Day 318.

Errr-ma-gawd, this is one of the main reasons for my visiting Thailand, the Elephant Sanctuary. I heard so many good things about them and I'd never even seen an elephant before so I had to do it! I'd always been very worried about the treatment of the elephants so I was pretty specific when booking that it was in fact an animal friendly sanctuary and wasn't just used for working the elephants for only tourism reasons.

I went to visit Chiang Rai yesterday and unfortunately I didn't really find it worth writing a blog about, it was a long bus journey to be ushered around random tourist spots and not even getting to see Chiang Rai itself!? I got to see the White Temple however which was amazing but couldn't fill a whole blog! Thankfully this bus journey was a lot quicker and only took around an hour to get up into the hills where the sanctuary was.

When we pulled up all the Maud's were bringing their elephants into the enclosure for feeding. I noticed immediately that they had the sticks with the hooks on and was straight away unimpressed but while the elephants were tucking into their hay we got a bit of information on the elephants, the sanctuary and the work it does. They actually explained the intention of the stick and how it is used not to hit or abuse the elephants as is commonly known but is actually used when moving elephants, as they weigh 10 times a human does we'd be hopeless against them so it's in fact used to hook over the ear to be able to direct them. We then got to be introduced to the elephants! 

Jack!! He's the baby if the herd and is only 2 years old and a bit of a rebel!

Each elephant has their own maud/owner to be cared by and it's really an endearing thing to see such a huge animal have such a bond with a human - they kind of followed them around like a dog would it's owner!! So we would work with the owner throughout the day while we walked and bathed them!

While we had our lunch the topic of elephant riding came up, I was always against it because of what I'd heard but they explained about working with elephants and finding a common language and knowing when they are happy doing something and when they are not. When you compare our weight to an elephant, us sitting on their back doesn't effect them nor strain them, it is however when metal seats are used on their backs for 2 people at a time to be on it's back and they're taken round the same boring route everyday, several times a day. This sanctuary however does it where the elephant only has one customer a day, they sit on the neck/shoulder where originally people would have sat, the elephants are then taken on different routes to stimulate them and the routes always provide plenty of food and water access (as they eat ALOT, seriously mine ate half the forest!) and it is only done 3 or 4 times a week max while they're young and healthy, never when they are older. Plus you could tell these elephants were very content in their surroundings!

We then got ready to walk the elephants to the river where we would bathe them! I got paired with Jack and his mama, which are the ones I wanted! As Jack is only 2 and still training his maud is always with him and he doesn't leave his mums side so he always comes along for the walks.

We walked them through parts of a village and through parts of a forest. We passed a Buddhist temple which surrounding it has 'holy trees' which the temple actually count as part of a population of the monks/temple (spirits) so the trick was making sure the elephants didn't eat these trees!! They seriously will eat everything... Including Buddhist monk tree spirits!

When we reached the river the maud's lead the elephants into the river and we followed them to start bathing them! Which was frickin adorable!!

They wash them every other day to check their skin and for any wounds or infections. Anymore and it would be bad for their skin and also take off the sun protection they put on themselves (mud and dust).

Jack was particularly playful and his mum had had enough of him so she got up and decided to get out!

When all the elephants had decided they'd had enough they got out and rubbed themselves on a few trees and then began blowing mud dust over themselves as this is what they use for sun protection! We then walked all the guys back to the sanctuary to feed them some bananas as treats!

On the evening I met up with Davide and Paula who I had met on the train up to Chiang Mai for some market stall food and a drink. We even stopped off at an ice cream stall where you could create your own flavour!! I chose chocolate, raspberry with brownie pieces... YUM!!

After picking up a book from Paula's hostel's book exchange for my 16 HOUR TRAIN JOURNEY tomorrow I hopped in a tuktuk to my hotel... However, when I got back, the guys I'd met on my elephant trip persuaded me to go back out for a drink or two... A drink or two won't harm right!? Wrong. Especially when you had a train at 5:45am. And you leave your hotel at 1am! Oops... Luckily I just about made it in time for my train and boy it help me sleep and kill some of that horrific time!

x

Day 316.

Time to escape Bangkok! 

Today I was getting the train north to the city of Chiang Mai for a few days. There's a few cities in the north but Chiang Mai I believe is the main one, it's the one with the airport anyway! It's also pretty dense with rainforest up there.

