Chiang Mai

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We are getting a little behind because the internet in Laos is not particularly reliable. Phone signal just doesn't exist!

We loved Chiang Mai. Here the big highlight was our day at the elephant farm. We went to Patara Elephant farm, which was expensive but worth every baht. When we arrived we were given the clothes of a Mahout (elephant trainer) so that the elephants would see us as a friendly figure. We were then assigned elephants and we would call out their name and they would reply with a trumpet sound. After this we fed them a large basket of fruit, which they wolfed down! We then learnt how to check if an elephant was healthy. This involved checking they were happy, eating and drinking enough, sleeping properly and sweating! Fortunately all our elephants were healthy. Next we had to clean them. Elephants throw mud over their backs to shade themselves from the sun, so first we had to get them to lie down so we could brush all this off. Afterwards it was into the river to give them a real clean, using a bucket and a brush to get off all the mud. After we splashed the elephants with water, it was their turn to splash us, and we got soaked! Once we'd worked hard enough and cleaned our elephant it was time for our first trek.

We were taught several ways to climb on top of an elephant. The first was them lifting their leg and us placing our left foot on the back of their ankle, our right foot on their knee whilst they lifted their leg up high, like a moving ladder! The second (and most enjoyable) was that the elephant would lower their head and we would climb onto their trunk and they would lift their head to raise us to their shoulders. The third was similarly they would lower their head and we would leapfrog over their head to their neck and then turn around! Getting down was the same in reverse! We trekked to a waterfall, where we stopped for lunch. They provided us with an absolute feast and it barely looked like we'd touched it by the end, but we could feed all the leftovers to our elephants, which they enjoyed! After lunch we trekked further into the woods, where we came to a deeper river. Here we could swim with the elephants, which was incredible! Others in our group were hesitant, but we jumped at the chance! Swimming with the elephants mainly involved sitting on them in the water, but they seemed to enjoy it and Jamie even stood up at one point! Once dry we had another trek where we could both sit on one elephant. Jamie would sit in the normal position, on the neck resting his knees on the ears for grip, and I would sit in the head dangling my legs down the middle of the elephants head. This was meant to be romantic, but I had nothing to grip onto and we were more concerned with the fact that I was slipping every time we went downhill! I survived and it was great fun nonetheless!

I have breezed through the day here, but I could write pages and pages on what a fantastic day it was and I think short and sweet is probably better to read.

Other than the elephants, we enjoyed the architecture of the temples here. Much less gaudy than the southern temples, instead they were made of teak and there was a greater focus on the building itself rather than on a massive gold buddha. We visited Wat Doi Suthep, which is on top of a hill overlooking the whole of Chiang Mai. The Wat itself was pretty impressive, but the view added to its appeal.

Chiang Mai has a merchant history, which can be seen in the many different markets, the largest of which is called the Sunday Walking Street where a large portion of the old city is pedestrianised and lined with stalls. We didn't buy much, but really enjoyed the food section where we walked round trying a variety of dishes including quail egg crispy wontons and northern style spicy sausage.

We were sad to leave Chiang Mai because we really liked the city and had a great hotel, but Laos was calling. We booked ourselves onto the slow boat to Luang Prabang, which takes two days to sail down the Mekong River, and will be in our next blog.

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