Save the elephants
When in Chiang Mai there are simply just certain things you have to do: go on a trek, visit the elephants, go for a munk chat, a meditation course, cooking course and get a massage in the woman's prison. I managed almost all of that. For the women's prison you have to pre book your massage but close by there is a few branches were ex-prisoners work. Close enough so we went for that.
I spent one evening exploring the night market which was huge and had an amazing food street.
Another evening I spent with the monks at Wat Sri Suphan, first doing a monk chat where we sat down with a group and got to ask him all kinds of questions so he could practice his English. It was very interesting and I learned a lot about their ways of practice. We finished the chat by getting a blessing and a little white bracelet before we took part in a meditation class. I was quite tired and hungry so I spent most of the time thinking about what I should have for dinner but I really liked it.
But my absolute favourite day was my last day in Chiang Mai which I spent with the elephants. We started the day at a food market before continuing to do about an hour trek to a waterfall. We got there at a good time because after about 15 minutes loads of other tour groups showed up and what started out as a peaceful yet cold swimin the waterfall turned in to a crazy selfie scene.
After a nice lunch it was time for the best part of the day: spending some quality time with the elephants. I went witha small company that only ownes three elephants and at the time at a fourth one in its care as the owner didn't have enough money to nurse the elephant back to health. So this organisation uses the money we pay for our tour, 1800 Baht (425 SEK/€42.50) to help treat sick elephants for free if the owners are not capable of it themselves. But the main reason I went for this company was that I didn't want to support an organisation that encouraged elephant riding. Because to train an elephant to accept people to ride them they do some horrendous things to them as babies, including tying them up and stabbing them.
So instead we spent the day feeding them bananas, making medicine with the help of sticky rice and finally bathing them!
It was amazing as they are just such beautiful creatures.
We finished the day by going water rafting. It was nice but the water was only about knee high and there wasn't much of a current so it was really nothing compared to when I did it back in New Zealand.
Finally we switched over to a bamboo raft. There were 10 of us on one and it sank but as it was only about ankle deep water by then it wasn't much trouble except that it was cold. At one point the guide even went out and dragged us so we decided to just get off and call that an interesting experience.
I had a really good time in Chiang Mai but I was quite touristic. Everyone owned a guesthouse with a travel agency, bike rental and laundrette. Despite this I didn't manage to find any trekking tours, 2-3 days with overnight stay in the jungle, that did not involve elephant riding. I did find out that there is at least one company that offers it but that was when I was already on the bus away from Chiang Mai. What I am basically trying to say is ifwe as tourists stop going on tours with elephant riding then maybe they will stop the torture because if there's no demand then hopefully there will be no supply.
I spent one evening exploring the night market which was huge and had an amazing food street.
Another evening I spent with the monks at Wat Sri Suphan, first doing a monk chat where we sat down with a group and got to ask him all kinds of questions so he could practice his English. It was very interesting and I learned a lot about their ways of practice. We finished the chat by getting a blessing and a little white bracelet before we took part in a meditation class. I was quite tired and hungry so I spent most of the time thinking about what I should have for dinner but I really liked it.
But my absolute favourite day was my last day in Chiang Mai which I spent with the elephants. We started the day at a food market before continuing to do about an hour trek to a waterfall. We got there at a good time because after about 15 minutes loads of other tour groups showed up and what started out as a peaceful yet cold swimin the waterfall turned in to a crazy selfie scene.
After a nice lunch it was time for the best part of the day: spending some quality time with the elephants. I went witha small company that only ownes three elephants and at the time at a fourth one in its care as the owner didn't have enough money to nurse the elephant back to health. So this organisation uses the money we pay for our tour, 1800 Baht (425 SEK/€42.50) to help treat sick elephants for free if the owners are not capable of it themselves. But the main reason I went for this company was that I didn't want to support an organisation that encouraged elephant riding. Because to train an elephant to accept people to ride them they do some horrendous things to them as babies, including tying them up and stabbing them.
So instead we spent the day feeding them bananas, making medicine with the help of sticky rice and finally bathing them!
It was amazing as they are just such beautiful creatures.
We finished the day by going water rafting. It was nice but the water was only about knee high and there wasn't much of a current so it was really nothing compared to when I did it back in New Zealand.
Finally we switched over to a bamboo raft. There were 10 of us on one and it sank but as it was only about ankle deep water by then it wasn't much trouble except that it was cold. At one point the guide even went out and dragged us so we decided to just get off and call that an interesting experience.
I had a really good time in Chiang Mai but I was quite touristic. Everyone owned a guesthouse with a travel agency, bike rental and laundrette. Despite this I didn't manage to find any trekking tours, 2-3 days with overnight stay in the jungle, that did not involve elephant riding. I did find out that there is at least one company that offers it but that was when I was already on the bus away from Chiang Mai. What I am basically trying to say is ifwe as tourists stop going on tours with elephant riding then maybe they will stop the torture because if there's no demand then hopefully there will be no supply.
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