One Day Trip

I did not do a lot of homework about where to go in Chiang Mai. The rough idea was just that I wanna go to the Sunday Market. I wanna go to Doi Suthep. An elephant ride would be nice, but I don't wanna touch the animals. If there is nothing to do, I can always sign up for cooking class. I love Thai food anyway. But after I checked in the guest house, had coffee with Rainy and was finally alone, I still needed to plan what to do. So I went to the local travel agent.

I do not have any recommendation which agent to go to, so I just picked one from the 10+ or 20+ around the Tat Pae gate. A very cool lady greeted me. She looked a bit over 40, dark, loud and low voice, almost like Cher, and she is very nice and patient to ask what I'd like to. I don't wanna sweat too much? oh then this package is not good for you, because you'll need to hike in the sun for 2 hours. I don't wanna get wet? Oh then rafting won't be such a good idea for you, but rafting would be fun. Well, I was just being fickle and could not make up my mind. I asked to look around all the posters they have on the wall, packages on the brochures. No problems at all, and she did not give me any pressure. I love that.

So I settled down with a 1000B package, which includes orchid farm, paper factory, village visit, elephant ride, and rafting.

The car was kind of bad. Just a regular truck with a roof. I did not feel it was that bad until we reached the orchid farm. Another tour group got there at the same time, and they had a nice, air-conditioned SUV. I was tempted to ask how they found the tour and how much they paid for it, but decided to hold that thought. I knew if they told me they only paid 800, then I would be really pissed off at myself.

Orchid farm was ok. Orchid is not uncommon in Taiwan, and we can get some really cheap. My dad grows some at home too.

Then we stopped at the paper factory, which is just a short distance from the orchid farm, so, of course, that hateful SUV showed up again. It was a shock to visit there when I realized, the beautiful handmade paper of all those beautiful notebooks or photo albums I saw from the night markets are made from elephant manure! They collect manure, put it in the sun, then wash it a few times to get the fiber out, and wash a few more times, then put the remaining fiber in a basin. A screen is then used to pick up the fiber. A person will shake the screen a little bit to make the fiber spread evenly in the screen, then a thick sheet of paper is ready to dry to form the final product. It was fun, really, but I truly tried to avoid those merchandise in the night markets afterwards.

To get to the village, we had to walk around 20 minutes one way. Easy walk, even 5-year-old was doing great, though we had to go up and down some hills. There were long-neck people and black-teeth people living there. They did not live there originally, but came from their hometown to that place to do business, with the permit from Thai government. Men went out to hunt for food or work as tour guides. Women stayed in the village to take care of kids and sell souvenirs. Tourists are free to take as many pictures as they want. I guess some people don't like this idea as they feel this village is more like a zoo, which I disagree.

Elephant ride was fun. They prepared one elephant for each group. There was a group of a family of 3, a group of a couple, and the a group of myself. Well, I rode alone. We got on the elephant, and then the elephants went down a slope to the river, as shown on the picture. The view of the river, elephants and forest made such great excitement like something is going to happen, and it is gonna be a wild wild safari. Well, the fun part was, at one point, the elephant owner jumped off the elephant and left me alone on the animal, and it started to wandered around the field with its own pace. It was a bit scary at first but in few minutes became a fun thing to see how the elephant pulled the weeds, searched for food, etc. After that the elephant walked in and along the river. That was also fun to see how this powerful animal move people around.

When I saw the picture of bamboo rafting, it looked so mild and easy. I should have thought about it, but did not realize it until I got on the raft and it sank in the water! My feel and pants were wet immediately. And when the raft made a sharp turn, one side of the raft sank in the water so much that my butts were soaking wet. That 5-year-old kid was not very happy, and blamed the dad all the way, and that dad was just laughing.

We had gong too far out of Chiang Mai at that point, so it would take 2 hours to drive back to Chiang Mai. I dozed half the way on that very uncomfortable truck, and my butts were wet all the way back. Mind you, it could get chilly in the evening in Chiang Mai, and I could really felt the breeze. It was 8 when we said good bye. That was a long and fun trip.