belongs to a god then their importance probably increases. But yet again the process of walking around the centre of this lovely city makes for a really pleasurable hour/day/week. The small soi’s are always throwing up a surprise. This time we came across a shack serving Vietnamese food and as we would be heading there in a few weeks decided to indulge. We then proceeded to order a delicious feast for a couple of pounds. Lovely.

One of our first nights here was St Patricks Day, so while not Irish, I have during my lifetime consumed enough of the national drink to be allowed to attend the occasional celebration. The UN Irish Bar in Chiang Mai, an institution, was putting on a buffet and bands night while at the same time serving Guinness and showing the cricket. Could life get any better? The buffet was, quite frankly, amazing and probably the best western food we’d had in the whole of Asia. Irish stew, leek and potato soup, beef & guinness pie, cabbage & bacon & soda bread to name but a few dishes. The place was packed, the ale was cold and the atmosphere lively. But shock horror, 9.30 and the bar ran out of Guinness, Nooooooooooo, on St Pat’s day, shocking. Oh well nothing for it but to walk slowly back to the hotel and try to hope that our bellies didn’t explode on the way - a good night.

A few days later we hired a scooter to tick off another couple of local tourist traps. The first was the ancient city of Wiang Kum Kam, which the guide books would have you believe was the ancient capital of the area and a must see on any trip. Welllllllll, the first problem you face is finding it because every sign for it, in typical Thai style, sends you off down a street then doesn’t tell you where to go from there. After a short lifetime motoring around we saw a horse drawn carriage with tourists in it so, for want of a better plan, followed it to the information centre. Once we had an area map things became easier and when we read about the capital things fell into place. It doesn’t really exist. It did, at one time, but in one of the stupidest municipal planning decisions ever, the King decided to build a capital on a flood plain and then seemed surprised when every year he got out of bed and stood in a big puddle. Nice to see we learn from history …. NOT. Anyway, so the ancient city was abandoned to the waters and the capital moved to Chiang Mai, a bit further up the Ping River. It was only rediscovered about 1984 since when various archaeological studies have uncovered various parts of the city. There are a few sights worth seeing in the maze of small roads that meander through the area. The main temple at Wat Chedi Liam is impressive as is Wat Khan Tom but all of the other ruins are exactly that. If your idea of a fun few hours is investigating planning howlers then this is for you but for everyone else there’s better elsewhere.

From here we headed off to Lisa’s main reason for coming back here, shopping, or umbrella shopping to be precise. A few km east of the city is the small town of Bo Sang, famous the world over for its umbrella making. We expected a typical Asian tourist trap but when you arrive there are obviously loads of shops selling umbrellas but all seem quite authentic with many having workshops off to one side. We decided to follow in the footsteps of Princess Di and visit the main umbrella factory to see the whole process and it was fascinating. The skills are handed down through many generations. For more than two centuries, pretty much everyone in Bo Sang was engaged in making umbrellas and parasols with silk, cotton and mulberry paper. And what a pleasant surprise when you see it’s not tourist tat, made in China, but really high quality craftsmanship using traditional materials and methods. The artistry now perfected in hand painting umbrellas is, of course, applicable to many other items, so for a small fee these talented artists will paint your bag, your shorts, even your mobile. Amazing. At the end of this lovely little trip Lisa even managed to persuade me to let her loose with the dosh and do some purchasing. Although carrying the rather large umbrella on the motorbike under one arm, with shopping under the other after a short stop at Tescos, was a challenge!

An amazing thing about Thailand is Thai massages, of course there are the pleasant but fairly ineffective tourist massages on the beaches but in a few places like Chiang Mai and Pai you can find massage schools that really know their stuff. I was lucky enough to discover, and fall a little bit in love with, an elderly woman with fingers like steel rods who not only could cause me more pain than I have ever felt in my life but actually seemed to start curing the nightmare knee I have been living with for nearly 30 years. Unfortunately Lisa wasn’t allowed to witness my pain even though she begged me mercilessly. After a few sessions with her I actually started running again, without painkillers, for the first time since my teens. Thai massage is a combination of Chinese and Indian techniques based on Sen points, or medians. Sometimes called ‘Yoga for the lazy’ it also involves lots of stretching and quite simply is magnificent. If you ever get the chance to try a traditional Thai massage, choose the oldest masseur with the knurliest hands and you’ll never be the same again. Seeing as she lost me to an older woman Lisa decided to console herself with a day out with her lovely elephants.

So a swift change-over of blog writers now! Those of you die-hards who are still tuning in to our blog, even after all this time, may remember that Chris, me and Matthew went to the Elephant Nature Park last year and had a wonderful, and I may say, life altering experience. For anyone new to our blog and the Elephant Nature Park, it is run by a miniscule Thai lady called Lek, who is dedicated to providing a safe haven for elephants who have been so unbelievably cruelly treated by humans. It is not only a safe place to spend their latter years (for most of them) but a place where they can know love, peace and a sense of family which they have been denied for most of their lives. Her determination to help these beleaguered animals is simply astounding and her larger than life character draws volunteers and visitors to the park time and time again.

