Thursday, February 08, 2007

Chiang Mai: Bamboo-Elephant tour

We are up in time for the tour and do not need the scheduled wake-up knock. Today, the one day we probably need the nutrition and energy provided by a real breakfast, we have only coffee and a pastry.

Wouldn't you know it, the first hour of our tour is spent going from hotel to hotel picking up other tourists. We are harmonizing with our tour group, welcoming each new pick up and planning to spend a lovely day getting to know each other a little better. We are intrigued with meeting Francisco from Cancun, Mexico who is in Chiang Mai for a Tao retreat where he will have a three week spiritual experience silently ensconced in a closet. I am fascinated.

We welcome Gary from England who's doing the tour alone as his travel friend has previously enjoyed it. We finish our pickups with a final stop at the office where we meet many buses who have picked up other tour goers and we have a little Chinese fire drill as everyone gets off their bus and onto another bus. I wonder how many years it took to develop these logistics.

We now have a new travel group that includes us and Gary from England and we all seem too frustrated to go through the meeting process again and have a quiet ride out of town. Our first stop is to pick up three more travelers, all ladies from Australia. As the guide spends a minute telling us about the tour, it would appear that we have two different programs going on here. She keeps talking about the one day trek. I am absolutely positive that we have not signed up for a trek, which to me mean walk through the jungle. I am certain that in the jumble of folks getting on and off the bus we were supposed to go somewhere else and begin dreading a day of trekking. I have improper shoes!

Our first stop is a butterfly and orchid farm. The butterflies are not colorful or impressive, but the orchids are. Victor takes some really nice pictures and I am tempted to buy something souvenirish, but the prices aren't good. We share a coffee with Gary before the bus heads up the mountain.

When the bus gets to the little village, Victor and I along with Gary and the ladies from Australia are instructed to get off and with our tour guide we will go see the Elephants. I guess the other people on the bus are the ones trekking. I am thrilled.

The plan is to first see the elephants, not ride them. We will then go to a zoo and then walk over to where the riding elephants are. I am confused but we go along with the program figuring they have this ironed out and all will be fine.

All but one of the big elephants is out with riders and we meander over to where the babies are. Cameras come out and cooing begins. We feed them food they can reach on their own and feel good about ourselves. I reach out to one of the elephants that seems in distress and he swiftly swats me with his trunk. I am grateful not to have been any closer! A fellow rides over on an elephant who poses for pictures. This time I am not swatted and sit on an extended elephant knee.

Across the way is a patch with what looks to be frames of some sort drying in the sun. Elephant dung paper. Cool!

We wander the grounds, find the shops, look about, find bathrooms, use them, find beverages, have one and it is all very free form. I guess our guide had a handle on where we all were because when it was time to walk to the zoo, we were all together. Up the hill we head and the next stop is a little market place where the ladies are all in traditional village attire, very colorful. We find the prices here to be half of what they were down by the elephant camp and pick some nice things up to bring back home. Then we walk and walk and walk. Ugh. Up hill.

When we get where we are going, we see a bunch of the people who were on our bus earlier in the day. Cool. We sit for lunch, which is made edible by the addition of the sauces provided. Our group, now melded as one, is split up again as Victor and I are taken off to ride an elephant.

We have to climb a one story platform to board the beast. Once in, it seems okay...until the elephant moves. Victor and I are sitting in a little metal seat with a safety bar across the front. Victor is to my left. As the elephant takes a step first Victor takes a dip downward, then I do as Victor comes back up. Oh, My! This for an hour? I want to change places with the guide who is sitting behind the elephants head and not experiencing any of this dipping.

We head up a hill on a very narrow path and as transportation minister, I am of course on the cliff side of the hill high up on this huge animal who in picking his way on a foot wide path with no safety rail to keep us on the hill should the elephant have a miss-step. I am trying hard not to let this panic me. Victor is enjoying my fear and keeps telling me to take a picture of this and that and all I can do is hang on. As soon I gain confidence that we won't tumble off the hill, we reach the top. The views are beautiful with terraced fields of vegetables, homes in the distance....But also at the top is where we start going down. This is far worse than going up and I feel I just might tumble out of the little chair and land right on top of the guide. I am floundering. Then I think my movements are sure to unsettle the elephant and I will cause our fall. I sit very still through the rest of the ride and actually enjoy the second half on fairly flat ground.

When we alight from from the lumbering beast and reconnect with our tour guide and head off through the terraced fields to our waiting van. I fall off the terrace twice, but don't step on any poisonous snakes. Having abandoned all others, our group is now just three, Victor and myself and we have Francisco from Cancun Mexico back with us.

Next we get a water buffalo ride through the town and surrounding fields in what really looks like a cart that would have been around 2,000 years ago. The pegs holding it all together are wooden dowels. The water buffalo also look like they are from 2,000 years ago as does the town itself, with the exception of the half dozen Satellite dishes and occasional cell phone.

Done with our land adventures, we board a bamboo float, another relic from an earlier time. This is very peaceful and uneventful. We are enjoying the company of Francisco for the last hour, Victor far more that I because the are speaking Spanish most of the time, and I only catch a few bits. We are passed by another raft. I don' t think this is fair and offer or guides a big tip if we retake the lead. They don't really understand and we come in second. Victor tells me it is not a race and that we got more time on the river than those who passed us, a better value for our money. I am tired and want to go home.

We have all agreed that we do not need to take a walk through the jungle to a waterfall that has no water falling and head off to the vans for home. I hope that we have few stops this time, or are first off the bus.

We get back in time for dinner and a massage before we need to head to the airport for our return to Bangkok. We eat just down the street at Pum Pui, a fantastic Italian restaurant. The pizza was perfect, the salad wonderful. We both enjoyed our $4.5o Thai massage (Chiang Mai is even cheaper than Bangkok!)

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