Elephants, Insects and Reptiles

We repeated the bus ride we had taken five days earlier in reverse, travelling from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai. While waiting for our bus we watched many very old rickety buses come in from the Laos border.

Thankfully we were not riding in one of these but a newer, more comfortable and cooler vehicle and the three plus hours passed pretty quickly.

Unlike Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai has a very defined old town, still enclosed by remnants of a defensive wall with gates and moats that are still filled with water.

It’s about a mile square and within it are many winding streets and narrow lanes filled with temples, gardens, old houses and some shops and restaurants.

We were staying just inside the southwest wall in a quirky but likeable Airbnb that was ridiculously cheap and had everything we needed: air conditioning, a comfortable bed, a small kitchen and a quiet, private courtyard that we wished we could have used more but couldn’t because of the heat.

We arrived on a Saturday afternoon and got settled in, emerging in the early evening to take a stroll in the immediate neighborhood, ending up at a really large, packed night market with every manner of food and lots of clothing and souvenir stalls as well.

We bought food from several stalls and perched on plastic chairs to eat it, browsed the shopping stalls and marvelled at what a great market it was.

Although we went down there and ate a couple of more times, it was a much, much quieter affair on the weekdays and never had the same vibe as the first night we were there.

On our first full day in the town, we decided to treat ourselves to a mani-pedi spa and then explore the old town on foot a bit. We found a really nice salon and spent a couple of relaxing hours there getting pampered.

Our explorations were limited by the heat, but we really liked the whole area enclosed by the moat and were very happy with the area around where we were staying.

One of the things that I wanted to do in Thailand was visit an elephant sanctuary, and we found a highly regarded one in Chiang Mai, so made a reservation to do a half day tour the next day.

We set off just before 7 am for the office where a van took us and a few others about an hour outside the city to the Elephant Nature Park.

Exhibiting elephants is big tourist business in Thailand and there are about as many elephants in captivity (around 3,500) as there are in the wild in the country.

It’s now illegal to capture wild elephants or to use captive elephants for heavy labor like logging, but many of the dozens and dozens of elephant ‘camps’ still exploit and mistreat the magnificent beasts by forcing them to carry tourists, chaining them, forcibly breeding them, beating and otherwise breaking their spirits.

We passed one such encampment when we were in Chiang Rai, and I took a few photos as we drove by. It was sad to see the elephants chained by their feet and saddled up with the heavy metal riding seats. One elephant in the background was swaying to and fro in the repetitive movement you often see captive animals exhibiting.

There was no one there riding the elephants and we hoped that as more and more tourists seek out more ethical ways to interact with elephants such places will eventually cease to exist.

The sanctuary we visited has over 200 elephants, almost all female, who have been acquired from the less scrupulous operators because they are maimed, disabled, very old or otherwise not useful for work in the tourist trade.

The elephant on the right in the video below is very obviously deformed and our guide, Mint, who is feeding her a mango, explained that under her previous owner her hip was broken when she was subjected to forced mating. Since it obviously did not heal properly, its amazing she survived and still manages to get around and seem contented. Still, just the sight of her broke my heart.

At this sanctuary, very old toothless elephants ‘the grandmas’, a couple of whom are in their 90s, are fed soft cooked foods to keep them alive.

The elephant below was 95. They know the exact age of all the elephants because for the past 100 years or so, all captive elephants have had to be registered at birth and they have ‘passports’ that record their birthdates and their entire chain of ownership throughout their lives.

One thing to notice in the videos and photos below is the elephants’ backs. Asian elephants’ spines naturally arch from shoulders to hips.

Some of the older and larger elephants like the ‘granny’ below have very flat or even concave backs, which is a sign of having been saddled like the elephants we saw in Chiang Rai (above) and ridden most of their lives, deforming their spines.

We observed the huge pots cooking sticky rice for them at the beginning of the tour, when we were taken to the ‘kitchen’ to see the vast mountains of fruit, vegetables and other foods being prepared for the herds.

They purchase a lot of food from local farmers and also get donations from markets and fruit sellers whose produce is not longer saleable.

All the elephants, both healthy and disabled are allowed as much as possible to just be elephants, forming their own ‘family’ groups, wandering the large reserve, going down to the river, playing in mud puddles, cavorting with one another and living out their lives in peace.

It was interesting to see how the elephants would beat the stalks of corn against their legs before eating them to knock the dirt and dust off. We were told that just like dogs, elephants wag their tails when they are happy or contented and also flap their ears, both to cool off and display contentment.

