Elephants & Tribes

Monday was officially tribe and elephant day! We had booked a full day private tour through the internet, and so it was just me, Ellen, our driver, and our guide! I felt very swish! Our guide was a really sweet, but nervous guy, whose English was good, and who seemed to become more and more relaxed as the day wore on. He told us lots of interesting stuff throughout the whole day, and was the complete authority on where all the tourist-spot toilets were. Every stop he was like ‘you need the toilet?’ No, but thanks for asking….every half hour!

First up on our tour agenda, was the elephant training camp. That sounds awful doesn't it!...’training camp’….I think that’s what they called it anyway! But really, it was a beautiful area, gorgeous countryside where the elephants were living, a sparkling clear river, and elephants that looked well-cared for and healthy. We had seen some elephants in Bangkok, and also in Kanchanaburi, but they had looked so sad, and tired, and out of place. I was worried that the elephants we would see this day in Chiang Mai would also look unhealthy and would be treated a bit like performing seals. I was dreading a moment when an elephant would balance a ball on its trunk, or play football or something!! Luckily there was no such moment…no balls anyway! There was an elephant ‘show’…but it was as tasteful as an elephant show is ever going to get, and we watched the beautiful animals showing off their strength and agility, rather than their circus skills! We also saw them being washed in the river, and it was lovely to observe the relationships between the elephants and the guys (mahouts…spelling??) who care and work with them everyday. All in all I realised that the elephants there have a pretty nice life…they sleep, eat, play around in the river, show a bunch of tourists how strong their trunks are, and then go back to sleep again! That doesn’t seem too bad does it!

We had the chance to get up close to some of the elephants, and also to look around the little stalls that belonged to people from the Lisu tribe. The Lisu tribe is originally from China, and their tribal clothes are so bright and beautiful ; bright pinks alongside yellow, green, white, blue, and black. We got a few snaps of some cute Lisu kids, and I bought a small wooden elephant from a Lisu lady with a baby on her back. Then it was on to the next tribe!! We stopped at a small village set into the mountainside, where the long-neck Karen tribe live and work. This tribe is from Myanmar (Burma), and I think is one of the 3 remaining long-neck tribes in Northern Thailand. Again, I was worried that the village would be extremely touristy, and the whole experience a little too voyeuristic. But actually, it was a very interesting and insightful 30 minutes. There was only a handful of tourists there (on similar private tours to ours), and the girls with the ring adorned necks sat peacefully weaving scarves that tourists could buy. Our guide spoke to one of the girls, and we learned her age, and how many rings she has around her neck. We looked at photographs she had of the times when she takes the rings off, and when she plays with her friends. The tribe lives extremely modestly, growing a lot of their own food, and making their money through tourism, through the scarves and trinkets that they sell at the stalls. However, there was never any forceful or crude sales pitch…in fact it was the most peaceful and calm shopping I had done in Thailand. We watched the girls weaving (1 scarf takes 2 days!), admired their work, and the beautiful colours they had chosen, bought a few pieces, took a few photographs, and then left. I felt it was a really positive experience which had enabled me to understand (a little) about the ring-wearing, and the way in which these people live.

We left the village, and continued our journey around the Chiang Dao area to where we were to catch out next mode of transport…..our elephant! Our minibus pulled up just on the side of the road, and we spied the elephant that was awaiting out company. I was kind of scared getting on and off the elephant…especially when my guide pointed to how and where I should step to reach my seat…I had to step right on the elephant’s back…I felt so bad! Sorry Mr Elephant….actually, no I’m not sorry, you got you own back later!! Ellen and I sat on the seat on the elephant’s back, and the mahout guy (with complete ease!) swung onto the big guy’s neck. And we were off!! The trek was about 90 minutes through the jungle (forest jungly type area!), which was often scary, but on the whole really really fun! I felt so high up…which was the first thing that made me nervous, as I looked down and saw how far down the leaf-matted floor was. Steep slopes were also a cause for concern! Going uphill was not such an issue…as you were simply forced into the back of the seat. But downhill…well, that’s another matter! You really had to hold the sides of the seat, and brace yourself, so you didn’t fall out. I didn’t really like the downhill moments…it made both Ellen and I wonder whether our travel insurance covered accident by elephant. Which leads me to my next scary point! Our elephant was hungry…really hungry. For the whole of the trek, he was always trying to wander off and munch on huge trees and leaves…if a plant was in his path, he would simply push it down, or eat it! Towards the end of the trek, during the time that Ellen was enjoying a turn at sitting on the neck of the elephant (I definitely didn’t want to try that out!), our elephant decided he still had room for some more vegetation in his stomach. He spied a banana tree (I think) at the bottom of a very steep incline, that led to a further steep steep plunging valley, and decided to go for it! Nooooooo! I was scared enough, trying to hold on to my seat, as he made his way down the slope, in spite of the shouts and slapping from the mahout, but poor old Ellen…well, she was clinging on for dear life! I could see her hands pushed into the elephant’s head, as it was her only way to hold on, and the manic terror in her voice ‘no, no, no, no,’….well, I’ll never forget it!! Haha! Now, the whole situation is quite funny to think about, and Ellen and I joke about ‘the day we almost died on an elephant’, but at the time it was really quite scary! Anyway, we made it to the end of the trek in one piece, and headed for a much needed lunch, and time to chillout! Despite the scary bits, I really did enjoy the elephants that day..both the show and the trek. They are amazing animals…so huge, and yet so graceful and calm (on the whole!)…and I suppose the scary moments just made the whole experience more dramatic and exciting in the end!

In the afternoon we explored Chiang Dao cave which has lots of shrines and Buddhas inside. I don’t know all the technical words for the rock formations in cave, but I could definitely appreciate how impressive and other-worldly everything looked. It was also nice as there didn’t really seem to be any other foreigners there…just us. It appeared to be the kind of place popular with Thai families, and so it was cool to feel you were seeing something that not every visitor to Thailand has seen , as opposed to the hoards of tourists around the reclining Buddha in Bangkok. After the cave, it was time for the final part of our tour…a trip down the Mae Ping on a bamboo raft. Fortunately our guide advised us to leave our shoes on the minibus, as he feared they might get a bit damp. Thank god he mentioned that….for the whole raft ride, my feet were covered in water! In bare feet, and with the blazing sun that was wonderful, but if I’d kept my trainers on they would’ve been ruined! The journey along the river was beautiful, peaceful, and fun when we met a little bit of white-water. It was the perfect end to a perfect day.