On the 3rd day, we woke up at 7am and decided that we would get 7-11 bfast food. Their 7-11 is amazing well stock with a huge variety of instant food.
We also had our bags packed the night before and got ready to check out at 8.15am for a full day tour. My SIL had booked a tour guide with a big air con van to bring us around the entire day. Finally traveling in comfort. Shiok ah!
The 1st stop was the Elephant Park that was about 1 hour from the hotel. There are many different elephant parks in Chiang Mai and I was surprised to see how many elephants there were in this park. The moment we entered the park, we were captivated by the scene of elephants bathing in the river.
We were just in time for the Elephant show. The elephants were trained to do many trick.
At the end of the show, the elephants were also taught to ask for tips. We gave some but preferred to use the money to buy food for the elephant instead. The tips go directly to the trainer; if we spend money to buy food, at least the elephants benefitted directly. We were told that an elephant needed to eat one tenth of its body weight per day, which means 300kg of food per day for a full grown elephant!
The kids had a lot of fun feeding the elephants. This particular one even wrapped its trunk around Lil Shauna. I wondered if it is trained to do so but the little girl was so thrilled.
We also fed milk to a baby elephant. The milk was gone so quickly, even before I had the chance to take out my hp for pictures.
The tickets to the Elephant Park included the elephant ride. I didn't want to ride elephant; there are so many papers saying that elephants aren't meant to be riden but there was no way trying to convince kids bcos every other human in the park was riding the elephants. I made Daddy Lim go with kids instead while Popo and I waited.
It was a very long wait. While we were waiting on the platform, the elephants that were waiting for passengers were resting their head on the platform and looking at us with puppy eyes, as if asking us to buy food for them. We had to oblige.
They were gone for a long, long time. I heard that the elephants brought them down the river and up the mountain and a long route. Poor elephants must be really tired. It was a right choice to skip the riding. At least they didn't have to carry an extra person.
The ox-cart ride was also included. This time, I was made to ride with the kids. I dont know if riding the ox-cart was any less cruel. To me, it was basically a very bumpy ride.
We had a simple buffet lunch and proceeded to a long river rafting ride. This was powered by the river current and steered by humans. I could tell that it was hard work.
The river rafting was actually quite safe and enjoyable until we were invaded by butterflies! These butterflies were flying everywhere and in every direction! I lost it when one of them flew right smack into my forehead. See! I told you butterflies are dangerous! Lil Isaac tried his best to protect me but was often too slow for these scheming creatures. There were so many of them that even Daddy Lim offered to switch seat with the boy to protect me. My hero! The remaining ride was so treacherous. By the end of the ride, I was mentally and emotionally drained. I felt so violated by the butterflies. Haha.
We left the Elephant Park and headed to the Karen Tribe. It was another tourist trap but we were tourists. This is one of the oldest ladies and with the longest neck.
Many of the long neck ladies were sitting around their stall weaving. I wonder if they feel like they were in a zoo. We didn't stay very long with the Karen Tribe. It felt awkward to hawk at them or openly take pictures of them. The feeling was really strange. Most of them had smart phone and are like us enjoying technology while displaying their special attribute, which is a tradition that traces years back. It was just plain weird.
We had some time and went to the Elephant Poopoo Paper Park right beside.
This was originally in my itinerary but didn't had time to fit in. It was cheap at THB 100 per pax and we had a guide, who explained that elephants had short digestive tract that made them pooed a lot bcos they eat alot. Their poop is actually very clean and contains a lot of fiber bcos of their diet.
Their poo doesn't make good fertiliser but can be used to make paper bcos of its high fiber content. The park was very insightful and the kids had fun making paper out of elephant poop and even make art and craft to bring home using paper from elephant poop.
We headed to the train station thereafter to get ready for an overnight train ride to Bangkok. That was our 1st ever such experience.
Mummy Lim
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