Northern Thailand
After a flying visit to Bangkok where I was able to catch up with my cousin James and his fiancé Shooka who both work and teach in the heart of the city, Chris and I boarded the night train to Chiang Mai.
There is a beautiful photo of my mum and dad aboard a train in India on there honeymoon, which has forever filled my imagination that if I was ever to take a train anywhere in Asia it would be zooming across golden spiced landscapes with all the windows open letting in a gentle warm breeze as smiling faces passed me by. To my not-so surprise it’s not really like that, in fact it’s literally the opposite to that. However, for some reason, through the freezing cold air-con system that blasted in my face the entire evening and the smell of fart that crept through the carriage at 3am, it was actually a pretty delightful experience.
Chris excitedly woke me up at 6am (as he does each and every morning), to join him on his bottom bunk to watch the sunrise as we were slowing chugging our way through mountains. I am a massive sucker for a sunrise or a sunset and going to sleep in Bangkok to wake in Chiang Mai in itself was an exciting adventure.
As the golden light poured in I once again, as I have many times on this trip, appreciated being out of the City.
Wanting to get our bodies moving again, Chris and I booked ourselves onto a mountain biking trip through the National park of Chiang Mai. Now it may come a surprise to many that I am not the worlds number 1 mountain biker, but I’ll have you know that I only fell off 4 times (3 times more than anyone else in the group) and I survived the ordeal just fine — even managing to take in the view in the brief moments between thinking I was going to die and flying over my handle bars.
It is now fascinating to me that I actually found “Death Road” in Bolivia a breeze in comparison.
That night we explored the vibrant night markets of Chiang Mai and had the opportunity to meet up with Chris’s cousin Alexis and husband Harry who by chance happened to be in Chiang Mai at the same time as us. Small world indeed!
Sticking to what we know we booked ourselves onto a two day hike into the Northern Chiang Mai mountains where an elephant rescue centre was the first stop. Elephants are my favourite animal, the way that they grieve the same way humans do and stay to protect each other until the end is remarkable. Unfortunately, over the years the Thai Tourist industry decided that elephants could be used not only as “working elephants” but as a form of entertainment, offering trips to ride elephants near the city centres. This has led to a dark industry in which elephants have been and are still being abused, underfed and kept in unbearable conditions separated from their families. Therefore I am always sceptical before booking onto anything where elephants are involved. Thankfully on this occasion it was worth doing the research as it was clear to see how well the elephants were being treated and rehabilitated at the rescue centre in the heart of the northern mountains.
Arriving through the forests we were greeted by the elephants who were freely roaming the healthy land around them and excitedly anticipating the arrival of the sugar cane and bananas we had carried down with us. With no chains around there ankles and no mahout spike to control them it felt like we had entered there kingdom and they were happy to have us there.
A 2 year old baby elephant and his mother and father had been rescued from a life of riding nearby the city centre with no access to shade, pools in which to bath, and forests to roam. Off we went through the forests where the elephants stopped to bath and eat along the way. Magical.
Heading off deeper into the mountains we waved the elephants goodbye before hiking for 2 hours to a cascading waterfall for a quick lunch break as the sun was beginning to heat up.
Bellies full we continued for another hour to a local village where we could refill our water bottles and had a moment to rest at a local home surrounded by rice fields with fruit farms nearby where we sipped on deliciously tangy passionfruits.
Arriving at our camp site an hour and a half later we were greeted by a bundle of joy in the form of Sydney the dog and a few ice cold beers.
The evening was spent with an awesome group of people filling up on Massaman curry prepared by our hilarious guide who I came to call Buddha, as together with his bright spirit he had a very large round belly and his favourite saying was “oh my Buddha” followed by a wickedly infectious laugh.
It is rare to stumble across a group where everyone hits it off from the word go, but the group on this tour was what really made it. Amongst our group we had 2 American guys, one a friendly and hilarious trained opera singer/ the entertainment for the evening, and the other a passionate 22 year old studying environmental law who’s father owns a wine farm (his knowledge came in very handy when we were all handed some rather interesting looking “moonshine”). In with the mix we also met quite possibly the happiest and loveliest Dutch guy ever, continuing Chris and mines conclusion that Dutch people are the nicest people in the world. A lovely French couple and their friend all came together to create a really great group of people to spend the two days with.
A swig of Moonshine and a few interesting adaptations of songs around the campfire it was just us and the surrounding forest for the night.
The next day we continued our hike for a few hours through rocky cave paths filled with crunchy golden leaves before finishing off with rafting down a river which Chris took over from our guide and steered expertly.
Now we continue our journey by slow boat along the Mekong River into the beautiful Laos.
