2007 - Asia - Day 18 - Chang Mai, Thailand

Today was fantastic! It could possibly be my favorite day of the trip. We left the hotel at 8:00 and traveled about 90 mins to the elephant park. For the first half hour, we fed the elephants and walked around to see them. Asian elephants are smaller and more intelligent the African elephants. We then watched the keepers take the elephants to the river and give them a bath. It was very cool. Next was an elephant show. The elephants danced, played soccer and basketball, and one elephant painted a picture of an elephant. Unbelievable! We then had an elephant ride through the jungle and river. It was so much fun and so cool. It lasted about 30-40 mins. About every 10 mins, there was a “service station” where we could buy bananas and sugar cane to feed our elephant. The elephants know they get fed at these places, and didn’t like to go on without it. We fed at 3 of the 4 places. It was an unforgettable experience. We then got on Ox carts to ride back to the restaurant for lunch. It was a bumpy ride, but we drove past the local village where most of the people that worked at the park lived. Lunch was next and very good. I like Thai food! We then got on little bamboo rafts and floated down the river for 30 mins. Mark and I even had the chance to steer our raft. It was very tranquil to float down the river and see the jungle on all sides and the elephants roaming the hillsides. Afterwards, we went to a snake show. I was nervous about this one. I have this irrational fear of snakes, especially cobras. I sat clear at the top bleacher. Mom and Mark sat on the front row. It was sure fun to watch them jump out of their seats a few times. I’m so glad I sat where I did, because snakes came out of the pit, and was swung over their heads, and put in their faces. When the 2 king cobras were brought out, the announcer kept saying that if you get bit by one, you will die in one hour if you don’t get to the hospital. :/ It was crazy but fun. We then drove back to Chaing Mai and went to the temple on the mountain built in 1355 AD. A white elephant carried up a relic of Siddhartha (first Buddha) on his back. Where he stopped is where the king built this temple. It was a beautiful fancy temple with lots of gold Buddha’s. We also had an excellent view of the city. As we were leaving the temple, we were on our way to a jade factory. A member in our group, Don, fell as we were walking down a road with a slight decline. He fell forward and landed on his face. He cut it up pretty bad and bled all over. The Thai people were so nice and brought rags and water and called a truck to come take him to the hospital. He refused to go to the hospital, so they took him back to the hotel. During all this, it started to really rain. We skipped the factory and went back to our bus. We were all soaked by the rain, even with the umbrellas.