{"id":375,"date":"2023-12-10T09:28:12","date_gmt":"2023-12-10T09:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aerowalsh.com\/cr\/?p=375"},"modified":"2024-06-23T08:40:05","modified_gmt":"2024-06-23T08:40:05","slug":"sat-9th-dec-chiang-mai-elephants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/?p=375","title":{"rendered":"Sat 9th Dec – Chiang Mai (Elephants)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Elephants! Today!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Thailand, elephants can be purchased legally just like cats and dogs. There are a lot of unethical elephant tourism attractions and the tour promises that this is one that is a friend of the elephant. The jungle\/rice paddy fields stretches 12 acres and is an hour and a half windy drive up from the main city of Chiang Mai. There are four elephants, and they freely roam the acerage. Each has a ‘mahoot’ that follows them around while the grounds are open to tourists (literally follows them everywhere). This is the safety net and is why we can get so close to the animals. The Mahoots tell the groups whether the elephants feel comfortable. If they don’t, we back away. If they do, we are allowed to stand very close to them and watch them go about their business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am thrilled to hear some light trumpeting. I also get to hear a low rumbling noise (much like a motor starting), which I’ve never heard before, and is a way for the elephant to communicate that they are anxious. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These elephants are still in captivity though. They are are not wild. It emerges that they get chained at night, and that this is for two reasons. One is that they will eat all night and deplete the acerage of plant covering. The other is, without the watchful eyes of the Mahoots (they must sleep), the elephants can destroy the fences and approach the neighbouring small village. It’s not sad like Chiang Mai Zoo, but it’s also not what I was expecting either. I was expecting an ‘in the wild’ safari where we may or may not see them at all. I love elephants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Breakfast at the same stall as yesterday. I am up early (6am) as we depart early to drive to the elephant sanctuary. I am anxious that it won’t be open. I needn’t worry as this tiny shop that serves only rice porridge and congee, doughnuts and coffee has 3am-11pm opening hours on a whiteboard out the front. Despite the early hours, all three tables are filled with quiet, content chatter between strangers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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We got close. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Extraordinarily beautiful animal.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A different herd.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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We return around 3pm to Chiang Mai. I go for a small walk, and am particularly stressed by this market that is 85% patroned by motorcycles, constantly stopping to barter with a vendor and then hastily pulling back out onto the narrow street.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Tonight’s farewell dinner (I am with a new tour group tomorrow, leaving from Bangkok and going south not north) is described by the tour leader as having Thai and western options. I am displeased with this and seek out an early dinner alone before going to the restaurant. Early dinner proves to be a sacred event. The evening cools down, the sun sets, and the little alleyway I have found gradually moves from sleepy food preparation to bustling service. There are no western dishes here, and in fact no westerners at all.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Sun sets over early dinner. In the end the group dinner is lame and I am glad not to order any food. It’s on the river and has a band playing english language songs. But it is big and full. I am perplexed about how it can be this busy, when it is clear that it is shit. After dinner, the group goes out to get a drink and this is pleasant. I am going to miss Chiang Mai. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thailand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holiday","category-summer-2023"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=375"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":377,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375\/revisions\/377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}