Day of the Elephant

Wow, what a day! We met up with our friends from Bishop, Tom and Nancy Hardy to take the elephant tour today. We were off at 8:15 am and arrived back at our hotel at 4:30 pm. It was a full day tour starting with a trip to a Thai market (I would say supermarket). They had everything under the sun, but primarily food! Here are a few pictures.

A big bug, hog tied and fried....mmmmmm! Only 15 Bot!

Tom and Kim check out the fresh fruit (I think!)

Toasted Silk worm larvae.

Nicely prepared chickens, and we won't go into what the
other items are. However, I am sure they are delicious
when properly cooked!

This one's for Mike and Teri!

Pickled chicken feet (with claws removed!)

We then went to the elephant camp, Chiang Dao. It was pretty far out of town and up in the jungle covered hills. It was very impressive, and I really feel it was well done and worth while. First we watched as the elephants bathed with their handlers (mahouts). It was very cool, especially for the mahouts and their mounts.

Take me to the river!!

Kim feeds the elephant some bananas. She was hungry!!

The Mahouts and their mounts begin to bathe.

Scrub brushes out!

Next we watched the elephants being put through their paces. Riding in formation, mounting and dismounting, showing different logging techniques, and finally painting a picture! The older elephants are all unemployed loggers, as logging has been prohibited in Thailand for some time. Apparently the native teak forest were being decimated, and so now the country is in restoration mode. However, from what I saw they will have to bring back some thinning operations soon as many of the plantations of teak trees I observed looked to be significantly overstocked. So its good they are maintaining a skill base in working elephants!

The elephants ride in two by two!

A tandem elephant pull for those old growth teak logs!

Decking the logs at the landing!

This pachyderm shows his/her artistic side!

The finished product!

After the show we mounted an elephant and headed of to a small village of (minority people from the mountains). I thought it might be hoakie, but it turned out not to be. The had many crafty items for sale, and the "villagers" were actually just that, only making a living as a tourist attraction. Nothing wrong with that. The round trip ride up trails and creeks through the jungle was about an hour. The last home stretch was cool (literally) as we walked the elephants up the river (water to their jaw line) and back to the camp where lunch was waiting.

Tom and Nancy lead the way!

Kim bargains with a villager.

Starting the return trip.

Heading up the river toward our lunch.

Lunch!!!

After lunch, we boarded a bamboo raft for a 50 minute float down the river. The water was very low, and we scraped bottom a few times, but our guide kept us moving with his bamboo push pole. We could see that the river was 10 to 12 feet lower than flood stage by all of the debris hung up in the tree branches along the shore. It was a very quiet and relaxing float. I was thankful for the straw sun hat they issued me (even though it was a bit small).

The fleet awaits!

Away the stern line! We're underway!

Floating through the jungle.

Captain Morgan and his first mate!!

From our take out point we were driven to an orchid farm. It was fascinating and very beautiful. It was also the most humid place we have been!! Lots of great flower photo ops though.

A couple of orchids on display. These are about 10 years old!

Our guide Winya explains orchid farming.

Pretty flowers!

Rows and rows and rows of orchids!

Spirit houses in the garden.

Our last stop was a temple outside of Chiang Mei that is dedicated to local artisans. These are silver smiths, and there is a school there to teach people this art. Some of the temple buildings are decorated with aluminium instead of the gold paint so common elsewhere. They used aluminium instead of silver because of cost, and the fact that it weathers better (doesn't tarnish). It was unique!

Notice the Aluminium structure. Currently under construction,
they began about 10 years ago.

Aluminium Buddha. 

Incredible craftsmanship.

Inside, only gold accent.

Outside is over halfway complete.

Volunteer smiths work on more temple adornments.

We rested for a bit at our little B&B then had dinner at a rotisserie chicken place up the street that the Hardy's had read about last November in the New York Times Travel section. It was simple, and delicious.

SP Chicken, right up the street from our room.

Tom and Nancy toast to a great day together with us!

The Charcoa House, our hole in the wall refuge in Chiang Mei.

Great Feng Shui, once you get off the street! 

It was another great day, with great friends!

That's All!