Elephants, hilltribes and bamboo rafts
Trip Start
Apr 25, 2008
1
12
24
Trip End
Jun 07, 2008
Chiang Mai,
Thailand
Saturday, May 10, 2008
It feels to me that we have been a bit disorganised in that we didn't have any real plans on what to do here, nor had we read up the guide books much. On the other hand, it's nice to not be organised, and just take things day by day.
Our first day we hired a taxi truck to take us out to Bosarng - a small handicraft/arts village. There are dozens of stores selling various crafts, but also workshops and factories where you can watch stuff being made.
This area is known for it's painted paper umbrellas, and we found it quite interesting to watch these being made by hand. These women take pieces of wood, bamboo, etc in one hand, and a large machete-type knife in the other and just hack away to make the umbrella handles and the spokes at the top of the umbrella. They had others that assembled the umbrella frame, some that glues on the paper, and others that then handpainted it. It was pretty awesome to watch.
The next day we got ourselves to the bus station and caught a local bus up to Chiang Dao. This is an area known for it's massive cave complex, that extends for about 14kms. We had heard that parts of it was electronically lit up and we brought a torch thinking we could just have a wander around ourselves. Wrong!! The lit area was pretty minimal and we ended up having to hire a guide to take us through, carrying kerosene lanterns.
We got around the first corner and she pointed out the tiny hole we had to clamber through. Yikes - we hoped they realised we were westerners, and not tiny little Thais!!
The caves were pretty amazing - some massive structures, stalagmites, etc. Then she pointed up to the roof and we spotted the 100's of bats. Ugh!! That explained the inch thick 'dust' we were walking through. Debbie was lucky - she had a bandanna on her head. I had horrible visions of one of these things swooping down and getting caught up in my hair....
The next day (today) we booked a tour which would take us for a elephant ride, a trek through to a hill tribe villages and waterfalls, and finally, a bamboo raft trip down the river.
We were taken for an hour's drive out of Chiang Mai (along with a French couple and a Korean girl. First stop was the elephant ride. I have to say that within 2 minutes I just knew this was going to be awful. Sorry - but this kind of tourism is just not for me. We climbed up on to elephants, and the mahouts rode in front (on the ele's neck). They used they steel hook type things to poke and prod them along. We are handed a bag of bananas (for which we were later charged) and every 10 steps or so the elephants reach back to you with their truck and demand an banana before you go any further.
We were taken down a steep hill and up the other side to a 'village'. Well, it was a bit of a hut in a clearing. The guides all jumped off the ele's leaving us sitting there while they ran inside. The come back out chomping on food and smoking cigarettes. We were left standing there for a few minutes before they climbed back on, walked a bit further, then just let the elephants eat grass while we were sitting there. The entire elephant track was probably 100m (for an hour!) - and it was just dismal. In the end, we just asked to be taken back. I really wanted to just hop off and walk back.
I'm not sure if this is how ALL elephants rides are - but it's NOT something I would recommend. I hated it.
Back in the bus, we made our way to a Karen hill tribe village. Again, I felt that it was such a farce. This stop is really just an opportunity for us to stop and buy something at one of their stalls selling various handcrafts. We watched a lady weave a piece of silk, but she stopped as soon as we turned our back. It's all for the tourists.
One of the best parts of the day was just walking through the village into the jungle for a trek to a waterfall and another village. We were told we could take a swim in the waterfall (hmmm... where have I heard this before?) Regardless, the scenery was stunning, and our guide had a particular interest in plants and flowers, so he was often pointing out interesting bits and pieces.
Whilst the waterfall was truly a waterfall with lots of water gushing down, it was still that lovely shade of brown that just isn't very appealing, so we gave up on the idea of swimming to cool off - again.
We walked a bit further and arrived at a roadside restaurant where we had a fantastic lunch served up (3-4 dishes of curries, stir-fried veges and fresh fruit).
Finally, we were take to the drop-off point for the bamboo raft trip. We had seen pictures of the rafts tied together with small chairs on them travelling very sedately down the river. This was what we expected. This is not what we got!
The raft was made of 6 biggish pieces of long bamboo, tied together at the front, middle and back. As you walked across them the water gushed up through bamboo pieces. No problems - except there were no chairs. So.. we had to sit on the bamboo - and get very wet bottoms. We rafted for about 30 mins through some very mild rapids (Grade 1, if that). Our guide thought it was a great joke to rock the raft, run it into the swirling rapids and into branches lining the river. He was a bit of a cheeky bugger and had fun splashing us. All this was fine - but of course, this was not the cleanest water you have seen. It's the usual shade of muddy brown that we have come to expect. We just didn't expect to be drenched in it. Yech! We were doing the usual girly shrieks everytime he splashed us, but it's hard to shriek when your mouth is tightly clamped so as to avoid inadvertently drinking any of that water.
Back in the hotel I rinsed my shorts for 5 mins before the water started to run clear again - that's how muddy it was.
All in all, we had a ball on the second half of this trip. The elephant riding and village visit I would miss if I were to do it again.
Now that we can cross a road like a local, we figure it's time to drive like one. Today (Wed 14th) we are getting a rental car for about a week and will be making our way down towards Phuket (via Kachanaburi/River Kwai and some National Parks we think). Stay tuned....
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Hope all is well with everyone!! Thanks to those with have been sending us notes and emails - it's always nice to hear from everyone back home.
Comments
Elephants
I think there are Elephant rides and Elephant 'camps'. We had a really good elephant ride at a 'camp' in Khao Sok National Park where they seemed to treat the Elephants well. By contrast we saw Elephants on Koh Samui in a tourist sport that were chained up and swaying from side to side (apparently a sign of distress - and I found it quite distressing too)