Around Chiang Mai and Kissing the Elephant

Local Temples

Today we stayed at the hotel in Chiang Mai and had a day on the Tuk Tuks exploring the local area. It started with a couple of temples but again we were the only tourists so very serene looking round. Another warm day around 32C.

So far the temple we've seen have all been relatively new, built in last 30 years but still very ornate and in the classic style.

Packed her Bags and Said goodbye to the Logging

We then headed to Mae Wang elephant home and after a decent lunch we were able to feed the elephants. These elephants are either adopted after they were no longer used in the logging industry or the off spring of those ones. They have tried to release them into the wild but they are too used to humans now so stay in these homes. They seem pretty content and after feeding them we took them with their mahouts for a walk along the river.

This ended up as almost a water fight between us and the guides before the elephants started spraying us as well.

When we were feeding them, Karen was the only person brave enough to have a elephant kiss!

The elephants were great fun and the fact that they no longer let people ride the elephants is a good sign their welfare is looked after.

More Casual Racism

We did get on to camel rides and the Australian lady who had been moaning about the Chinese yesterday, told a story about when she was in China and went for a camel ride. She had seen a grey camel she wanted to ride when they let a Chinese man ride that one so she couldn't. She was still really disgusted by this without any apparent sense of awareness! Having said this they are all friendly and nice to talk to.

Rafting

After the elephants we had a bamboo raft down a river. This was generally a peaceful ride with the odd rapids and a bit of ducking to avoid trees. The young lads controlling the rafts were brilliant.

WE finished the day with another lovely meal and were all given Tuk Tuk Club t-shirts.