Now, I was preparing myself for the worst with the train, I'd gotten a taxi from my hostel to the train station and one thing I can't recommend enough is insist on the meter!! They just rip your eyes out otherwise.... Trust me. Those taxi drivers won't know what's hit them when haggler James comes back to Bangkok!! 

I was sat in the main hall of the station looking up at the board where my train was flashing 'DELAYED'. Great. Brilliant. Did I mention how fucking muggy it is this time of year here!? Well it is. So as I sat there with my backpack on, my rucksack on my front, my laptop bag in one hand and a bag of snacks in the other (I was not getting caught out on another journey with no food!!), I could feel Bangkok having one last laugh! However, it was just me being stupid and looking at the wrong train for 20 minutes!

The train was actually really good! I had 2 seats to myself which reclined fairly far back, there was air con and fans and to my utter surprise, free food and drink! Who knew a 12 hour train would be better than a 9 hour flight!? Jetstar bastards... Very early into the journey I discovered I've pretty much broke my laptop which I probably unhealthily depend on! So only 11.5 hours to kill....

It probably turned out best that my laptop wasn't working (with a few days hind sight) as handy as they are to have for those long airport days or travel days, they do have a tendency to hinder you as without it I turned into a right Chatty Cathy! There were a few fellow backpackers in the same carriage and we all eventually got chatting which made the journey SO much easy. We actually got lunch on the train too... I could smell it a mile off and I knew what was coming. Mackerel. When the lady put it down I wasn't quite sure how to react! It was basically mackerel with rice or mackerel with rice... So I chose mackerel with rice! One dish was mackerel in a teriyaki sauce and the other a Thai red curry mackerel. WELL, they were delicious! Well delicious might be a stretch but they definitely weren't bad! Plus free and more than damn Jetstar gave me! (Do I sound bitter? I sound bitter right? Yeah I'm probably bitter.) 

We arrived in Chiang Mai ahead of schedule and my shuttle was there waiting. For me, personally, travelling alone I like to know I have things like shuttles sorted a head of time or at least feel confident knowing how to get to my accommodation, it just makes that transition of airport/station to hostel that much easier then the rest you can wing it! So I hoped in the back on this open back truck and off we went! I could tell already I liked Chiang Mai a lot more than Bangkok, it was my idea of how I expected Thailand and was only about half as chaotic. 

I didn't even realise but I'd booked a private room at my accommodation... Score! Double bed, ensuite, full length mirror - the lot! (Honestly you'd be surprised how many hostels DONT have full length mirrors or mirrors at all!). There's always a catch though... I am showering over a toilet! I later found out the guys I met have the same set up so I didn't feel as bad!

Chiang Mai has a famous night market which is pretty incredible. Getting to it however was a slightly other story... My hotel was mixed in with the alley ways away from the Main Street. It took me a few attempts in a few different directions to find the Main Street with the help of a few random thai's just pointing the direction. I was running late for meeting them so I flagged down a tuktuk and jumped in!

Tuktuk's are hilarious first and foremost. They're also cheaper than Taxi's for shorter journey plus you can haggle harder with them because there is such an abundance of them! 

Walking around the night market was really cool and very different to Bangkok, there's actually areas set up for these markets so you're not crowding through streets browsing, it's much more open. There's also less food stands in Chiang Mai and much more clothing, jewellery and souvenirs. I picked up my bracelet for my collection from here also, haggled for of course!

We were all pretty peckish so we grabbed a couple of bowls of Pad Thai and wandered through the markets some more.

It had been a long day and the market was beginning to shut so we called it an evening and I bartered another tuktuk home!

x

Day 315.

After the worst 9hour flight of my entire life I'd finally landed in Bangkok. Apparently Jetstar don't believe it's necessary to provide food nor entertainment on long haul flights... They provided no food and they even charged to use the tv's! Surely that's the perks of flying long haul!? Never again...

So anyway, I land and decide to tackle public transport than opt for a taxi. It turned out to be super easy, it was 2 simple changes and it took me to the doorstep of my hostel, not to mention it cost 70baht which is about £1.40 rather than a 500baht/££10 taxi ride! #savvytraveller. As I hadn't ate anything since breakfast (thanks Jetstar!) I was absolutely starving so I took a walk down the street to the 7/11, I grabbed a few snacks and when I left I spotted a street stall had rolled up! So I walk over and enquire what was cooking... Well, it was basically a disemboweled chicken. There was a plethora of chicken body parts and organs on sticks... I'd not even been here 24hours yet so I stuck safe and went for breast! 

