On Monday we took a one day excursion of the surrounds of Chiang Mai.
The day included,
-An Elephant trek
-A visit to a hill tribe village
-A walk and waterfall
-Lunch
-A bamboo raft ride
Unfortunately my digital camera capitulated during our Elephant trek. I have since revived it but since the Elephants were undoubtedly the highlight of the day my photos and video footage will only serve to punctuate the fun we had with them.
Our Elephant was the first one waiting in line to pick up passengers. Being somewhat naive in the ways of Elephants we thought our Elephant was a diligent and hard worker.
We soon learned that our Elephant was the hungriest and thirstiest Elephant of the herd. There were two banana stops on our ride. Our Elephant had an uncanny ability to gauge the exact amount of bananas we had left. She could also splash us with water when we did not supply with her with a steady stream of bananas. When we ran out of bananas she would start extorting bananas from other Elephants and passengers.
We learned an Asian Elephant requires about 250 kilos of vegetation and up to 60 gallons of water a day to keep on the road. However they make for an easy ride when they are not eating and are sure footed over a wide variety of terrain.
A nice touch was when we dismounted our Elephant and I lost my Vietnamese hat. It is a conical shape and landed point facing up. The following elephant was clever enough to pick it up by her trunk and pass it to me.
In closing, Elephants are a great way to see the jungle just remember to pack plenty of bananas and hold onto your hat.