So you can imagine I was quite happy to leave Chris being beaten up by his elderly lady whilst I ventured back to see if anything had changed, if they had any new additions and basically just to bask in the wonderful atmosphere of this lovely, caring environment. On the mini-bus to the park we had the same educational film as last time and, knowing what to expect, didn’t shed a tear (unusual for me as I am a bit of cry baby) but noticed a few of the others surreptitiously wiping the corners of their eyes. Ooh were they going to be in big trouble when they sat through the main film in the park – a real heart breaker and tear jerker! Our guide for the day was really sweet, although some of the foreign tourists couldn’t easily understand his English accent, it was much better than my Thai, so hats off to him. As we neared the park we passed a number of these gentle giants carrying tourists on their backs, from other tourist attractions, and it still makes me sad to see it. As we got closer you could feel everyone’s excitement grow and, even though I had been there before, driving through the gates and down a road with elephants roaming free all around was still such a thrill. I still find it hard to believe that I have walked amongst elephants. Anyway, the programme for us ‘one-dayers’ would be a quick visit with some of the elephants out in the park, feeding elephants, feeding ourselves, bathing elephants, interacting with elephants, feeding elephants – you get the drift.

Firstly, the teenage boys came in for something to eat, with their bells around their necks so anyone in their way could be warned. Jungle Boy and Hope have two mahouts each, as teenage boys will be trouble and invariably just a little naughty, so it takes two dedicated helpers to keep them in check. Jungle Boy has a nice small pair of tusks as well, so you really wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of him. All finished and then came in the lovely ladies and I spent my time feeding an old girl of about 80 who quietly and methodically munched her way through her lunch of watermelon, pumpkin and bananas. It was a messy job, for me anyway, but absolutely captivating to watch the dexterity with which her trunk, which I believe has something like 4,000 muscles in it, gently took the food out of my hands and delicately put it into her mouth. It would be so easy to spend each and every day just watching them, but we had things to do namely feeding ourselves, slightly less messy than elephant feeding, but again, as last year, a really fab spread. So much better than you would probably expect.

Feeding of elephants and humans over it was time for a bath. This is probably one of the coolest things ever – sorry if there is a pun there – but taking a bucket, going into a river with a full size elephant and throwing water over it while it gently stands there, or lays down, is a phenomenal experience. The delight of the humans was obvious, mainly because of their laughter and screams as they splashed each other and of course the elephants, but the delight of the elephants was also obvious. Many of them laying down and rolling over and just basically giving us the time of our lives. After bath time, for some it was mud bath time and they were obviously having a great time splashing a bit of good old natural suntan lotion over their bodies. The mud bath area was new since we were here last and probably as a result of the hard work of the willing volunteers who flock here to do their bit.

As the babies came into bathe with their family, we had to leave the river for safety sake and retreat to the viewing point and take lots of photos of the crazy little ones doing very good impressions of periscopes with their trunks. Now they were obviously having the time of their lives. Bath time over and we were allowed to mix with the babies, albeit under strict supervision of their mahouts, take photos and generally just gape at them. It is unbelievable to think that an elephant, cruelly abused for most of its life by humans, will allow other humans near her babies let alone touch them. It shows a depth of forgiveness that we don’t often have the privilege of witnessing.

As you can probably guess I could wax lyrical about the park, the elephants and everything about the day but I won’t, just to say that there was more feeding, which was still messy, and more interaction and more photos. It is the best day out; a privilege to be near them, heart-warming, heartbreaking and humbling all at the same time - a life changing experience. I will just mention something which is a very important part of the day and is the reason why all those lovely creatures have had to be rescued and are unable to walk free; they have been torn from the wild and broken in order to do the bidding of some humans. It is also the topic of the film that gets shown to all who visit the park, which is absolutely heartbreaking. It shows the traditional method of elephant training which basically consists of wrenching a baby elephant from its mother, caging it and then repeatedly poking it and stabbing it with sharp sticks, beating it and refusing to let it lay down for days. This is what an elephant undergoes when it is ‘broken’ to enable humans to work it and ride it. Makes you think.

On a lighter note – what else did we do while we were here? A little bit of shopping at the walking street on Sunday evening was a must. It is a great market, with stalls selling a variety of goods to entice all holidaymakers and when all the shopping gets too much has a number of good food stalls. The street is jam packed with shoppers, locals and buskers who place themselves down the centre of the street and dance, sing and play instruments (sometimes exceedingly badly) to earn a few bahts. So with a wallet slightly lighter, I was a happy woman.

So what else have we done. Haircuts for both of us and, after the baldness experience in Pai, I am decidedly nervous when someone stands behind me with clippers in their hands assuring me they have a number 4. To ease the nerves I went back to a lady who had cut my hair before, in fact she made a very good effort at rectifying the horrible mess from the Pai haircut, so I knew she was good. As an added bonus we managed to engage in a bit of a conversation including what a lovely shaped head I had, well I think this was what she said anyway, how nice my hair was and what a lovely colour it was. A girl needs these reassurances from time to time and I left very happy. Also, Chris had a shirt made from a chap just across the hotel from us who was fascinated and rather overwhelmed by Chris’ physique. Every time Chris took his shirt off he would burst into uncontrollable fits of the giggles whilst pointing admiringly at Chris’ chest – well Chris was convinced it was with admiration anyway! At least the shirt was good.

In conclusion, this fortnight has been a lovely way to end our time in Thailand. Chiang Mai is a great city and you can see why it’s popular with European ex-pats. Not nearly as hectic as Bangkok, it has all the modernity most people want but it’s a city you can relax and just enjoy life in and there are plenty of genuinely good attractions to hold the attention of even a busy tourist for a few days.

Now it’s off back to Vietnam for a final time this trip. We can’t wait.

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Photos

Old Girl
and i'm not talking about the photographer

Stood the test of time
and the floods

Brolly Good Show
lovely craftsmanship

Hide and Seek
Difficult to hide behind a post when you are an elephant though!

Factor 30
the natural way

Just got a little itch
which needs to be scratched

Bath time fun
as mother carefully watches

Shower
elephant style

Going up
she won't fit in the escalator

Flooded Out
by genius planning