What (no pun intended) would a trip to Thailand be without a story about the majestic elephant? Well let us tell you, it would be a rather naff trip, so rest assured we have conjured one up for you...
But first, we were telling you about our Wat adventures in Ayuthaya and Sukothai. We spent a couple of nights in each city, which gave us enough time to scoot around the main ruins. Christopher had the opportunity to try out his best haggling skills in trying to get the bike rental shop owner down by 20 baht (1 NZ$), but was shot down. We were apprehensive about hitting the roads in Thailand on any form of transport, let alone one that we were in control of ourselves. We had read that the road rules generally consist of the bigger you are the higher up the 'right of way' food chain you are, Nicola and Christopher on push bikes would be plankton.
It was the way to get around though and we survived with no near misses. Christopher overheard a tuk tuk driver say to some tourists that he was ferrying around, that only the tourists ride the bikes around. We were not phased, it made a nice change to walking all over the show. As we have mentioned before the ruins were spectacular! We took an evening river cruise in Ayuthaya and visited the most scenic Wat in the city as the last stop, it was amazing, and we got to travel on a long tail boat powered by what appeared to be an engine out of a london bus.
The journey to Sukothai was uneventful and the bike cruising around was equally fun. We managed to get out of the town a bit and off the beaten track to look at some Wat's. There were two scooter accidents on the ride back into town, no we weren't involved, but we both commented on how amazing it has been that we haven't seen more - considering the road rules mentioned above!
After being on the go since we arrived we decided to have some down time in a semi-sleepy village called Lampang. It was a little off the backpacker circuit, thankfully, and we chilled out. The guesthouse was random, but it was clean and cool. We suffered the first night from 'inconsiderate-back-packer-itis', which hasn't been much of a problem on our travels to date. Essentially it involves (normally drunken) idiots returning to the abode of choice at a rather late hour and having no appreciation for others sleeping or the fact that the walls might as well be made of rice paper. Luckily for us, they checked out and we had the entire guesthouse to ourselves for the second night.
We have seen a good number of tourists since leaving Bangkok but Sukothai and Lampang guesthouses were deserted. It is the off season but it still seems quiet. We have wondered if the recent troubles have been a factor.
Talking of troubles, we saw our first real signs that parts of the country are still under martial law on the ride to Chiang Mai. There were several military checkpoints on the way up here. The bus was also the most luxurious we have been on, a toilet, a/c, more leg room, movie with personel audio control and a bus hostess (a chap in uniform who walks up and down the isle offering water, blankets and cold compresses). All this for a couple of extra baht. We weren't taking this option intentionally but there were no other options at the ticket counter we could work out. btw when we got on the bus half of it was occupied by uniformed soldiers going somewhere north...
Chiang Mai is a big tourist destination and the old part of the city that we are staying in is quite nice. Our hostel has a pool that we're planning on checking out tomorrow morning. The sights are compact enough to walk around quite quickly. We stumbled across a great eatery last night that served up some of the best food we have had in Thailand, amazing vegetarian dishes. The reason we came to Chiang Mai though was for the elephants...
The elephant is reverred in Thailand. About a 100 years ago there were 100k domestic and wild ones, they are now down to about 5k. The domestic elephant has had a hellish time of it as it's principle form of employment was the logging industry. Since the logging industry was made illegal 20 years ago, there principle use for their owners has been begging in the cities or to work in tourist parks giving rides etc. The conditions they are kept in and treatment varies. In Chaing Mai there is an elephant park where they keep elephants who have been abused and to try and give them a life where they get to roam freely, this is where we spent the day. We got to feed the elephants, wash them and interact a little... it was definitely moving to see this magnificent beasts and to hear and see the results of how they had been treated. The idea of being so close to an animal that weighs 3000-4000kg and get up to 25mph on a charge can be a bit intimidating, but we overcame our trepidation and had a great time of it... the pictures hopefully speak for themselves. We got to help wash some of the elephants in the river, which involved throwing buckets of water on them, to help them cool off. This was all going fine, until Nicola let go of her bucket, and accidentally hit the elephant with it...oops. Luckily everyone else (including Christopher) thought it was hilarious.
Off to Chiang Rai tomorrow for a couple of days before we attempt another border crossing... Christopher is suitably nervous, the hair gets longer etc. etc.