The tour is a ‘no touch’ one in which visitors are taken around the elephants by a guide, learning about the different individuals and groups, and observing them interacting with one another and being fed and taken care of by their individual caretakers. [Note the very straight back on the large mother elephant below}

Many of the elephants have had the same handlers all their lives, and when the sanctuary acquires them, the handlers come to live there too. {Note the permanent right back leg injury on the elephant below- her knee was broken under a previous owner and it never healed properly.]

This is unlike many other elephant camps where tourists hand feed the elephants and ‘bathe’ them with hoses or in the river. These activities are not considered ethical by this sanctuary, which also houses a large number of water buffalo and hundreds of stray dogs and cats.

Our guide did allow us to briefly touch the hide of one of the more docile elephants, so we each took a short turn. She was happily eating while we touched her and it was interesting to see how she would use her trunk to blow the dust off the small pieces of watermelon before eating them.

We were also lucky enough to see a baby of about four years old nursing from its mother, whose front leg was lame, probably from being chained up from a young age.

When the sanctuary acquired the lame mother, the owner  intended to keep the infant and raise it for the tourist trade. But baby elephants stay with the mothers for up to seven years, and it would have been very cruel to split them up so the sanctuary paid an exorbitant price for the baby in order to keep them together.

While standing next to our guide, watching the mother and baby interact, I had a big scare when a very large ‘nanny’- a dominant matriarch who watches over a whole family group– walked right up behind me, startling me.

When I jumped back, the nanny spooked, raised her trunk, trumpeted loudly and tore past me at a run, nearly knocking me down. There was general mayhem among the family group for a few minutes until the keepers got everyone calmed down, but  it was all very exciting—and scary for me and our group. I managed to get a few seconds of video as things were calming down.

The guide did not blame me- she just said the nanny was very protective and a little unpredictable.

We were out among the animals for about two hours, and I was so engrossed in taking photos and videos, I didn’t drink enough water or seek enough shade so that by the time we got to the final stretch, I was suffering from heat exhaustion. As I was watching these elephants playing with a hose, I was very close to fainting (but I kept filming anyway!)

One of our tour group, a mother with a young child, saw my distress and offered me some potato chips, which I gladly accepted but I very nearly passed out before I got back to the pavilion and revived with lots of water, a fan and something to eat. It was the most heat stressed I got on the entire trip.

Back at the pavilion, while we were eating lunch, one of the most mischievous of the young elephants walked up and unlocked the gate but couldn’t fit through it Then she tried another, but darn it, she was still too big!

We enjoyed our elephant excursion, learned quite a bit about them, admired the work of the sanctuary and were happy to support its mission. It wasn’t the same as seeing elephants in the wild, but the opportunity to get to close to them and see them in a non- confined setting was quite special.

We still had three days remaining in Chiang Mai, so, buoyed by our experience in Chiang Rai, we again rented a car (for the same daily price!) and took a couple of excursions into the countryside.

One drive took us on a 100km loop to the west of Chiang Mai with several interesting stops along the way.

First up was the Doi Suthep-Pui National Park where we stopped to take a short walk along the Mae Sa River, which features waterfalls along a ten stop paved pathway. The river was very low, so we did not go past the fourth stage, but it was not too hot, there was no one else there and the scenery was very pretty.

A little further along we came to the Queen Sirikit Botanical Gardens, which was really the high point of the day for us. Unlike any botanical garden we have ever visited, this one is located on a mountainside with several stops along the way as you drive the steep winding road to the top.

The first stop is the Canopy walk, a very high metal walkway with glass floored observation bays that takes you high above the rain forest. Along the way are interesting and informative signs about the flora and fauna. It is home to a very rare and colorful lizard the Draco Maculatus or spotted flying dragon.

Again, we were practically the only ones there and it was a really enjoyable stroll, looking out for wild banana trees and hoping to spot a lizard, though sadly we did not.

Next stop was the centerpiece of the gardens–a series of themed greenhouses that really effectively displayed each type of plant such as carnivorous, cacti, orchids, bromeliads etc.

One greenhouse featured the medicinal plant knowledge of various Thai ethnic minorities, which was very interesting.

There, I tried on some thanaka and marvelled at all the native knowledge that is so underutilized in the western world.

The largest greenhouse held an entire rainforest, including a multistory waterfall and many exotic palms and other plants.

Here we spotted flowering bananas, whose pink blossoms were very beautiful. We compared it to the rainforest dome in Singapore and decided we liked this non-commercialized and non-touristy one so much better.

