Chiang Mai - Songkran Day 3

Argh.. it’s a Saturday and my HP alarm don’t ring on weekends!!! Had to pack all my stuffs get ready by 830 as I am checking out and then going for the 1 day trekking that the Brits had gone yesterday. When I got back to Bkk, I realized I had left my Fila white polo tee and my water bottle in the hotel! =(

When I checked out, I was told that my laundry wasn’t ready. They had said that they will get it done by yesterday… so they arranged for someone to send them to me at the train station. Hmmm… anyways, I did get my laundry in the end. The guy tt picked me up in the morning, delivered them to the train station.

I got a better deal this time with some bargaining. They only charged me a 100 for transport. The guy tt picked me up is an Angku. His dad is Thai while his mum is from the Angku tribe (if I hadn’t rem wrongly).

I was first arranged to take the transport with this group of Asians and 1 ang mo. But I later realized they were actually from America. There were 4 of them. There was 1 ex-marine and the other 3 asians were born in Cambodia and later migrated to America when they were young. Its like coming back to find your roots… for Singaporeans, there’s hardly any history tt we can talk about nor any heritage or roots tt we can trace. Please enlighten me.

Later, the tour guide arranged for me to joined another group. There were 2 Hong Kongers, 1 Romanian girl (who later shares the elephant ride with me), 1 Australian man who loves photography and collecting stones, and another pair of Australians who are staying in Msia. It’s a more complex group this time, in terms of their nationality and which country they are living in.

The activities for today are: River Rafting (abt an hr), elephant riding (abt an hr), trekking to a waterfall (abt 1 hr + 1 hr at the waterfall to swim).

At the river rafting, I met this Indian, who talked like a Singaporean. He turned out to be a Msian living in Pattaya and he had a Chinese gf. See another relocated couple… So it’s the 3 of us + the boatman to steer the bamboo raft down the river. The river was mostly ankle height, the highest being only knee high. It wasn’t challenging nor exciting as the speed of the raft was rather slow. I guess tt has to do with safety and being slow means tt it can cater to a wider range of travelers and maybe it also has to do with the slow and laid back way of life of the thais. Its still SongKran still there was plenty of splashing as we idled down the river.

Din want my new camera to get wet so i din take any photos during the rafting.. =(
I need a waterproof casing for my cam!

The elephant ride was the more exciting 1. Somehow the guide got off our elephant and we were the only ones without a guide on the elephant!!! It was quite funny coz our elephant is REALLY REALLY greedy. He took 2 steps and up came his trunk, demanding some treats (banana or sugar cane tt we bought) before he decides to move again. Argh… we decided to gather some leaves in case we ran out of bananas, but this elephant is really smart, he refuses to take the leaves and will only move with bananas. You can’t be too nice to him, tt’s wat we realized. Coz after we ran out of treats, he will still carry on moving, else the guide will whip him with a stick. Well.. I won’t say its very cruel, coz the guide din use excessive force and the elephants skin is very thick anyways. He just needs some sort of nudging to get him moving.

He does not understand thai. He does not respond to “Bpai” which means move in thai, but the word “ke ai”. Maybe its some tribal word… Well anyways the fun part was when we were walking down the river with the elephants. I think they knew it was Songkran too!!!

Together with a Romanian friend on an elephant. Ours is a really really greedy elephant!!!

I'm the elephant handler!! =)

Since there wasn’t a guide on the elephant, I had the chance to rider the elephant on its neck. (we were strapped to the seat on the elephant’s back initially). It felt kinda weird as there were 2 big bones sticking out from its neck that whenever he moves, the bones will be moving too, so it seem I was seating on a massive massage chair. I had balance a little as the elephant movement seems to be swaying from side to side. Also the ears kept on flapping (I think it was to keep cool), so my dangling legs were constantly being flapped by the elephant’s ears… its kinda smelly.. I dunno why.

Corpse at the river.....

Taking the plunge!!!

After tt we had lunch. A guy decided to share his rice wine with us, which tasted pretty much like the strawberry wine and lychee wine at Doi Inthanon.

Trekking is next. It was really hot and we had to climb up abt 200 metres up the hill. But wat greeted us at the end of the trek was really wonderful. A cooling waterfall!!! I got into my trunks and shorts and dived in. Some guy earlier on had decided to climb up the sides and plunge down instead… nah.. too dangerous. All I did was to swim behind the water fall. Though the waterfall is only like 10 metres high, it was really powerful and the only way to get behind it , was to swim beside it and crawl on the rocks beside it. Halfway inside, I got washed out… haha.. it was like taking a slide inside the waterfall…

Smoking opium... mmmm... its actually tamarine...

That pretty much ends the day… the tour guide sent me to Chiang Mai Sa Ta Ne Rot Fa, and I am on my way back to Bkk… I think I will be coming back during winter =)