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Grand Palace 1
Paintings on the wall of the grand palace Hello everybody, hope you are well,
sorry for being so late with the writing, but we wrote this one last week but coulnt load any photos so we didn't publish it, but you can see photos of us on the elephans at http://www.changthai.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=1704
my mum and sister also did this with us, there are some pretty funny ones.
So week one of our trip is coming to a close antd there is almost too much to write about. Day one in Bangkok we saw the three main sights, the Grand Palace saw the changing of the guards, Wat (temple) Po which has an enormous 45m lying buddha statue, and Wat Arun, which was a cute little boat ride over the river and then back again, with a few beer chang to keep us going. Then the overnight train to Chiang Mai, cute little sleping beds which were amazingly comfortable. The toilets though i am not so sure about. Scooty definitley luked out with a urinal, i on the otherhand had to co-ordinate a squat toilet as well as not falling down the toilet that just empties straight out onto the railway... hmmmm funny. Mum had organised
Grand Palace 2
Crazy trees in the Grand Palace a very fancy place in Chiang Mai so we headed straight their for a swim. Then after mum and claire arrived off the the night bazaar, for a session of shopping. Bartering is much easier after beer. No idea what we ended up with, but mum and claire are taking all the stuff home for us - sweet!!!
THe next two days we saw more temples, more shopping and more pooling. Highlights were chatting to three young monks for two hours about their lives. Interestingly their are four main principles that monks like by, no killing, no lying, no exual relations and no stealing. They laughed and informed us that monks are only ever dismissed due to rule no 3. hehehehe. Very interesting people and massively wise for their age. learnt a lot from them. Did a fantastic cooking course, anyone going to Chiang mai has to do the ' a lot of thai' coking course the lady really knows here stuff. Funny story frm chiang mai, we were recommended a restaurant bythe lady from the cooking course that was a little out of town. We ended up with a taxi driver that spoke no english and only had
Wat (temple) Po
45m long reclining Buddha a map of the main city area, he seemed completely confused that the roads on his map continued to other places. 30minutes of trying to find this restaurant we eneded up in the middle of nowhere in the outskirts of chiang mai, only to decide it was all too hard and headed back into the city area and went the the gallery that lauchy recommended, very nice view.
So all this chat is just a prelude to the amazing three days that we have just had. Scotty, Mum, Claire and I went to the Thai elephant conservation centre for the 3 day Mahout (elephant carer/trainer) Training. This was the most amazing thing the four of us have done in our lifetimes. We spent 3 days with an elephant each learning to get on and off from different ways (on from the side when it lifts its front right leg, off from the same way, off from the front of the head when it bows down, and thenm back on by leap froging over the elephants head, making it pick up the Mahout stick, sit, lie on belly, and completely lie down) we leartn these tricks and then performed with
the other mahouts in the elephant show twice a day. Scotty's elephants name was pang kod and mine was singh kon. Most of the elephants have been donated, ceased frompoachers and illegal miners, or old mining and logging elephants. They are so massive but gentle and strong. They are awe inspiring. We also were able to bath them in the river where you can make them spray water at each of the mahouts and others from our group. Scotty is still laughing about how when another persons elephant stuck its trunk full of water at his face he grabbed the trunk and the water sprayed all over teh mahout sitting behind him. very funny, but the mnahout got him back. This session pretty much just ends up like a massive water fight with elephant trunks as water pistols. Just amazing... The elephants also completely lie down in the water so for little bits there is just a sea of trunks poking out of the water. So the general day at the school consisted of getting up at 530 to be at the school by 630, pick up sugar cane and carry it into the forrest to feed the elephants and
Dressing New Monks
Newly ordained Monks being dressed by older Monks - Chiang Mai then ride them back to the school. THen breakfast and training to do the skills, elephant bathing in the river or with a hose ( my elephant could hold the hose in its mouth and just drink straight from the hose- amazing). then the performance and lunch then more training asnd performances and then walking the elephants back to the forrest. THere are no words that can really describe the feeling of sitting on the head of an elephant and seeing people around you on elephants, it is completely out of this world... You get pretty close to your elephant - i wasnearly in tears saying goodbye today, she is so beautiful i want to keep her. The elephants can also paint so we bought a few of the paintings from scotty's elephant (mine doesn't paint). So cool. There is also a one month old baby elephant at the centre that we spent a pretty large amount of time with, he is so cute, the first baby to survive from artificial insemminztion in thailand. it was carried by scotts elephant who tried to kill it when it gave birth, but another 'grandmother' elephant broke off her chains and saved teh
Sunday Walking Street Market
Standard Market scene - Mum and kids - at the Chiang Mai Sunday street market. baby. The baby has scars from the attack. so fasciniating. Scotty got to feed the baby elephant from a bottle, of which he is pretty proud, so cute...
We are in Pai now a little town in the middle of teh hills NW of Chiang mai, beautiful scenery, and amazing atmosphere, we will be here for a for a few days and then of to Sukhothai.
Check out the photos...
http://www.changthai.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=1704
Write again soon.
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Lauren
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Hey guys! Great to hear from you, sounds like you are having a great time. Love the photos, but there an awful lot of scotty's chin!! it is a beautiful chin though =) Take care and have HEAPS of fun. Love Lauren