We had a little picnic there as it was a tiny bit cooler up at the top of the mountain, and then made a brief stop at the Natural science exhibit, which was mainly geared towards children. We really appreciated the work and vision that had gone into this place and it remained a memorable part of our day and indeed our stay in Chiang Mai.

After we left the botanic gardens we wound up higher into the mountains towards a government subsidized farming area where they are encouraged to grow non-native commercial crops such as strawberries, lavender and stone fruits like peaches and plums.

We arrived at the top and saw the multi-terraced farms that sadly, were bare at this time of the year, it being the dry season. We saw that it was set up as quite a tourist destination and imagined it was very beautiful when all the terraces are full of fruiting and flowering plants.

Our final destination was a viewpoint overlooking the Samoeng valley, but alas, the smog rendered the view almost non-existent.

On our return we glimpsed another hilltop temple complex and made a note to visit it the next day before turning in the car in the late afternoon.

Our next day’s journey took us deep into the jungle where we saw many terraces of tea and pineapples interspersed with wild banana and other tropical trees and plants.

At one point we stopped and as I stepped out of the car I felt something clinging to my leg. I glanced down and lightly kicked it off, thinking it was a stick, but then I saw it moving and realized it was actually an enormously long stick insect!! That was unexpected!

We passed through several small villages nestled into jungle settings and just enjoyed taking in the scenery, which is so, so different then anything we see in England.

We arrived at the hilltop temple complex Wat Phra That Doi Kham in the afternoon, when it was blistering hot and found the place swarming with people praying, especially in one a pavilion where they were making beautiful flower offerings that looked like cakes (and smelled divine).

Under a covered porch at the side were several Buddhist monks giving blessings and we were encouraged to get on our knees and do the same, so we did. We were blessed with holy water flicked on us with a small straw brush. Although we could not understand what the monk was saying in the blessing, we gathered it had to do with good health and prosperity. Though brief, it was quite a memorable and moving moment and it actually felt like quite a privilege to have been so anointed.

This temple, too, had a long winding Naga staircase that we thankfully did not have to ascend, and many different pavilions and temples, statues and shrines all throbbing with activity. We were about the only Westerners there.

We didn’t stay long due to the heat, and decided to turn the car in a bit early and beat a hasty retreat back to our air conditioned flat.

We had intended to use our final day in Chiang Mai to explore the city a bit more, but were defeated by the heat and decided to just take a rest day.

We did, however, go out for breakfast to an entirely gluten free restaurant that we found just outside the old town.

It was located in an open kind of warehouse, decorated with couches, plants, even beds, and had a fine selection of gf foods to both eat there and take away. Everything was sustainable and green- quite a hippie vibe but in a good way.

I had French toast (instead of waffles) this time and it was delicious.

Then we just retreated to the coolness of our little flat and got ready to move on to our second last stop of the journey.

Someone else was looking for cool in our flat–we woke up one morning seeing this little guy (apparently a stump-toed gecko) stuck in our sink Despite the sticky pads on its feet, it couldn’t get any purchase on the wet stainless steel, so I put a couple of paper towels in the sink and it quickly scampered out.

Finally, something happened on our last night in Chiang Mai that made my day. Ever since we had arrived in Thailand, I had been hearing the strangest sound at night and sometimes all through the night- a kind of honking, croaking, chattering noise that I just could not figure out:

Was it a frog? Some kind of night bird?

I did some googling and finally found it …. a male Tokay gecko doing his mating call! Gecko DEFINITELY wasn’t on my bingo card!!

These geckos are really pretty, with colorful spots and as one of the largest geckos in the world, can grow over a foot long. I heard one every night in Ko Phangan, in Chiang Rai and then in Chiang Mai.

As we returned from dinner on our last night in Chiang Mai, I heard one in the courtyard. Determined to find it, I prowled around with my phone’s flashlight along the wall the sound had come from, but no gecko.

Then, I stuck my head around the end of the wall, in a narrow gap between two houses and there he was, peeking out from behind a wooden window shutter.

He  looked straight at me, and didn’t seem to mind when I ran back with my other camera to take flash pictures of him.

This is how he really looked ⬇️ I rotated and enlarged the the photos above so you could see him better 🙂

I’d estimated that he was at least 10 inches long- a good sized fellow indeed!.

As I had searched for them fruitlessly several times in the past, while Tom stood by rolling his eyes, he now just smiled indulgently at me as I danced around the courtyard revelling in my having actually finally seen –and gotten photographs of–one of the elusive creatures.

It was the perfect way to end our stay in Chiang Mai and we were off the next morning for another train adventure—this time to the ancient ruins of Sukothai in central Thailand.