Elephants!

Sunday morning after an adequate breakfast at the hotel we got on the bus and rode about an hour or an hour and a half north of Chiang Mai, past a number of military bases, golf courses, new developments, and smaller communities to the scenic countryside. Eventually we stopped at a remote and quite modest mountain village where we got off the bus and walked through the the streets and up the hill to the Thai Elephant Home.

After changing into attractive blue mahout uniforms and shoving our belongings into small lockers, we listened to a basic briefing about the place, Asian elephants, what we were about to experience, and how to ride an elephant. Before long we were off to interact with the magnificent beasts. We took a group photo and fed the animals bananas and sugar cane before practicing mounting the animals and taking a quick practice ride around the lot.

Once we had our initial test run, we were off for the full day's excursion. I started out on my own at first on Wan (well, I assume she wasn't "Juan") a twelve-year-old ele with a consistent Grey color and sparse, spiny, black hair. We took off down a path that eventually crossed the road and led us to the river. Once there, Brenda joined me on Wan and we crossed the fast-moving river which was very brown from the rain the night before.

On the other side of the river, I wasn't sure what to expect. Based on the briefing, I thought we would soon be going back to the Thai Elephant Home for lunch. Boy, was I wrong. Once we crossed we began an immediate and pretty steep ascent up the hill. It was a big hill. We kept going, and eventually I figured it out: we were climbing a mountain. As long as we kept Wan on the path and away from the delicious bamboo and trees along the way, we continued to climb higher and higher until we began to see the surrounding mountains through the thinning trees and great views of the now-distant village below. About when I thought it would never end, we reached a hillside structure and watering hole where we stopped for lunch.

The lunch itself was a quite delicious Pad Thai wrapped for us individually in banana leaves along with some sticky rice also packaged in banana leaves. I was barely hungry enough to eat all of it, as delicious as it was. We also had some fresh, green, little oranges. As we ate, we watched the elephants come about two at a time to bathe themselves in the mud. When we were done eating, we all got an elephant kiss and the students got in the mud to play with a couple of the creatures, applying mud to their skins to help them stay cool and to keep flies from bothering them.

Following that messy event, it was time to descend the mountain. By this time I was feeling a little off, and I thought maybe it had to do with the intense heat. I got a Sprite, thinking the sugar would help, and when offered a choice I concluded it would be better to ride back down rather than walk (especially since I was wearing flip-flops). This time I had Wan to myself. I thought we would never reach the bottom of that mountain. I was second in line, and it was impossible to turn around to see the group behind me. By the time we finally got to the bottom of the mountain I definitely knew that I wasn't feeling very well and I was ready to go back. However, the at the bottom of the mountain was the river, which meant we all got to play in the river with the elephants, rinsing them and splashing around. It was pretty cool, and I heard students remark that it was the best day of their lives.

Once we had our fill of fun and photo opps, it was back on to the elephants for the trip back to the Thai Elephant Home. I thought it would be a short ride back up the same path we came down, but of course it was not. We took the long way - first past a handful of very nice riverside homes, then past what seemed like a center of operation for the village with lots of trucks and oxcarts parked around, past a number of mostly vacant tree-level stands (many of which were in disrepair) where people sell bananas and sugar cane to passing tourists, and finally onto a dirt road leading away from the Thai Elephant Home. It was a chance for one last photo before we rode the elephants through the streets past many of the local homes, up the hill, past the school to the Home.

We dismounted our rides and said goodbye, then went up to get our things, shower, and change. We ate watermelon while everyone cleaned up and we waited for the staff to finish a slide show of our day. They captured some great photos of us, which we were able to see on site and which were actually posted on Facebook before we left! A fun day, but I was feeling pretty crappy by the end of it. Oh - and we all used muscles we didn't even realize we had to maintain balance on top of elephants for more than two hours of riding. We walked down the hill to the bus and rode through the pretty tropical mountain scenery back to the city.

We had free time when we got back. Brenda and Angie disappeared off the bus before I knew it and I proceeded to make a plan to meet my acquaintance Paige for dinner. I know Paige through mutual drum corps connections -  she marched in the Colts and Colts Cadets for several years before spending a couple of years on the tour admin staff. Oddly enough, our timing never really overlapped so we probably hadn't met in person before.

Paige and I made plans to go for the Northern Thai noodle curry dish, Khao Soi. She came to meet me at the hotel, where we said "Hello" to Angie and Brenda in the lobby bar where our students were quite loudly enjoying Happy Hour. She cringed a bit when we told her about the elephants , and recommended a sanctuary Angie might take the class to in the future. We took an Uber to a hole-in-the-wall restaurant near the Chinese market called "The Best! Local Thai Restaurant" because, why wouldn't we? We had some delicious Khao Soi, mediocre Thai beer, and some good conversation about Thailand, her teaching work, our class, and of course, drum corps. Before leaving the area she went with me to a pharmacy to get some Tylenol and cough medicine. I asked about taking a Tuk-tuk back to the hotel, considering Paige seemed to be an advocate for them prior to the trip, but she said it would cost way more than and Uber - so we took an Uber back to the hotel and she went home to sleep before her first day of teaching in a new school the next day, which was the first day of the school year.

Although I wasn't feeling great, I was feeling better after dinner and I was equipped with Tylenol so I didn't want to squander my last, and only free night in Chiang Mai. One thing the city is known for is the Sunday Night Market featuring a lot of locally made crafts. I walked to the market from the hotel - about a 15-minute stroll. I came upon the east end of the market where it meets a massive brick gate that was part of the original city wall. Beyond the gate, the market extended for blocks and the street was filled with tourists checking out the various vendors, with and occasional Street musician and some side areas for Street food. There was lot of fun stuff to look and, and I could have sent a lot of time there, but I knew I needed to keep an eye on the time so I could get a reasonable amount of sleep. So I ventured in just a few blocks before turning around, leaving with only a few small items and an odd little ball of chocolate ice cream.

On the way back to the hotel was a massage place I had identified in advance. I knew I wanted a massage at some point, and with the sore muscles I had after this elephants this seemed like an appropriate time to do so. I went in and was soon disappointed to learn they the guys who do the Thai massage were not working that evening. I had to settle for a regular "aromatherapy" massage - although I must say the oil really didn't seem scented. In any case, I enjoyed a massage and made my way back to the hotel to be in bed by about Midnight.

So that was Sunday. We're still on the bus, somewhere near Lafayette. Close to wrappings this thing up...

We really got some great photos with Elephants. Check out all the May 14 photos here:  https://www.facebook.com/My-Elephant-at-Thai-Elephant-Home-1825029831056274/