Today started early as we joined a small tour group and headed out of town into the hills to an elephant camp. There are several elephant camps around the area, and we headed to one of the largest where elephants are trained to help with logging teak trees. But the camps are also set up for tourists, and tourists we were. The first thing we got to do was be lifted up by the trunk of an elephant, and Steve’s face on the photo says it all! Wow!
We were also treated to watching the elephants bathe in the river,
a show which included the elephants playing soccer, playing the harmonica and painting pictures of – what else – an elephant! The elephants were everywhere, walking right by you and available to be touched, ridden or posing for a photo.
There were big elephants, medium elephants and even a one month old elephant that Emmy got to ride on.
After the elephant show we had an ox cart ride up into the hills where we saw one of the “hill tribes”. Apparently in this part of northern Thailand there are a lot of refugee camps with people who fled from Burma (Myanmar). Some of these tribes have been here over a hundred years, like the first tribe we saw, and so they are now given Thai citizenship. Most of the others are not granted the rights of Thai citizenship, like being able to sell their wares in town. But I’ll get to that later. So this first tribe had all kinds of handicrafts (and factory-made) wares for sales – mostly very colorful handicrafts like purses and dresses. The tribal people (mainly women) sold the wares, very few men were present. The people’s houses sat behind the booths of wares and were very primitive, although we weren’t convinced by the amount of money they took in that those houses were their real residences…
From the tribal village, we took the much anticipated elephant ride through the hills! Wow! I loved it and so did Emmy, my traveling buddy. Stevie and London took off on another elephant and Grammie and Cannon headed off on yet another. An elephant ride is a swaying, rocking ride which I thoroughly enjoyed, but apparently Grammie did not so much. Stevie said he spent most of his ride trying to hold London in because when the elephant headed down a steep embankment there was only a tiny pole to stop the child from slipping out. Apparently London did not find it necessary to hold on, so Stevie held on for him!
Back at the elephant camp, we had a Thai buffet lunch which was followed by a ride down the river on a bamboo raft, very relaxing. It was thoroughly enjoyable to play Huck Finn in Thailand while letting someone else guide the raft.
After the river ride, we were transported to yet another hill tribe – the Long Neck Karen people – who, like their name suggests, have long necks. I’m telling you, it was like living in a National Geographic. There are two cultures in the world who partake in the neck-stretching routine – one is in South Africa, and one is in Burma – and these people were of the Burmese culture. The ladies begin stretching their necks (which is beautiful for them) when they are 3 or 4 by putting very weighty brass rings around their necks. The weight pulls the muscles and bones and elongates the women’s’ necks. I have to say this stop was a little weird. The Long Neck Karens willingly let tour groups come into their villages because it is their way of supporting themselves. They get paid by the tour groups to allow the tourists to take pictures of them and because they are of a refugee status, it’s a viable and reliable way of supporting the families. But, on the flip side, it had a little zoo-like quality to it as we affluent tourists stood gawking and taking pictures of the ladies. The other way the ladies make money (I say ladies because we only saw one man in the village and he was cracking rice) is to weave these beautiful scarves. They sit in their huts weaving away and very demurely state “100 Baht” when you look at their wares. Wow, how can you not give 100 Baht (about $3.00) to a lady - or young girl – wearing brass rings around her neck who is living in a hut, hunching over a loom to make a scarf. You really want to say, “Can I give you 200?”
The last stop on our tour was at a beautiful orchid and butterfly garden, but I have to say that by the time we reached this stop we were too pooped to pop so most of the beauty escaped our glazed over eyes. It’s a shame, really, because there were some beautiful orchids of all colors and sizes.
So does that qualify as a FULL day? Man, were the kids ever troopers through the heat and dust and each one had a favorite part although all three agreed that the elephant ride was tops!
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