Jumbo Camp Elephant Training Centre 27.02.10 - 28.02.10

Hill trekking tours are the most popular activity in the surrounding areas of Chiang Mai, so we book to go on one combined with an overnight stay at an elephant training camp. The three hour afternoon trek is tough due to the heat but we're lucky to have chosen a tour that doesn't seem to be very popular as we're the only two on it. Our 'private' guide Leung warms to Greg quickly as they exchange language lessons in Thai, English and French.

Leung showing us a field of soya beans

He explains that the local villagers burn a lot of the forest here, we walk through a lot of burning ash, for mushrooms. The mushrooms grow well in the burnt remains, however he's very saddened by the loss of wildlife and perfectly healthy vegetation. Much of the area is burnt but there are still some beautiful bamboo groves with their fresh green leaves swaying in the breeze.

look at the state of Greg's feet after our walk!

We finish our walk at the entrance to the Jumbo Camp Elephant Training Centre and are shown our sleeping quarters for the night, a one sided, straw roofed bamboo house on stilts

with spectacular views over the hill valley, rice paddies and elephants lazily crunching their food below. Idyllic, and especially so because we were the only ones there. It was a real privilege to be there with the elephants and have time to observe each of them, there were five, learning their characters. Dodo was the youngest, at four years, and seemingly the most difficult to train. The biggest one, who took us for a ride, however, seemed pretty naughty too. He always wanted to stop and look around for food. Every two steps he would reach out his trunk for some fresh bamboo but most of the good stuff had already been taken. This was a much used route and virtually every plant, bush or tree within reaching distance of the path had been destroyed. He resorted to stripping off the bark and munching on that instead and soon after we'd start to feel the vibrations in his tummy before it emerged from the other end! His mahout tried desperately to get him to go in the right direction by calling out to endlessly. Eventually we made it round the circuit but not without many snack breaks first. Greg treated him to some watermelon and apple before they removed the seat. The elephants are brought here for a few months to be trained in how to pick up logs, carry things and generally go in the right direction when asked to. We have learned that all Thai elephants are, in fact, the property of the government and are protected from having their tusks removed or from having to carry too much weight. Although they're chained up here, to keep them from wandering off, they're very well cared for by each of their live in mahouts, having three baths a day and plenty of banana trees to eat.

While Leung kindly prepares our dinner we sit and watch them going about their business, eating, being led around the park by their mahout, bathing. They're very enjoyable animals to watch because they can be very funny, scratching their bums on trees, causing the whole tree to shake vigorously or rolling in the dusty mud to cool off. We have to climb the hill to our 'room' early before it gets dark because we've forgotten to bring a torch. It's a full moon tonight though so it's not too dark. Our sleep is a bit restless though because of all the animal noises- frogs, sekadas, dogs and in the early hours of the morning the village's resident cockerels, and it's actually really cold in the early morning which we did not expect.

The next day, as part of our tour, we do a bit of rafting although there's not much water in the river and go to visit the long neck tribe village where the ladies wear metal neck coils, increasing their number each year, traditionally believed to protect them from tigers. If they had the coils removed they would die because their necks would be too weak to support their heads.

　

Chiang Mai 24.02.10 - 01.03.10

monks' bowls laid out ready to receive coins

photos from our walking tour of the temples of Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai is the capital of northern Thailand. It's a tourist magnet city but it manages to retain a very laid back and culturally sound atmosphere. It's old city walls surround an area of small back streets and shining temple complexes. It's origins lie in the ancient caravan trading routes between India and China as it was the central point where many routes crossed. Luxury products such as opium and tea were transported. It has a different vibe to Bangkok and the south. Northern Thais view themselves as original Thais and this is where the country really began. There are many hill tribes still thriving here in the mountains and on the border with Burma, the populations of Karen people hold a dominant position within the communities. Our guesthouse, the Chiang Mai Whitehouse, sits on a little lane off the main walking street and has a blissfully quiet front garden and sitting area and there's a cafe two doors down which does excellent food so we go back there several times. The only down side to this place is the sheer number of tourists, mostly backpackers, but this is also a good thing because it means there's an abundance of eating places and activities companies to choose from. I can't over emphasise how laid back it feels here, more akin to Laos perhaps than mainland Thailand. We do a cooking course where we learn five new dishes, including how to make the red and green curry paste (secret ingredient- shrimp paste) soups (hot and sour and coconut) spring rolls and fish cakes. Most dishes are very quick and use very similar ingredients such as kaffir lime leaves, chillis and ginger. We're invited to eat our creations which, at the offset, is a great idea (they're really yummy) but by the end of the evening our stomachs are full and we can't even manage our prize curry dish. There's a really good night market here in Chiang Mai. It's on every night. It's mainly for the tourists but there's lots of good handicrafts and hill tribe textiles, so we partake in a little bit of retail therapy. We also visit a nearby city suburb called Bo Sang which has many traditional parasol manufacturers. We see how they construct the wooden frames, cover them with mulberry paper and glue down and finish with painted decoration.

