After picking up fellow travelers who would be joining us for the day (6 20-somethings from France and 2 from Spain), we headed to the Mayrim Family Elephant park, located about an hour from Chiang Mai. On the way, our driver, Eggy, told us about the elephants we would be meeting, and the commands that we would need to know once there (HOW = STOP - that seemed the most important to me!)
When we arrived, Eggy gave us new clothes and told us that now that we had learned the commands we were part of the Mayrim family and could wear their traditional clothing. He then handed us a bunch of bananas and directed us towards Johnny, our three-year old elephant friend :).
He told us that if we said "PIE", Johnny would know we had food (as if he couldn't already see it or smell it :-).) So we had to say "PIE PIE JOHNNY" to get his attention. After a few minutes of feeding him LOTS of bananas, Jon was directed how to climb on board his back for a ride!
PIE PIE JOHNNY!!
Jon did a loop around the little market area on Johnny's back, after which I climbed on top to join him!
At the park they only ride bareback because it's better for the elephants. I can tell you, it is kind of a little painful for the people! I'm glad that they don't use saddles or other devices on their elephants - VERY glad, but just so you know, Asian elephants have VERY stiff hair on their heads (and all over their bodies) which is VERY tough and strong. The instructor told me to hold onto it if I felt like I was slipping! (I didn't do that because I didn't want to hurt Johnny in any way (although I'm sure it doesn't really hurt them), but I kept my balance using my knees and leg strength.)
Look at that stiff hair! It really hurt my legs!!
From the little market area, we rode around in a big circle, feeding Johnny bananas and sugar cane while he simultaneously chewed on nearby grasses. After about 40 minutes, we took him into the river (or rather he took us) and we proceeded to give him a bath!
If you've ever seen videos of elephants taking baths, they are adorable. If you've ever seen one in real life, it is BEYOND adorable. You could honestly see the joy on Johnny's face as he rolled around in the water, then as we splashed water onto him and scrubbed him with a brush while we pet him. He seriously seemed overjoyed.
After that, we climbed aboard once more, riding back to the market. We had such a wonderful time with Johnny - we will miss our wonderful elephant friend!
Our next stop was lunch at a small rest stop (fried rice with veggies) before heading out on our trek. While the hike wasn't LONG per say, it was not SUPER easy, and did consist of walking over several logs which were perched over about 10 foot (or more) drops, walking along curves on the side of hills, etc. etc. We arrived at the waterfall after about an hour and took a few pictures QUICKLY (the water was SUPER cold!!)
I know, I know, you can barely see the waterfall...
After the pictures, it was another hour trek back...although this time Eggy (our driver and guide) seemed really in a rush to get back to the car, and kept leaving people (sometimes us) behind where we couldn't see him for long stretches of time. Always fun to be stranded in the woods with only a bare minimum understanding of the direction in which you are intended to go... fortunately, we worked together with some of our new friends so we all made it back to the car in one piece!
Our next stop came the river for white water rafting! After our elephant encounter, this was definitely the part I had most been looking to. We even strapped the GoPro to Jon's helmet so he could gather some pictures/video of our adventures!
However, instead, it was absurd.
We were put with a guide who had a bare minimum understanding of English. Which is TOTALLY fine. He really only needed to know a few words: left, right, forward, back. That's it. Yet, somehow, these words were lost.
Partly as a result of his lacking English skills and partly as a result of the riverbed being WAAAAYYYYY too dry for rafting (seriously - there were rocks jutting out EVERYWHERE), it honestly seemed as if this trip was his first down the river. He would tell us to stop paddling when we should go, he would tell us to row backwards when we should go forwards, and he CONSTANTLY confused his left and right. All of this ended up with us being stuck on rocks for minutes on end, getting more and more frustrated by the minute, mostly since he would huff and puff and act like us getting stuck was our fault. It also didn't help that one of the girls in the boat basically refused to paddle, sitting there with her oar in the water doing nothing. Also, for some reason, people here LOVE to splash strangers. Every time another raft or kayak passed us, people would appear friendly, say hello, wave, and then raise their oars and splash water ALL over us. WTH??? (Eggy also insisted on splashing EVERYONE at the waterfall.) WHY???? We hadn't been in the greatest moods before beginning (Jon hadn't been feeling well and I was concerned for him while we were both getting more and more dehydrated). All this made for a pretty miserable hour on the river. Blah.
Needless to say we were quite glad when it was over.
We got back in the car and drove about 90 minutes back to our hotel. By the time we got there, we were both FREEZING since we had gotten soaked on the river and since Eggy refused to turn down the AC (customer service...not really a strong suit...). To make matters worse, when we got up to our room, I discovered that Jon had a pretty high fever. :( He took some medicine while we pondered his symptoms, especially since he has been since so often since being away. He mentioned he thought it was a result of his anti-malaria medication. Sure enough, a cursory google of the meds and "fever, nausea, etc. etc. etc." came up. Luckily, he took his last pill yesterday, so we're hoping he won't have these symptoms any more...
He took a shower and a quick nap while I blogged a bit. When he woke up, feeling much better as a result of the meds, we went to dinner. Jon ordered Thai food while I ordered chicken and salad. MAN was it delicious. And exactly what I needed. Honestly, I'm kind of over Asian food (and we still have another 2 weeks here! Uh oh!) We usually only eat Asian Food like once a month at home, if that, so eating it for EVERY meal has been REALLY hard!!
After dinner (and getting fairly lost on our way to the town square) we headed into town for a bit to see what we could see of the flower festival (since we had read online that events started tonight). Sure enough, a walk into town revealed the "Miss Flower Festival" pageant, with women from all over Northern Thailand competing for the crown and a chance to ride a sweet sweet float in tomorrow's parade ;-)
Ok, enough for tonight. Time for bed and hoping Jon's feeling back to his usual self in the morning!
Jess' highlight of the day: bathing elephant Johnny in the river!
Jon's highlight of the day: riding Johnny!
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