This past weekend, some of the Lertlah teachers (mostly from
U of M) and myself headed to Northern Thailand, to the jungle area of Chiang
Mai. Chaing Mai turned out to be my
favourite destination so far because of the many different things you can do
there. We were fortunate to have visited
on a Thai long weekend (for a Buddhist holiday), so we got to spend three days
taking in the sights. Because Chiang Mai
is farther away from Bangkok than is convenient to bus, we flew by plane
instead.
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| One of the vertical zip lines. |
When I thought about Chiang Mai originally, I expected a
city much like Bangkok. Instead, I found
Chiang Mai to be far more laid back and relaxing. There were far fewer people, and the weather
was not as hot and humid, making it much preferable to Bangkok. There were still plenty of tuk tuks and
trucks to hire for transportation, and enough 7 Elevens that we were never in
need of cheap necessities. Further, the
hotel restaurant was quite decent, and I had many meals along with every
breakfast there (I had the banana pancake twice). The nice thing about our hotel (SK House II)
was that there was a travel agent located right inside the lobby, who asked us
what we wanted to do and helped us to book tours and set up all of our
plans. The not so nice thing about our
hotel was that giant rats infested the lobby.
There was actually no door to the lobby, so in the evening the rats can
just walk in and make themselves at home in the decorative rock garden. It was unfortunate that when we first arrived
it was in the evening, and we saw the rats right away. I was relieved to find afterward that our
hotel room was clean and pretty nice after all.
I did wake up both mornings to some dead cockroaches on the floor (and
even had to kill one…Ahh!). I recently
found out that when you kill cockroaches other ones swarm to the corpse. I think that if I knew that earlier I
probably would have found the courage to pick the dead ones up. Oh well…
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| A view of the jungle from zip lining. |
The first day, Saturday, our group signed up for an all-day
zip-lining package at a place called Flight of the Gibbon. We spent all day zip-lining on 32 different
runs for a very reasonable price. What
made the excursion even better was that the zip-lining ran through the jungle,
and we were amidst all of the exotic plants.
Many of the zip-line platforms were built onto giant trees, and were
very high in the air. Despite the fact
that we were in Thailand, the course was extremely safe and professional. We were clipped onto a safety line at all
times when above ground level. I liked
that this zip-lining facility included some shaky wooden suspension bridges to
cross. Also, it had many unusual lines,
including some called “honeymoon” runs where two people went on parallel lines
at once, and some completely vertical runs that dropped you straight down. My favourite run was called “Superman”
because you were harnessed to the back instead of the front, and had to leap
off the platform with the faith that you would be caught. After zip-lining, we ate an included lunch
and went to see a waterfall near the facility.
It was not as grand as the one in Kanchanaburi, but the hike to the top
was still somewhat grueling at points.
In the evening, I explored the night bazaar in Chiang Mai, which
consists of an outdoor market in the midst of a shopping district.
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| One of the elephants and I posing at the end of the tour. |
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| Our guide with a mother elephant and her baby. |
The next day, Sunday, I went with a fellow teacher and
friend to an elephant training facility for a day long tour. As it turned out, we were the only two people who signed up
that day, and therefore we got a private tour.
The guide was named Woody, and he seemed more than comfortable sharing
all the details of his life with us.
Besides the potential awkwardness, he was very nice and explained the
elephant training process to us truthfully.
Elephants are trained with a tool called a hook, which is named for what
it is. Although the hook looks scary, it
is necessary for training such a big and powerful animal. Woody told us that any facility who denied
using a hook was lying to us, and from how he acted with the animals, you could
tell he really loved the elephants. The
elephants we met were all “spoiled”, for they were fed generously and given a
long break during the short time that we were riding them for free time. We began the day by feeding the elephants
some bananas, which for them are like treats.
The elephants opened wide and we stuck the bananas directly into their
gaping mouths (which got us pretty covered in saliva). We met the baby elephant of the bunch, in a
corral with its mother. It was very
cute, and very playful and curious. We
then learned a bit about controlling an elephant while riding it. We took turns practicing getting on an
elephant and commanding it for turning left and right and moving forward and
backwards. While mounting the elephant,
it assisted you by bending its knee and hoisting you onto its back. We used the hook as well, although only as
one might use a riding crop or reins while on a horse. We had lunch at the facility and then went
for an afternoon elephant ride up a nearby hill. While we were waiting for the elephant to
have a break, the guide showed us how to make a fire with only bamboo and a
machete, which was very interesting.
After, we got back on the elephant and rode it to a small stream, where
we got off and bathed it. Another
elephant joined us, making two, that absolutely relished being in the
water. The elephants were bothered by
biting flies, so the guide made a medicine from leaves and applied it to their
bites. While in the water, the elephants
took up water in their trunks and sprayed us.
They also relieved themselves at one point, so we were forced to avoid
the floating snowball-sized balls of poop.
After that, we climbed onto the elephants once again, and they took us
swimming in a deep dug out. The
elephants were trained to duck under the water, completely submerging
themselves and forcing me up to my neck in water. It was an unreal experience to be swimming
with such giant animals. After that, our
tour concluded and we returned to the city.
I am so happy to have been able to do something like that, which I would
never have had the opportunity to do at home.
That night in Chiang Mai, I took to the Saturday market (which is quite
well known) and spent far too much baht on presents for back home.
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| Me posing with the smallest of the tigers, only 2 months old! |
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| One of the "small" tigers at 8 months old. |
The next day, Monday, our group headed to the Tiger
Kingdom. It is a facility that allows
you to get in a cage with trained tigers to pet them and have your picture
taken with them. This actually turned
out to be a great experience! Despite
rumors that the tigers are drugged (which is true at other facilities), this
facility claimed to use other training methods that included hitting the tiger
on the nose with a small stick when it tries to bite or claw, and introducing
them to people at a very young age.
While we were there, many of the tigers seemed to be active and even
playful with each other. We first went
to the smallest tiger cage, which held babies of both 4 and 2 months. The two-month olds were about the size of a
large house cat, and were very adorable.
One even surprised me by climbing into my lap. While there, I also saw the biggest tigers
they use with people, which were a little bit intimidating. Each person went in with a trainer, however,
who monitored what you did and where you pet the tiger (making sure you kept
away from its face). The tiger fur was
somewhat coarse, but their bellies were still very soft. I also pet a medium sized tiger, which was
content to relax while sunning his stomach.
It was so incredible to be able to get so close to such a powerful and
dangerous animal. Although the facility
was almost like a zoo (and is in fact affiliated with the Chiang Mai Zoo), it
broke the boundary between animal and spectator, which was amazing.
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| One of the large tigers cooling down in a pool. |
Overall, I am sure it is easy to see why Chiang Mai is
likely to be a repeat destination for me.
I still want to experience some more of the attractions that it offers,
including the zoo, a shooting range, a cat fishing trip, a jungle trek, and
white water rafting (which is apparently much better in July anyway). I am eager to get back there!
If you are interested, you can also check out some of my elephant pictures directly from the trainer's website:
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