Thailand Trip Post 3

December 31, 2014

              New Year`s Eve! We were up at 6:30 for our elephant park adventure. We were picked up in another truck. When it pulled up, the driver said Woody`s, instead of Happy Home, but it turned out that they were the same place, a recent name change confusing matters. We sorted it out and were the first people to slide in the back of the truck. It had padded seats on its benches, but they were peeling apart. We spent about an hour driving around Chiang Mai, picking up the rest of the group and then headed off into the jungle covered hills outside of the city.

              This time our group consisted of a couple from the UK via Switzerland where the girl worked as an elementary school teacher, an Indian couple on vacation, a Danish couple with their two young boys, and an American mother and son duo. The son was working in Chiang Mai as a teacher. Teaching stories were exchanged.

              After a long, bumpy ride, we reached the park. We changed into swim suits and provided shorts, which tied around our waist, and long sleeved black T-shirts. Then we sat and had tea and learned some commands in Thai.

              Then it was down the hill to meet our elephants. Victoria and I had the only male, named Magnum like the condom, because he was so big. I sat in front, on his neck, with my knees right behind his ears, resting my hands on his head lumps. Thai elephants have two head lumps, whereas African elephants have only one, smaller head lump and bigger ears. So, it`s said that Thai elephants are smarter, because they have more brains! Their body hair is long, sparse, and coarse. Victoria sat behind me on the elephant`s spine, not a comfortable seat, and held on to a rope. This park didn`t use seats on their elephants to make it less painful for them, which freaked me out when they told us, because I didn`t want to be causing these animals pain.

My name in Thai

Some useful commands

Here's us on Magnum!

Here's a group shot after we got out of the river.

Here is the hill we rode down.

              As we headed off, I could feel his shoulders moving up and down and rocked with it like in horseback riding. I also squeezed my knees and thighs in conjunction with our spoken commands to help direct him, though I think the trainer`s commands and leg taps were the real control elements. The first part was slightly downhill and was okay. Then it got steeper and muddy. We were last and Mangum kept stopping to eat. I think he had the right idea. At the muddiest part, he stopped and Victoria started slipping off. Our guide chose that moment to be distracted of course. Victoria managed to catch herself and grabbed onto my waist. I was already tilted forward and braced with my hands on his head and couldn`t risk moving one, so I waved my foot and shouted “Hey! Help! Help!” until the guide noticed and came around. He helped push her back up and we made it the rest of the way down without incident. The rest of the trip to the water was flat and we had no problems.

              We rode the elephants into the river. Those of in the front almost got dunked! They swam down a ways and got back out. Then we finally got off! We took a group photo before walking (Thank God!) with the elephants back up the hill. Then we fed them bananas, got more pictures with them, and saw them off. We went back up to the bamboo hut where we had changed, rinsed off and ate. We had fried chicken, rice, tofu, cabbage soup, pumpkin, and celery. Another 2 hour truck ride back into the city completed our adventure. Overall, it was a good experience, but I don`t want to ride an elephant ever again. As Victoria said, “It was the best experience I never want to have again.”

We fed them bananas.

       We showered properly and rested in our room for most of the afternoon. About 5pm, we woke up, got dressed, and headed out. We grabbed a cold drink and appetizers (spring rolls and cheese sticks!) at 92 Rachamedeamon, which is both the name and the address of the café. Then we walked up the road towards the Tha Phae Gate. We wandered in and out of Wat Sumpow and Wat Phanon, both of which were hosting markets. We went through the gate into The Square, and found a giant market there, all sorts of cool street food and every kind of souvenir you could think of and several you couldn`t. We munched on coconut milk served in the husk and grilled corn on the cob while we walked along the moat. Then we went back for shrimp baskets, which we also ate along the moat. We saw several floating lanterns going up from around the city and decided to investigate.

Grilled corn on the cob, yum!

Giant prawns and fish

Walking along the moat

Wat Sumpow

Wat Phanon

We walked towards the nearest area they were coming from, down a street that had been taken over by the ever expanding market. We reached Wat Mahawan, which is where we realized you could buy a paper lantern and light it and send it off into the sky! We immediately did so. Imagine that scene from Tangled, where the crowd of people set off the floating lights? Yeah, we were in the middle of that. Basically. It was awesome!

Just inside Wat Mahawan

They were being sent off from all over the city and made the prettiest star-like tracks.

              We eventually made room for other people and walked down the street until the market petered out. We walked back up the other side, sipping strawberry smoothies and sugar can juice and eating meat on sticks. We also picked up a couple of knick-knacks and gifts. When we reached The Square again, we stayed away from the main crowd and instead joined the crowd walking along the moat. We took advantage of some open seats to take a break and have a couple of beers. Just before midnight, we went back outside and watched the fireworks go off (right in the middle of the crowd! Seriously, safety didn`t seem to be of much concern.) and joined in the screaming and the celebrating! We started walking towards our guesthouse, stopping for a celebratory first drink of the New Year and people watching.

Blurry fireworks picture

More blurry fireworks, with added Emma!

Happy New Years!

              A gecko, later identified as a spring tailed house gecko, joined us in our room that night. We didn`t see him come in, but he crawled around the walls for a bit and then went behind or maybe into the air conditioner instead of out the door. At that point we gave up and went to sleep.