Chiang Mai- Elephants and hiking

After our luxurious 14 hour train trip we made it to the Northern city of Chiang Mai. Coming into the city the scenery was beautiful, with lush green mountains and hills surrounding us. Getting off the train, the air instantly felt clearer and fresher than Bangkok, and it was a little cooler, at 29 degrees.

We made our way to the hostel, and began making a plan of action.  Like the rest of Thailand, Chiang Mai is well accostumed to tourist, and its an industry which knows its strengths.  It's the base for outdoor activities, mountain climbing, mountain biking, rafting, hiking, elephant training, zip lining, Tiger Kingdom, you name it, you can probably do it from Chiang Mai. So, the problem was trying to figure out what was worth spending my every decreasing budget on. I decided to do a two day hike, and to also visit the Elephant Nature Reserve.

In the two days leading up to the hike, sickness crept in again, nothing serious, but enough to take your enthusiasm for discovering a city in the heat. A trip to the pharmacist, and I was sure I would be able for hiking the following day.

I was up bright and early for the pick up at my hostel, which of course was an hour late. I had braced myself for this hike. My main hiking experience stems back to my trip in South America, hiking in Bolivia and Peru. Hands down, the most grueling, and difficult physical experience of my life. Hiking is not easy. I'm sure if you regularly participate it gets easier, but as a casual hiker, any decent hike will be tough.

So I was expecting the worst. I knew it would be worth it, and I knew I would be glad I did it, but I fully expected to hate it. But this was not South America, it was Thailand. This 'Non-Touristic Hike' was totally the opposite. It was highly touristic.

We didn't start hiking until about 2pm. We drove around picking people up from the hostels, before starting the hour drive to the mountains. We had a good mixed group. I was the only native english speaker, with Austrians, Germans, French, Saudi, Iran and Polish. There was about 14 of us all together. After our drive, we stopped at a market, then onto a village where we had lunch. We hadn't even walked 100 metres and we were already having lunch we joked. It seemed like it was going to be a ridiculously easy day.

Finally we got to the base of the mountain, and we ventured off the road, up a trail that lead very steeply up the mountain. VERY steeply. So after about 30 minutes, I thought I was going to die. I felt dizzy and nauseous, and suddenly thought that maybe I wasn't over my sickness, or ready to go on a uphill hike in the vicious sunshine. Myself and another solo traveling french girl began to take a firm place in the back. One of our hiking guides could see I wasn't feeling the best, so came to me with Tiger Balm, which he put on my temples and under my nose. Tiger Balm is an invention of the Gods. I instantly started to feel better, and stayed better, even though the climb became more difficult. The same could not be said for my French companion, who upon reaching our next rest stop, burst into tears. She sat on the floor and cried, we were all a bit surprised, but I was most surprised to find that I was the only one that went to comfort her. And I don't even speak French.

The first days hiking only lasted about 5 hours, and after the initial sickness, I didn't find it too hard. And it really was beautiful. The only other creatures we saw however were other tourists, and a giant spider.

Our camp for the night was in a very small village where we would stay in a giant bamboo hut, sleeping on the floor. It might not have been much, but we were happy to see it all the same. We had a 'shower' which was really just a tap, and watched the sunset while our guides prepared our dinner of vegetarian sweet and sour with rice and soup.

Over dinner we talked to our main guide about life as a guide. He said he didn't take days off, the day he'd get back from a hike, he'd leave the next day for a hike. He explained how he'd been in the Thai army which is why he found it so easy. They would have to walk every day for 13- 16 hours with one army flask of water to last for three days, and this was for drinking, cooking with and washing, all in the 30+ heat. It seems impossible. He also told us the only time he'd taken off was recently when he contracted malaria. It took him 6 months to recover and lost half his body weight.

After dinner they entertained us in old fashioned riddles which they made with match sticks on a piece of cardboard, the kind of riddles that your dad would have tormented you with as a child. It certainly worked, we sat up for hours trying to figure them out.

That night the temperatures plummeted, as you would expect in the mountains. Unfortunately I didn't have sufficient warm clothing for it, and ended up with a cold the next day. A cold in the sunshine! I didn't think it was a big deal, but it would haunt me later into my trip.

The next day we began by a short walk to what we were told was a 'Bat Cave', not the Batman kind. We only saw one bat... and three monks.

Then,  another downhill walk to a waterfall. Downhill by the way, although less exhausting than uphill, is tougher on leg muscles, and balance. We got to swim in the waterfall for an hour before another walk to lunch and then a drive to an elephant ride. I'd heard mixed things about the elephant 'hiking' and I have to say, I didn't really enjoy the experience. Not the riding the elephant part, but seeing the elephants chained when they weren't being ridden, with chains that were only about three meters long. I could only speculate how long the elephant was chained there each day, but they were rocking back and forth on the spot which was uncomfortable to watch.

We then went rafting down the river before heading back to Chiang Mai, all exhausted and smelly. It was a good experience, but not the best hike I've ever been on. I was still glad I did it.

The following day I went to the Elephant Nature Reserve, which is a rescue center for elephants that have been abused. Before the logging ban in Thailand Elephants were used to move the heavy logs from forest to road. After the logging ban it left a lot of tamed elephants 'unemployed', not only that, but much of there natural habit had been destroyed, ironically, by the work they helped participate in. This lead to elephants for tourism, i.e. the type of elephant hiking camps that I'd been to the previous day. While some camps treat the elephants well, tragically it is not always the case. A problem is also elephants being used for begging in streets in the cities of Thailand. There is also still logging going on in neighboring Miramar. Many of the elephants in the ENR had come from these backgrounds, but not just that, had been horribly abused by there mahoot. Each elephant will have one person that they are trained to obey, this is the elephants mahoot. Unfortunately, the traditional method of training an elephant, and ordering an elephant, is through excessive physical abuse. Some elephants were blind, one had one broken hip and one broken leg, others had infections were there tusks had been cut off. There are 35 elephants in total, and they each had there own story. And its true what they say, elephants never forget, which meant that some of them have psychological damage thanks to the abuse they have suffered.

While the price of visiting the Reserve was high, it felt worth while cause you could see how well the elephants were treated. We fed the elephants their breakfast, visited baby elephants and other elephants in the park, and bathed the elephants. We also watched a video about the Reserve and the treatment of elephants in Thailand. It was hard to watch, it really does seem hopeless when the government are doing so little to help the problem with 'unemployed' domestic elephants. And while there are many domestic elephants, the number of elephants in the wild has plummeted, thanks to the decreased forestlands.

It was a fantastic day, you really got to understand the elephants and see their personalities. My favourite was a tantrum throwing blind elephant, who had only been in the park three weeks. She stomped impatiently waiting for her breakfast, and then when her food was all gone, began trying to steal others. Like all of the elephants, she wasn't violent, but very amusing when she grew impatient. They really are giant creatures, and unbelievably silent when they move, so you really have to keep an eye on them at all times, you do not want to get in there direct path, they cannot see in front, as their eyes are on the sides of there head.

Next stop in Northern Thailand was Pai, a mere three hour drive away from Chiang Mai.