Chiang Rai, Thailand - Elephant rides and Village Trek
We left about 9:30 a.m. and headed to the elephant camp to ride elephants as the first part of our trek. There are about 35-elephants available for rides. Before riding them, we bought some bananas and pineapples to feed them. Some of them were quite aggressive in seeking out the treats. At at one point I had three elephant trunks probing me for the food I had purchased.
We ascended the loading platform and boarded our elephants, John and Kyle on one, me on another. Each elephant had a Thai mahout driver that rode either behind or in front of the elephant's ears. The mahout let me ride on on the elephants neck behind the ears for a short time and I found it was not mean feat to stay balanced. I used my hands on the elephants head to help balance. I might have been able to hold onto the elephants ears, but with no instructions about what's safe to hold onto, I didn't want to risk it.
As we left the loading area it was interesting to pass electric poles and buildings and equivalent to the 2nd floor in height. The ride is slow and plodding, but the view is quite nice. Trying to take pictures from an elephant is quite challenging, but I did manage to get a few decent shots of John and Kyle and surrounding scenery.
After riding the elephants, we crossed the river and rode in our guides' (Kai's) truck to village where we would start our trek. It was pouring rain, se we held up for a few minutes until it let up before starting. Kai took us on a dirt road to the usual route he would take to the village through the woods. Unfortunately the water had risen so high that we could not cross a stream at the beginning of the trail. We had to take the more travelled, villager's route to the village.
The trail had the stickiest mud I have ever encountered. I was wearing Teva type sandals and had a 3" fringe of mud tenaciously clinging to the outer sides and about of 1" or more of mud clinging underneath the sandals. I was walking with huge clods of sod stuck to your feet. I used a stick very so often to detach some of the mud, but it was fairly useless, it would accumulate again almost instantly. It was a long trek to village!
Kai did help to break up the journey by entertaining us with various things.
We left about 9:30 a.m. and headed to the elephant camp to ride elephants as the first part of our trek. There are about 35-elephants available for rides. Before riding them, we bought some bananas and pineapples to feed them. Some of them were quite aggressive in seeking out the treats. At at one point I had three elephant trunks probing me for the food I had purchased.
We ascended the loading platform and boarded our elephants, John and Kyle on one, me on another. Each elephant had a Thai mahout driver that rode either behind or in front of the elephant's ears. The mahout let me ride on on the elephants neck behind the ears for a short time and I found it was not mean feat to stay balanced. I used my hands on the elephants head to help balance. I might have been able to hold onto the elephants ears, but with no instructions about what's safe to hold onto, I didn't want to risk it.
As we left the loading area it was interesting to pass electric poles and buildings and equivalent to the 2nd floor in height. The ride is slow and plodding, but the view is quite nice. Trying to take pictures from an elephant is quite challenging, but I did manage to get a few decent shots of John and Kyle and surrounding scenery.
After riding the elephants, we crossed the river and rode in our guides' (Kai's) truck to village where we would start our trek. It was pouring rain, se we held up for a few minutes until it let up before starting. Kai took us on a dirt road to the usual route he would take to the village through the woods. Unfortunately the water had risen so high that we could not cross a stream at the beginning of the trail. We had to take the more travelled, villager's route to the village.
The trail had the stickiest mud I have ever encountered. I was wearing Teva type sandals and had a 3" fringe of mud tenaciously clinging to the outer sides and about of 1" or more of mud clinging underneath the sandals. I was walking with huge clods of sod stuck to your feet. I used a stick very so often to detach some of the mud, but it was fairly useless, it would accumulate again almost instantly. It was a long trek to village!
Kai did help to break up the journey by entertaining us with various things.
posted by Chris at 10:00 PM
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