Elephant Riding in Chiang Rai

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Our last stop in Thailand before heading to Laos was Chiang Rai.

It was a strange kind of town and not nearly as busy as we had been expecting. I'm sure compared to Chaing Mai, the other popular destination in the north, it's a ghost town. We found a great little guesthouse just off the main drag which I'd certainly recommend if I could remember the name!

We really wanted to get out of the town and try to see some of the hill tribes that the north is famous for. What better way than to hire a motorbike? This was my first time on anything more complicated than a twist'n'go in Greece but after a few jumpy gear changes we were cruising. We headed out along the river where we passed loads of ornate brightly coloured temples and stopped off at a few caves. The highlight of the day though was the elephant ride that we took. Now normally we aren't very good with animals in captivity, but this time the elephants seemed quite well cared for and the organisation seemed to be helping in the conservation of the area, we hope they are. The ride lasted 30mins and included the elephant taking a detour through the river which was kind of cool. In the end though we preferred feeding them once we had finished as you had much more contact with them that way - when you're up on top you can't see anything but ears!! But no matter how much fun we had and how much we enjoyed being so close to such big animals, you couldn't get away from the fact that these animals used to be wild in that area and that their home has all but disappeared.

In a way I guess the hill tribes are the same. Their traditional way of life is dying out and they are increasingly influenced by the contact with tourists who visit hoping to see how they live. Without getting off the beaten track we were unable to really get any understanding of the tribes, apart from the rows of 'traditional' souvenir shops we found on the side of the road.

That evening, following the advice of our guesthouse owner, we headed out to the night market where we enjoyed a buffet style meal complete with dancing lady boys on stage! You can't ask for more than that now can you?

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Photos

Simon at Temple
One of many Wats we passed on the bike

The Mighty Mekong
This was our first glimpse of the Mekong, a river we are aiming to travel quite a bit on in the coming weeks

Amy and our Elephant
Before the ride we took the chance to give him some grub