Chiang Mai - Elephant Visit

Daeng is not feeling well due to some problems with her teeth so she said she would stay home for a few days and then take the bus to meet me in Chiang Mai.  I was reluctant to go alone but after talking it over I said I would.  It is about a 3 1/2 hour drive so if I needed to return to help her it would be pretty easy.

I left the house about 7:00 AM and stopped at the Ban Pa Mueat morning market and had coffee.  It was pretty smokey as the jungle is on fire west of us.  This picture was taken directly into the sun.

I drove the 60 kilometers to Chiang Rai and stopped at Jan's Coffee and Pa Thong Ko shop to see if she was okay and let her know if she needed anything to call us.  Her mate, Charlie, had gone back to Canada for a six month trip.  She thanked me and I headed onward. 

Everyone along the way was surprised to see me without Daeng as we always travel together.

Next stop was at Charin Garden Resort to pick up some pie and cheesecake to take to our friends, Brian and Noochy, in Chiang Mai.

They have great pies and cakes here.

Although it was not on my diet, I had to have a piece of chocolate pie and tea sitting by the river.

The trip over the mountain was uneventful and the only flames I saw as about half way over the mountain there was what looked like a controlled burn going on.  The smoke was pretty heavy.

I did stop to use the restroom at the "Hot Springs".  This is the highest Hot Spring in Thailand.  It does shoot more than 50 meters (164 feet) into the air.

I drove the rest of the way to the Top North Hotel and checked into a regular room.  I picked the Top North as they have a swimming pool that I though Daeng would like when she took the bus over to meet me.  Rate is okay, 900 THB (about $30 USD) a night including breakfast for two.

After I checked in, I drove over to Brian and Noochy's house and had lunch with Brian and our friend, Wayne.  We also ate some of the Lemon Pie and Strawberry Cheesecake.  They were both excellent. 

In the morning it was breakfast at the hotel and then a little wall across the moat to see the Segway Tour.

I want to take Daeng on this Segway Gibbon Tour of the inter-city when she gets here.  Hopefully it will be Sunday.

On Saturday, I picked up our friend, Wayne, who is visiting our friend, Brian, and took him to the Mae Sa Elephant Camp.  It was a great trip as the elephants are always happy to have there pictures taken hugging and kissing you.  Wayne loved the elephants!

The elephants also love the sugar cane and bananas we feed them.  Daeng and I had stayed right in the camp for two days with the elephants in 2008.  You can read about that two days and what we leaned about the elephant by CLICKING HERE.

Fun, Fun and more Fun with the elephants.

I talked with Daeng and she said she will be on the bus to Chiang Mai today.  I miss her.
 

04-05-09 Funny Thing On Way to Work

It's Sunday morning. Daeng got up about 7:00 AM and went to the morning market to buy the things she needs for her "Som-Tom Papaya" stand.

She decided that she has so much fun doing this every year during the Thai New Year water holiday that she wants to do it again. She has been doing this for over ten years.

Her first day, this year, was yesterday and she sold about 30 orders.

After buying her supplies at the morning market she stopped back and woke me up with coffee.

She left for work around 9:00 and drove from the guest house were we live along the river on the Myanmar (Burma) Border.

When she hit the main street she saw a large number of people celebrating.

It was a parade with boys in brightly colored outfits, like at the celebrations on Friday.

Some were in horse drawn carriages.

Some were on the shoulders of their Fathers and some were on elephants.

This is the same kind of celebration that we attended on Friday but just bigger with many boys doing it at the same time.

We were told yesterday that many parents have their boys do this ceremony around this time of year as it is the low or slow time of the year. The rice has been harvested and it is to dry to plant again. That means there is not much work and they can celebrate the harvests of the last year. I say harvests, in the plural, as there are at least two rice harvest a year in this part of Thailand.

By the way, elephants don't see very well so if you hold up your cellular telephone to take a picture they will reach out, take your phone and eat it. They think it is food. In the picture above, that is what the elephant is trying to do, reaching for a spectator's phone.

Yep, these folks sure know how to party. After Daeng took the pictures she went on to work to sell Som-Tom Papaya Salad. We will let you know how her stand does in the days to come.