Thursday, July 21st, Chiang MaiI woke up quite early on Thursday. It was 330a to be precise. How I was so awake on less then 5 hours of sleep is beyond me to figure out but I was definitely good to go. After browsing the web, taking a shower, reading a book and sitting on the couch twiddling my thumbs my wife finally woke up. It was now 530a.
We decided to head down to the breakfast area (how awesome that they open at 530a. Like really SO awesome!) and relax in the nice lobby for a bit. The schedule was for the shuttle to pick us up around 730a and take us to "Baanchang Elephant Paradise" where we would spend the next 6+ hours with the elephants.
The shuttle was on time and came in to the lobby to pick us up and we were happy to see that this was a more "intimate" tour as we were going to do this session with another couple (who happened to be from Switzerland).
It is amazing to see how fast you go from Chiang Mai "City" to suddenly be surrounded by trees, nature and jungle. I mean yes, you do see all the greenery and the mountains from your hotel room and realize that you are close but when you are in car spending the first twenty minutes in heavy traffic surrounded by stores and buildings and wake up from a 3 minute snooze to be surrounded by nothing but big trees and miles of nature it makes for an awesome and surreal experience.
Entrance to the Elephant Camp
Once we got to the elephant camp we were asked to remove our shoes and take a seat. We were given special outfits that we put on and then got ready for our 20 minute lesson with "Bird" and his brother "Crazy Bong" on Elephant Lingo. After getting familiar with YUT (Stop), KHWA (Right), SAH (Left) and DEE DEE DEE (this command is said while literally hitting the elephant on the head and is basically the same as clapping them on the back for doing a good job) and disregarding the rest of the words (besides for ReoReo which means Faster Faster) we were off to get started.
[Crazy Bong and me are now best friends. He has 3 different Facebook accounts so his girlfriend doesn't know what else he is up to. He calls himself single because unless you are married, you are single. He loves going after others and throwing Elephant Poop at them >> Turned into the two of us teaming up together to throw it at his brother. #funtimes]We first went to feed the elephants. What an awesome experience. Taking apples and sugarcane and commanding them to lift their trunks in order for us to lay the food straight into their mouths or having them use their trunks to grab it out of our hands. Either one was fun. Then we moved on to one young elephant whose expertise was giving us kisses on command. Incredible moments that I will not forget.
We then moved on to designating who would be the "driver" and who the "passenger". The driver sits right behind the elephants ears and actually needs to make use of the commands described above to lead the elephant. The passenger sits further back and really just enjoys the ride. Being that my wife had zero interest in becoming the driver at any point, it was on me to lead us through the jungle.
Climbing such an animal is quite funny. You basically tell the elephant to lift its leg, climb onto the leg, then yell another command telling the elephant to lift the leg higher and then basically jump on the elephant's back hoping that you get around the back and don't fall short (and/or off) or too far and fall off the other side.
Off we were into the jungle and through the hills of the area which was finished off by us leading the elephant through a lake which eventually just got deeper and deeper until Bong and Bird started yelling a command I never heard of before. I looked perplexed and suddenly felt gravity shifting fast. Very fast. The elephant was basically plopping down to the side with me on it. I was thinking that life was ending until I could spot the brothers laughing hard out of the corner of my eye. Now I was soaking wet - though still alive - and we were handed brushes to start cleaning off our elephant (whose name we changed during our excursion).
[I could not believe that they had named the elephant we were riding Christina for the one and only Christina Aguilera. We decided to rename it Captain America for its strength and endurance. Much more accurate of a description then that of a genie in a bottle.]
After lots of playing and cleaning in the water and getting soaked by Captain America's trunk numerous times it was time to finish up, shower and move on with our day. I encourage you all to spend times with the elephants and make it to some tour that also includes being hands on with them. It is truly spectacular and not the last time I'll be doing it.
Feeding
Getting intimate
Getting Dropped
Cleaning
After having spoken to 669 Tours the night before we had arranged for a driver to now take us to "X Centre" where another driver would take us to all the local animal attractions and then drop us back at the hotel. While at "X Centre" we indulged in our lunches we had brought from Chabad. Today we had Tuna sandwiches and - once again - yummy vegetable noodles. More then enough.
We were picked up promptly and started with the snakes. After paying around $10 combined we got to watch the instructors almost get killed on numerous occasions and then had them try to place a King Cobra by my crotch in order to release its venom. Fun Fun. We then got a tour of the place and were able to hold some scorpions and snakes.
We then headed over to the monkeys. Snuggling with some baby monkeys and enjoying Sam the monkey ride his bike, play basketball and then sell us some monkey balm we were off to the next show.
We then went over to the crocodiles and for anyone that is reading Mochjas's TR, I won't repeat myself. The same guy, doing the same crazy stuff, 7 days a week 365 days a week that will eventually get him killed.
Last but not least we were off to Tiger Kingdom. We went to the little and the big ones and requested pictures for just the big ones (its only $7 and they give you an entire CD with 40+ pictures and you get to focus on the actual experience). It was a crazy experience being so close to them. We had a lot of fun and the place was really filled. You can tell that this is a well established business with some real volume (compared to the other animal farms we went to).
It was then time to head back and we were tired after a long day. Our driver did think we should do the long neck village but we a) were very tired and b) didn't really have interest at all. Our driver thought we should and tried selling us on it. 600 baht. 550. 400. 350. Pleasssseee!
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NO!
Finally back at the hotel we were able to take a nice long bath before relaxing a bit in the room. We were getting hungry and decided to walk to Chabad. After eating and shmoozing with the local rabbi a bit we wandered through the night market and I decided to stop for a 90min Thai Massage. It was great, clean and $10. Now I was really tired and after heading back to the hotel and up to my room the next thing I remember is dreaming..
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