Took the last day in Chiang Mai to explore the countryside. Lots of nature out there, starting with jungley terrain and muddy rivers. Went white-water rafting on bamboo poles that were flimsy and water-logged, leaving everything soaked from the waist down. Fun though, like a moving bathtub with vines and rocks to play in! Then up to an elephant training ranch. Elephants are working animals in Thailand, moving logs and hauling loads. Your first instinct is to sympathize with them. But the elephant families are kept intact, they are in their natural environment, and they are treated very well ---- healthy, well-fed, even loved by their mahouts. Your qualms about riding them are because you expect a kind of pony-ring and photo-op. Wrong.
The ride is up slopes and down bumpy ledges but the elephants walk with sure-footed daintiness. When and what does our elephant eat --- anytime and anything he wants to! You get into the rhythm of the big-eared rock 'n roll and start noticing the stubbly hair and stubborn temperament. The baby in the family tags along to learn the route, and expects as many bananas as the others at the end. Good luck: mama knows best and junior eats mostly mom's dung for months after breast-feeding. Well-digested corn kernels and hay, you know. Try some??
Up to a so-called mountain tribe. Whatever authenticity they may have had is now an unwanted shopping stop. The women weave and loom but their stuff looks like it came from the Night Market. More genuine are the trees wrapped in orange cloth --- the locals do that to save the remaining big growth; most Thais would not risk offending their Buddhist-orange religion. Then trek a few kilometres past a cooling waterfall, surprising because it's dry season and the feed-in creeks have been small. Careful, that bamboo bridge is as wet as a raft!
Trek across corn and rice fields and you'll enter a Long Neck Village. These are Burmese refugees dating back from the 1980's civil war across the border. The women apply consecutive golden rings around their necks from infancy. It's an illusion --- the necks aren't stretched, it's the rib cage that is lowered. Fascinating history, strangely beautiful ritual, sad human displacement.
Leave the ramshackle huts and your clothes are finally dry from that whitewater ride. Now, how to get
back to town: raft or elephant??
The ride is up slopes and down bumpy ledges but the elephants walk with sure-footed daintiness. When and what does our elephant eat --- anytime and anything he wants to! You get into the rhythm of the big-eared rock 'n roll and start noticing the stubbly hair and stubborn temperament. The baby in the family tags along to learn the route, and expects as many bananas as the others at the end. Good luck: mama knows best and junior eats mostly mom's dung for months after breast-feeding. Well-digested corn kernels and hay, you know. Try some??
Up to a so-called mountain tribe. Whatever authenticity they may have had is now an unwanted shopping stop. The women weave and loom but their stuff looks like it came from the Night Market. More genuine are the trees wrapped in orange cloth --- the locals do that to save the remaining big growth; most Thais would not risk offending their Buddhist-orange religion. Then trek a few kilometres past a cooling waterfall, surprising because it's dry season and the feed-in creeks have been small. Careful, that bamboo bridge is as wet as a raft!
Trek across corn and rice fields and you'll enter a Long Neck Village. These are Burmese refugees dating back from the 1980's civil war across the border. The women apply consecutive golden rings around their necks from infancy. It's an illusion --- the necks aren't stretched, it's the rib cage that is lowered. Fascinating history, strangely beautiful ritual, sad human displacement.
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