04 October 2018

So after Cambodia we flew to Chiang Mai which is a city in northern Thailand.  It was the capital of the independent Lanna Kingdom until 1558.  It's old city area still retains vestiges of walls and moats from it's history as a cultural and religious center.

It had a much more relaxed feel about it and the fact that it was much cheaper and had some great markets made it even more appealing :-D  

The most exciting thing and enjoyable thing EVER was our visit to the Elephant nature park, Pamper A Pachyderm 2.  Such an amazing experience!!  

Cuthbert eager to Nelly ;-D

Smiling Simon

We had an early morning pick up from our apartment. as it was going to take a good hour and half journey to the nature park.   Which gave us time to get really excited while watching the safety video :-D     Out on a road in the middle of nowhere we stopped and got out and were greeted by a few locals and 3 beautiful elephants.  We were given bags of bananas to feed them whilst we went on an hour or so hike.   The bananas were an incentive for the elephants to follow us which were refilled at various points along our journey to 'base camp'    If we sped up, then so did the elephants which was a little unnerving at times as these boys/girls were huge.  I didn't fancy being squashed ..so there were a few giggly moments with me scampering out the way and Simon laughing :-D  We must have walked with for a good hour or so before we stopped for lunch down a steep path leading to the river.

Si with a bag of banana's

The elephants didn't join us for lunch but followed on behind and waved their trunks goodbye as they made their way very slowly down to the river to wait for us.

Lunch was yummy, all local and vegetarian, so lots of choice for Simon.  Being so hot, we re-hydrated as much as we could, we were so glad for the little leaf hats that the guys made for us.  I must say that the guides were pretty informative it was very interesting hear each of the elephants history as to how they came to be at the park.  There were all sorts, blind, semi blind, orphaned, rescued from the city, logging, all of which have had a very traumatic life.  There was one particular Burmese elephant that had some of it's foot blown off by a mine ..he's was my favorite I think.  5 years later they still had to bath his foot in antiseptic to stop infection.  ;-( 

   

Anyway after lunch we made some food balls for the elephants for the pre bathing snack ...rice, mango and lots of other fruit which I can't remember

We chopped this lot up and then fed them the balls that we'd made.  They're constantly eating :-D  

After their snack, we walked a short way into the river and were given buckets to throw water over them.  So much fun, they were like little scuba divers ..rolling around, fully submerging themselves and almost doing what looked like a head stand.

There were a few hairy moments where I was thigh deep water filming and one of the elephants decided to do a mini charge at me ...was I scared?   ..maybe?!!     It was so much fun though!!  Simon has all the photo's of the bathing action, so I'll post a few a bit later on.

I WANT AN ELEPHANT!!

To end the day, we finished bathing, feeding the elephants and whitewater rafted to the main rescue center where we were given a in depth tour if the part, seeing lots more elephants, being told their stories and what was amazing was that not only did it rescue elephants but it there it saved water buffalo, cats and dogs.  The lodging for the cats & dogs was incredible ..we both thought it was for staff :-D

I LOVED MY BIRTHDAY PREZZIE    ....THANK YOU !!!!!