Sunday, September 24, 2017 – Chaing Mai

It’s early enough for me to do some yoga before breakfast.  I’ve been working really hard at not missing a morning;  but those seven a.m. assembly mornings are just too early!! 

Going down to breakfast at our new hotel is a treat, even before we see the food!  Kyra tells us that we need to take the elevator at the end of the hall an when the doors open we see why!  It is on the outside of the building and we an watch the world go by until we get to the third floor.  That’s where the pool is and the rest of the ride is the same old boring thing.  What an unexpected experience!

The buffet is another extravaganza, appealing to all tastes and cultures.  The new addition is a bank of three coffee dispensers from which you can get caffeine in many varieties – mocha, latte, espresso, and more!!  Helen gets a shot of black coffee and adds espresso to it.  She says it’s perfect!

We choose a table outside on the terrace, since it is still early enough to not be oppressive.  And the view is lovely!

We’re back at our bus and board promptly.  Our group is really good at this!  We are going to the Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep Rajvoravihara temple.  It is at the top of a 1000 meter mountain, and it’s origin story is fascinating.  Six hundred and fifty years ago, or so, the king of Lamma and the king of Thailand were good friends and the king of Thailand had one of the ashes of the Buddha.  One day he noticed that the ash had divided into two pieces and he gave one to his good friend. 

One day the king of Lamma noticed that his ash, too, had split in two and he decided  to build a temple to house this holy relic; but he needed an appropriate location.  He released a sacred white elephant and had it followed.  The elephant went up into the mountains and finally stopped and trumpeted three times.  This was the perfect spot.

Interestingly, the ash is not housed inside the stupa, as is traditional.  Rather, it is buried underneath it!

We can’t take our big bus up the steep and twisty road up the mountain, so we transfer to three bright red pick-up trucks.  When I heard this I pictured all of us sitting cross-legged in the back of the truck!  No, that’s not it!!  There are seats and even a covering to keep the sun off us.  The trip up takes about fifteen minutes and I have to brace my foot on the seat across from me on the curves.  Most people hold onto the bars above them;  but I’m so short it was easier to brace.

This is an enormous campus with many, many statues in addition to the golden stupa and temple.  You must remove your shoes to climb the steps and gain access to it.  In one of the smaller buildings there are two monks.  If you enter the building you must stay on your knees and people scoot forward toward the monks, one of whom is tying white cotton bracelets around peoples wrists while he says a prayer.  The other is flicking “holy”? water on the believers.  Of course there is a donation box.  Rio told us that the stupa was damaged in the earthquake about five years ago and extensive repairs were necessary.  I’m happy to contribute to the cause.

Ginger has found a place where you can get your fortune by shaking a container of sticks until one falls out.  They are all numbered and you choose the fortune that matches the number on your stick!

People are walking around the stupa and praying, although many of them appear to just be tourists who might not even know what they are doing.  Who knows?  You can’t judge a Buddhist by his cover!

There are several emerald Buddhas and a reclining Buddha and several with actual fabric clothing.  There are also many large temple bells, which signs that say “please do not push the bells”, which most of us understand to mean not to ring the bells.

We took an elevator up to the entrance level but we take the 310 steps back down.  The stairs’ handrails are twin snakes, as the King of the Snakes is the guardian of the temple and keeps away the evil spirits.

We re-board our pick-ups and slalom back down the mountain to our waiting bus, and our wonderful driver’s associate, who has bottle of cold water waiting for us.  We have come to depend on this largesse!

On, now, to the Sai Nam Orchid Plantation.  It feels like there are millions of these astonishingly beautiful plants, all handing in rows of loveliness.  They are protected from the sun and receive water from over-head sprayers.  We are free to wander and explore until it is time for lunch.  In addition to Nature’s jewels, there are also antique cars and two tanks with large koi and another kind of fish.

Grandma hurt her ankle last night at the Night Market and everyone is offering advice.  Someone brings her a bag filled with ice and she has her food elevated, so with any luck she will be feeling better soon.  She is so stoic!  And it is inspiring to watch her do everything that everyone else does.  I’m particularly impressed by the way she can climb on and off the bus.  Those steps are really high!!  I find them challenging by the end of the day – or when laden down by my two ton back pack!

Lunch has another varied and authentic buffet and the dessert area includes almond chocolate brownies, along with watermelon and pineapple.  The pineapple, in particular, has a marvelous flavor.  It must have just been picked from one of the nearby fields.  James is so gallant as to share his Chang with Ginger and me!

After lunch there are a few minutes to check out the jewelry that is make from real orchid petals!  They also sell orchid scent and growing media.

OH BOY!  We’re off to the elephant camp!!  Rio has us convinced that we are being responsible world citizens by providing for the welfare of these elephants.  Of the 5000 in Thailand, only 1,000 live in the wild.  The rest were born in captivity and couldn’t survive on their own.  They live to be about seventy-five and only work in the camps until they are about forty-five.  They spend the rest of their lives in quiet retirement.

When we arrive, Rio tries valiantly to move us down toward the river, but the elephants are posing for pictures and interacting with people, and who can compete with that?  We can pose with them, sitting on an elephant’s leg and there is even an opportunity to let two elephants intertwine their trunks and you sit on them, like a swing!  One of the mahouts demonstrates and I think only one of our group does it.  It was so much FUN!!!

Rio is finally able to move us along and we claim spots from which to watch the elephants move down into the river for their baths.  They appear to love the water and the mahouts bathe them and the elephants spray themselves – and the crowd!

