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Published: June 26th 2007
Vimanmek Palace
Not the actually palace an outter building but its like it only bigger (not allowed to take pictures of actual palace) So we are in Chiang Mai! We came up on Friday by the overnight train. It only took 15 hours and it was torture. It was like being in the oven on christmas day with the turkey taking its last breath at you (the fan). It was so hot, bumpy and noisy, it made the sheffield to barnsley train seem like paradise. Luke nearly fell out of the top bunk on many occassions. When we go back down south we are definately flying back, we're not going through that again!!!! But the scenery was amazing!!! Kate watched the sunrise at 4.30 and continued to be glued to the window in ore for the rest of the journey!!
Before moving out of Bangkok on friday we went to see the Vimanmek Palace which is a huge mansion built all from teak wood even the nails are wood!! It was built by king Rama IV (the king and i king!!!!) and is still used by the kind and queen today. It was furnished a bit like Chatsworth House inside. It even had a metal ware collection from Sheffield! Then in the same grounds we looked around the royal elephant stable where
The Royal Elephant Stables
You could get more horses in there!!! the auspicious white elephants were kept.
Now we are here, we have good accomodation. It has its own pool so that is where we are spending most of our time.
On Sunday we went to Wat Chedi Luang a once amazing temple that was 90m high but crumbled to 60m after an earthquake. Around it was the cities foundation pillar under a very tall gum tree. Legend has it that the gum tree will continue to thrive as long as the city does. At the back as a small reclinging buddha and another smaller temple that housed a lifesize wax figure of a very famous monk (we didnt know it was wax and we pooed our pants and went out) sitting on a bench at the front. Sunday was a festival day in Chiang mai as the young monks get ordained. There was a big procession through the city and a great big night market.
Today we have been on a trip out. We first went out to an elephant camp to go on a trek into the forest. We got the biggest, hungriest, naughtiest bull elephant. We both thought we were going to fall off he
Is that a komodo dragon?
Your ok Luke i'll save you!!!! was soooooooo big, it was a long way down. We had some bananas for him and he grabbed them all then tried to eat everyone elses. Then made his own way up the mountain (to try and find more food). inbetween eating he tried to play piggyback with the lady elephants!!!! Next we went to visit a hill tribe a village of people from the Karen tribe who moved form Burma to Thailand over 50 years ago. They had just been granted a government incentive to have cattle and farm rice in the rice paddy's. This was very interesting seeing how these people live and being invited into their village. After that we went to a water fall and went in to have a swim. The current was really fast, and the water was really cool and refreshing. We stopped for some lunch then went on to a river to do some bamboo rafting. This was wet!! Luke had a go at steering at the back and managed not to fall in (though our guide was trying hard to get him in)!
We are planning on staying in Chiang Mai for a couple more days. We want to visit
the local zoo (kate's choice of course!) where there is a baby panda.
Thats all for now
Lots of love kate and luke xxx
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dad
non-member comment
elephants
Where are the pictures from the rafting surely you could of taken a few pictures while you were steering the raft you big baby. Dont forget dont ever stand behind an elephant unless you are wearing a wet suit and a helmet. cheers dad and sue xx