My first day in Bangkok was set to be a busy one, my plan was to organise my whole Thailand trip so when I come back from Cambodia and Vietnam, I can hit the ground running. Australia have a company called PeterPans, which personally I can't speak highly of enough, they sort absolutely everything out for you and you just pay! I'd found out they had a shop in Bangkok so I was going to head there to sort it all out. 

I asked the reception of my hostel the best way to get to the address and it was a bit of a distance so a taxi was the best option and all I had to do was get one from the other side of the road... Easy.

No.

I walk out and first of all I get hounded by tuktuk men so I just try escape them but also realise there isn't a crossing anywhere to cross the pretty busy road. I carried on up the street to be met by another mob of tuktuk's!! Thankfully I flagged a taxi down just as their heads 'popped out the sand'. I pointed on the map where I wanted to be and he seemed to understand... Seemed to.

We drive for about 15 minutes through streets I have no idea the name of and unable to follow it on my map. He then stops the car and points and says 'there. Peterpans.' He was pointing to some kind of temple thing... 'Erm, let me explain again what it is I'm looking for...' So he turns the car round and we head back in the other direction and stops at a side road about 5 minutes down the road 'there. PeterPans'... Ok well as you can guess we weren't getting anywhere! So I decide to cut my losses, pay him his money and get out to be immediately greeted by another man. Clearly I looked as lost as I was. He seemed pretty sane so I explained where I wanted to be and he began talking in what I only understood as jibberish! I picked up random English words but in general, it was just a lot of nodding in confusion! Another guy, a backpacker I'm guessing, then comes over and asks what we're looking for to which I turn to explain but before I get chance, the first man starts screaming at the guy and telling him to 'go away' in a much more profane way! I was totally startled so I just decided to duck out and run away! I eventually found a wifi hotspot and directions to where I actually needed to be! THANKS CRAZIES!

After talking to some English speaking people in PeterPans my Thailand trip was well on it's way to be planned, the travel agent even bought me lunch from a street vender! (Only 25baht/50p but it's the thought that counts!) it was, I believe, fried chicken skins with sticky rice and chilli sauce. It was delicious! I'm getting sold on this street food despite going against every instinct in my body to run away from it. While he finalised it all I went out and did a little bit of exploring...

The streets are FULL of markets, like literally, every street is lined with stalls selling any and everything! So I thought I'd take a browse, well this was when I discovered something in me that shocked me more than eating street food... IM A HAGGLER! 

The idea of haggling had always scared me, I hated the idea of debating over money, just set a price and leave it at that! Well, turns out, I love it! I haggled some underwear, then some shorts and then a power bank! (which I played hard ball and walked away from hoping she'd chase me - she didn't.) There was just no stopping me!! Who knew haggling over pennies would be so exhilarating!?

After robbing people of their living, I took a long walk in the HOT heat to The Grand Palace. With it being a place of worship you were asked to be respectful and cover up, so I swapped my shorts and vest for long khaki pants and a shirt a shade of green I can't even describe with words...

Walking around The Grand Palace in shorts would have been hard enough in 40degree heat but with long pants AND a shirt it was almost unbearable so I was barely taking note of the meanings on the buildings... Unless they offered shade.

I entered The Temple of The Emerald Buddha which required you to take your shoes and hats off (my hat!? I've wore it for about 2 weeks straight, I swear I do have hair under it!), when I left the temple in my get up an Asian woman approaches me pointing to her camera, I assumed it was to take a photo of her and her friend, so I go I take the camera from her but as I do she hands the camera over TO her friend... She then proceeds to point and me and point to the temple behind me. I think this bitch thought I was a monk!? Well anyway, I stood and smiled for her photo, don't want her thinking us monks are rude!

So it was a pretty eventful first day in Bangkok to say the least! I must admit, I'm not 100% sold on the city, in comparison to others it just can't hold up but the food - wow - Thai's can cook! I had an amazing chilli and peppercorn noodle dish for 45baht/£1!? But I'm not finished with Bangkok yet and I'm not giving up hope for the rest of Thailand either, but that's a surprise for when I return in a months time!

x