When they come back up it is time for us to scurry to the performance area and stake claims to front-row seats.  The show starts with an elephant parade that includes the cutest little guy!!  They perform a number of tricks and take their bows;  they coolest thing, though, must be the two artists.  One paints a picture of an elephant, and the one closer to us paints a tree with bright orange blossoms! After several of the tricks, the performers come right up to the audience and wave their trunks around, looking for bahts, which they delicately grasp with their prehensile trunks and give to their mahouts.

He takes the circumference of the elephant's foot, doubles it...

and it's his height at the shoulder!

Oh boy!  Oh boy!  Oh boy!!  It’s time for the elephant ride!!  Only four of us have opted for this, and we follow Rio as quickly as we can to get in line.  Lots of people from the other groups are doing it, too.  When it’s our turn, Ginger and I climb directly into the box affixed to the elephant’s back.  He’s much stronger and bigger than a horse, so it hardly seems like this will be much for him to carry.  Our elephant’s name is Toyota and his mahout, M…..,, says he is thirty-six years old.  There seems to be quite a strong bond between them.  Rio told us that the elephants actually live in the same house as the mahouts.  He also told us to roll with the elephant’s movement, or we’ll throw up!

It only takes seconds to fit in with the rhythm and we’re feeling pretty confident and exhilarated until we start down the river bank to cross the river!  That slope is much steeper when viewed from an elephant’s back!  It’s almost like a roller coaster ride (I don’t do roller coasters!) but we hang on as we lean forward, and quite quickly we’re crossing the river.  Of course that means we have to go back up the other side!! Leaning backward!  We travel through the jungle, with our feet resting lightly on Toyota’s shoulders, so we can feel the muscles flexing and rolling from side to side.  Part way along the trail there is a stand selling bananas for the elephants, and further along he stops and waves his trunk back toward us, asking for his treats!  He can snag one, transport it to his mouth, and be back for another almost in the blink of an eye!  And he deserves every one!!

See the banana that Ginger just fed him?

Marjorie and Colin are the other couple that was brave enough to come riding with us.  They are a couple of elephants behind us and we are each trying to get pictures of the other, which is quite a challenge.  Just as we are starting to get complacent about this new means of transportation, we return to the river and realize that we’ll have to cross it again!!  I laugh and imagine someone having to tell my kids that their mother died after falling off and elephant and drowning in a river!  Ginger says that, at least they’ll have a good story!  It beats dying in bed or having a dreaded disease!!

Down we go!! “Oo la la!!” says our mahout!!  Not inspiring!  But a lot of fun!  He turns Toyota so that we can try for another shot of Marjorie and Colin, then takes us across and up the other side.  He must have been talking to M&C’s mahout because they turn the elephants to face each other and take our cameras for photos (and pretend to keep them!, Thank you!) Then they take pictures of us before returning us to the tall platform on which we can dismount.  What a blast!!!  (Not at all like riding in a circle at Busch Gardens or the Ren Fest!)

We have to hurry back to the bus, since everyone else has been hanging around, checking the small shop and waiting for us.  

The bus takes us back to our hotel and we have a little time to freshen up before going to dinner and a show – my favorite kind of evening!  The facility is built in the northern, Lamma style where eating is done sitting on the floor.  Accommodations have been made for foreigners and there is a hole under each table for our legs.  The menu is Lamma and the dishes are served in a set designed to feed four people. Helen comes and sits with us, so we actually get a third of everything!  But there is so much food, that it doesn’t really matter!  There are baskets on each table containing fried bananas as an appetizer. Then comes a clear soup that is so filled with flavor we could be happy with just it and the bananas!  Somewhere along the way we have ordered Chang beer and as the bottles appear we are joined by the young owner of Ami Thai.  He has grown up following his father and mother around as they conducted tours, and with their passing he is more than capable of continuing the business.  He is charming and shares a lot with us about his relationship with Sinorama, and tells us that our particular tour has only been available since September!  He plans to initiate more tours that use Thailand as a hub and go out of Cambodia and Laos and Myanmar.  We all encourage him!

The show begins with a small Thai orchestra playing traditional music as the main course is served.  There is a large, round pedestalled tray with five or six bowls and down the table there is a basket with packets containing sticky rice, and Rio tells us that we should break off a piece of rice, make it into a ball and use it to scoop up the savories in the bowls.  We have crackling, fried chicken, and sweet, crispy noodles that are finger food, and two dishes that are finger food of a different sort!  One is a beef dish and the other is pork in a spicy tomato sauce.  All of them are perfectly divine!  

The entertainment takes place in the center of the facility and is essentially theater in the round, although not all the acts face each side equally.  The opening number is a form of parade with different, and traditional costumes.  One of the dancers is carrying a big flower display and at the end There are traditional dances, with the classical Thai hand positions, fingers extended so far back toward the wrist;  what appears to be a dance with the monkey king and four ladies;  the coconut dance in which each dancer has two halve of a coconut and they clap them together either as couples or part of a moving circle;  there is the traditional stick dance which we saw done at the Thai Village, although this one is almost done in slow motion by comparison.  There is also a demonstration of Thai martial arts with swords.  The most fun, though, is a two-person furry creature (yak??) with a movable jaw who mixes with the crowd and teases everyone.  He first comes to visit Rio’s boss and snuggles with him, then makes the rounds.

Dessert is pineapple and watermelon, with a round cookie that resembles a rice crispy treat.

Back to the bus and home to pack and take a few shots of our lobby.  Morning will come too quickly!