A tour of the city's most popular temples reveals some interesting buildings, notably the half destroyed chedi which towers above all other buildings in the area. It would've been the biggest one we've seen yet but half has collapsed, which actually makes it more interesting to look at.

more photos from Sukhothai

Ruen Thai hotel swimming pool and traditional Thai teak accommodation

Sukhothai Historical Park 22.02.10

In Sukhothai New Town, 15km from the historical park, we find ourselves a little slice of luxury in the form of Ruen Thai Hotel, a traditional teak building with a picture perfect swimming pool. Our room is in the main teak house over a wooden verandah where we have to remove our shoes to cross. It's quite a nice tradition, no footwear in the living areas of the house, because it keeps the floors clean and makes a definite distinction between indoors and outdoors. It's become commonplace in Thailand because meals are normally consumed at floor level. The following day we visit the extensive historic ruins of Sukhothai Park, the site of the ancient capital of the Thai kingdom of Sukhothai in the 14th century. Most of the ruins have lost their original plaster decoration and plain brick structures are all that remain, however, some of the more important areas have been partially restored with new concrete fill-ins. The royal kingdom was built in a square format with surrounding city walls that span 2x2km. The main temple in the centre of the square is Wat Mahathat with it's three giant stone buddhas, all facing east, as is customary for all large examples in Thailand. The remaining pillars would've supported a large wooden roof and it would've been a very impressive building at the time of the first Lanna kings of northern Thailand. The former Sukhothai kingdom stretched as far south as Phuket and covered all areas in between before it was supplanted by Ayutthaya and the city in the north was left to ruin, It's a serene place with many ornamental lakes and moats reflecting the regal remains and landscaped islands with their own religious shrines. It's reminiscent, in a way, of the grandness of the gardens of Versailles with it's tree lined boulevards and use of perfect symmetry.

Khlong Lan National Park (Greg's 30th Birthday) 20.02.10

Greg, unfortunately had to spend most of his 30th birthday on a rickety government bus from Bangkok to Khlong Lan in the Central Plains. He did manage to squeeze in a quick birthday treat of a box of Dunkin Donuts before we boarded.

After five hours we arrived in a small village in the middle of nowhere and thankfully a group of three students who were planning to go to the National Park aswell organised for us all to get a sawngthaew the last 6km.

The park staff were very accommodating and made sure we were comfortable in our bungalow, even taxiing us to a local store to pick up some food. We think they weren't used to seeing farang (white people) in this neck of the woods. It's normally Thai families who stay in the park for the holiday weekends. They were very nice anyway and were very interested in the photos Greg took of the impressive Khlong Lan waterfall.

They took copies for their brochure!

Damnoen Saduak Floating Market (106km southwest of Bangkok) 19.02.10

Damnoen Saduak is now one of the major tourist draws in Bangkok and it has been spoiled by the souvenier stalls selling hats, clothes and ornaments which have replaced the food markets which used to buzz with life only on weekends. Now everyday there's a market but there are still some food vendors who sell fruit, spring rolls (freshly made on the boat) dim sum and other interesting looking concoctions directly from their boats to the punters waiting on the banks.

Dusit Palace Park and Monk's Bowl Village 18.02.10

Bangkok's busy CBD and one or two of infamous tuk tuks

Another hot walk (33 degrees) up to Dusit Palace Park complex brings us to one of the King's current residences, Vimanek Mansion, several state buildings housing exhibitions on the monarchy and a grand European style palace. Vimanek Mansion is entirely constructed from Thai teak and is a resplendent octagonal shaped building with wings on either side.

The King uses it for official guest visits and celebrations and the rest of the time it's a museum displaying the dignified suites and a large collection of royal gifts from notable friends round the globe. I love the highly varnished teak floor under my bare feet and vow to aim for owning a house one day in which I can have such a floor! The painted wooden walls in subtle shades of green, pink and beige are calming in their nature and the lattice work at the tops of the doors and windows is pretty and lets through a much needed breeze of fresh air. The main royal apartment is in the central octagonal building and the sitting room and relaxation area is impressive with it's many windows on every side. Up the beautiful teak staircase that winds in a triangular fashion leads to the bedroom suites and bathroom with, unusually, a large shower (the water, however, had to be brought up the stairs in large vessels every morning). We have a look round one of the King's own photography exhibitions showing some of his personal collection of photos taken of his wife on her royal duties and more relaxed portraits. They reveal how he admires her, and it helps she's really pretty. One of the more interesting snaps is of the members of a crowd of civilians taken as he passes by in his entourage. Normally it would be the crowd taking pictures of him. The King being an avid photographer and his other hobbies of painting and playing the saxophone are well known to the populace and only endears him further to them. His wife is an enthusiastic patron of the arts and textiles heritage of her country and actively encourages the craftsmanship of woodcarving, gilding and stone setting to create elaborate pieces of royal decoration such as thrones. She does this through her founding of a special school and support network for young students to train from old masters of the arts and crafts. When her attention turned to the revitalisation of the handwoven Thai silk traditions she invited tribes members from the rural parts of Northern Thailand specialising in dying forms of textile weaving to come to Bangkok to train young enthusiasts. In the palace building at Dusit, which, incidentally, is unashamedly European in design (like St Pauls with all the painted domes), there are examples of the work of the Queen's support school on display, showing everything from incredibly detailed wooden and inlaid carved thrones, to shimmering silk thread embroideries of lotus ponds spanning the length of the room. Very impressive. Later on we buy our own little piece of Thai history in the form of an original handmade monk's bowl. These bowls are made from a traditional technique of fusing eight pieces of steel together (eight to represent the eight stages of enlightenment) with copper and hammering out the shape for hours on end. This time consuming process is only undertaken by a few families now, in Soi Ban Baht road, tucked away off the main street and the cottage industry is only really kept going by the occasional tourist who manages to find the road and buys one.

the hammering process/ tools of the trade!

Monks today tend to use mass produced bowls for the collecting of alms in the morning and, on Khao San road, we even saw one with a plastic bag collecting fruit.