Road to Chiangmai...

As we headed off to Chiangmai for the final leg of the tour, we made a couple stops along the way, the first of which was the White Temple. The temple was built by a local artist in the village and was the most spectacular, ornate wat (temple) that we have seen yet... Every inch of the place was white and had some intricate detailing throughout. 

the toilets...

Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but what decorated the walls inside was amazing. They were covered in hand painted murals of the history of the temple and the Buddhist images, as well as the artist's depiction of good and evil. After spending some time walking throughout the grounds, we got to visit his exhibit onsite and pick up some artwork. Also amazing onsite was the building housing the restrooms that was covered entirely in gold (just paint though).

Next on the road to Chiangmai included a second round with some native animals except the friendly elephants were now replaced with tigers!

The tigers were housed at the Tiger Kingdom in Chiangmai that had been developed to help protect and preserve the species. As part of the fundraising efforts, visitors are given the opportunity to sit with, lay on, pet and take photos with all the animals onsite. While they wouldn't tell me the last time that a tiger attacked anyone... all of the animals had been born at the sanctuary and had been raised at the hand of the trainers so they were 'safe.'

While we chose to get pictures with all four sizes (smallest, small, medium and big cat) the experience was pretty amazing and not as terrifying as you would initially expect...

The Mexico of Asia...

First stop on our travels today included a visit to an area along the Thailand border referred to as Monkey Mountain. Hundreds of monkeys come down to this area from the nearby cliffs to walk the land but more importantly get fed by the tourists. Upon entry you only see a few, but as soon as you are holding a banana there are hundreds… additionally, you have Thai boys surrounding you with their slingshots to protect you from them… it was a little funky. Although neat to see, it was a little sad to see them relying so heavily on the humans for food, and a little discerning to have adult monkeys chasing after you for a banana.

After this we were off to explore the Golden Triangle area of Northern Thailand, and began with a trip to Burma. While also a Buddhist country, Burma houses a different type of Buddhist and the respectful, calm natured men of Thailand are replaced by loud and obnoxious Burmese… Additionally, the markets and villages are engulfed in poverty and unpleasant. Upon entry, we were ready to leave but instead went on to visit a local temple and tour the village along the border. Following this we were then given time to shop the market where you could find just about any item you wanted as a knock-off. Here you could buy anything from a Prada purse to the iPhone 5 (apparently Burma is the first to get it seeing as the US is still holding strong to the iPhone 4…). The market was chaotic and dirty, and given this in combination with the rest of our time in the country I have now dubbed Burma the Mexico of Asia.

 

After this we were off to a viewpoint of the Golden Triangle over the river that allowed you to see Thailand, Laos, and Burma together…

Then we were off by means of ‘Raceboat’ for a river tour and trip to our third country of the day—Laos. Here we visited another market and saw another fake good  market galore.

 

While neither of these countries were exactly thrilling to explore or see, we at least got to have the experience, and pick up a few more passport stamps while we were at it… Also, we realized even more what a great country Thailand is and how developed it is compared to its neighbors... but more than anything we were just happy to be 'home'.

Elephantes!

Today was elephant day with a visit to the Thai Elephant Conservation Center. This place was absolutely, and this has made for the best day yet on the tour and maybe the trip alone! We spent the better half of the day at the park and it was an amazing experience!

The day started off with a visit to some of the mahouts and their elephants to pet and see them interacting. The mahouts are Thai men who believe that they were born with the duty to care for an elephant and are assigned to an elephant early on in life, and remain together until either of them dies. It is pretty spectacular to see the two parties interact and how well they can communicate with the elephants understanding many of the Thai commands and motions. Apparently, the mahouts are unable to marry without the elephants approval of the woman first which brings a whole new light to the asking for permission part of the proposal...


The park even has a two-year old orphan who was rescued in the wild and brought to the conservation center which was quite amazing to interact with. While many of the elephants were quite 'naughty' as described by their mahouts, we got to pet, photograph and interact with all of the various elephants around the park for the better part of the morning. 



After this it was time for elephant group bath time in the lake to prepare for show time...


We then followed the parade of elephants as they proceeded to the show area tail in trunk the whole way through with even the baby joining in on the procession...

During the show, the elephants went through the various tasks that they were used for throughout Thailand including the pulling, pushing, kicking and just general transportation of logs and other materials, as well as some other tricks that their mahouts had taught them. These included balancing and adult male elephant on a log and having a myriad of pictures painted. Of the paintings there were flower abstracts and self portraits...needless to say it was pretty amazing to witness.

Following the presentation, we were off for an elephant ride around the parks with the company of the mahout and set out around the center....

After, we were off to play with some elephant dung and try our hand at making dung paper on site... mine was pretty bad...

Finally, our last adventure with the elephants involved a venture next door to the elephant hospital to visit some of their patients. One of them happened to be a seven month old baby elephant brought to the center with his mom as he was born a day premature and because of it wasn't able to utilize his mother's milk...

Others included this guy who suffered a broken leg after falling down a mountain as well as a large group that had been injured by land mines along the Burma/Thailand border. Unfortunately, their excursions along the border had cost many of the wild elephants their legs as they stepped on the mind, but after arriving to the hospital, they were able to be fitted with a prosthetic leg to help return some normalcy to their lives...


As we eventually had to leave the park, we made one last stop at the local pineapple farm along the road to get some great pictures of Jon jumping and plants a'growin'... This place was actually quite shocking as I admittedly had no idea this was how pineapples grew.

Sorry for such a long one with a myriad of pictures but the elephant experience was quite amazing and a once in a lifetime experience!! If you ever find yourself wandering the streets and neighborhoods of Thailand you have to make a pit-stop here for a day!

Sukothai Bike Ride

The second stop of our trip included a visit to Sukothai and the Sukothai Historical Park. We all rented bicycles for the day and set out on a journey through the park, visiting the various ruins throughout.

Sukothai was the first capital of Thailand centuries ago, and the ruins in the park dated back to the 13^th century. Most of the statues throughout the area were once covered in gold, but most of that has now either deteriorated or been stolen over time.

Getting to see the ruins was pretty spectacular, and getting to do it all from the seat of a bicycle made it even better. Although I don’t remember the last time that I actually took a bicycle ride—do not fret, as the saying that you never forget turned out to be true.

Included between all the Buddha and other religious relics was a statue built to honor a late king of Thailand. This was in fact the weirdest exhibit we had seen; as a woman was present during the visit repaying the king for the blessings he had granted her. As part of her retribution, she was offering the heads of six pigs and whiskey to the king. Come noon, she would then offer the feast to those also visiting the statue as part of her offering, and refusing the food wasn’t an option out of respect… given that it was ten minutes before 12 when we were there, the visit was cut short as we pedaled out of there.

Another aspect of the park was the releasing of animals that was offered as a religious gesture. With this you could release anything from eels, turtle, and fish to mussels and baby birds all bringing various blessings upon their freedom. Seeing the animals trapped in their plastic bags was pretty heart wrenching so we both bought into the trap and paid to release a bag. Undoubtedly, the evil trap lady probably just went and caught the same animals as soon as we departed, and us paying to release only encouraged her to continue doing it but it was really hard to avoid…

After spending the day at the park and getting in our cycle workout for the day, it was back to the hotel for dinner in the town of Sukothai and to prepare for another bus ride—this one only four hours—to the town of Lampang.