My last tour of Thailand and it was to visit 3 temples in Chiang Mai.
Wat Chedi Luang Varavihara
Wat Chedi Luang, this temple is the site of an enormous pagoda, originally 280 feet high, and was partially destroyed by an earthquake in 1545. It also housed a large about of buddas and a museum. There was a celebration happening while we were there so it was very busy.
Wat Phra That Doi Suthep
Temple in the mountains with a lovely river running through it. I posted a video on insta of me showing respect to the budda and then ringing the bell 3 times. Unfortunately, the guide that took the video did it in a weird so mo, so I quickened it up, but it has no audio, so you can’t hear the bell!
Wat Pha Lat
This temple is the ancient precursor (lower on the mountain) than Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. This one was my favourite with all the gold! We took a cable car up to the top and we walked down after. I did three rituals here:
1. Lit a candle and gave a lily to the budda
2. Had a monk say a prayer and wish my family and friends health and prosperity
3. I did the fortune game and got lucky this time it was a good one. The last one I did at the Chinese temple was truly horrible.
Today’s tour had 5 stops, including the highest point in Thailand!
Wachirathan Falls
First stop was this beautiful waterfall, where the water was falling 80m the closer you get the wetter you get!
Sirithan Waterfall
Our second waterfall was Sirithan and was named by her Majesty Queen Sirikit. This one was only 40m and we walked down, but you can’t get as close as the first one.
Local village – Ban Mae Klang Luang
We stopped for coffee & tea at a local village. They used to plant opium here, but when it was made illegal, they changed it to coffee beans and weaving. We had lunch here, with chicken, rice, seaweed soup, vegetables, and omelette. The rice fiess had started their harvest.
Phra Maha Dhatu Naphamethinidon and Naphaphonphumisiri Pagoda
These twin pagodas were built to honor the 60th birthday of the King and Queen in 1987 and 1992 respectively. One is called Naphamethinidon, meaning “by the strength of the land and air”, and the other, Naphaphonphumisiri, meaning “being the strength of the air and the grace of the land”.
Doi Inthanon highest point
We walked to the highest point in Thailand, which is 2,565 m. There were two points, a sign saying it’s the highest point and then the real one one lol
This was my darkest day away and the first I really felt like I wanted to go home, after a horrible incident at the elephant sanctuary.
I really thought I had done my research into what elephant sanctuary to go to! No riding, no chains, lots of space, feed well and loved. Little did I know until I made a comment on a forum, which I then deleted as I felt stupid that real sanctuarys don’t let you get that close to the elephants where you put yourself in danger. No bathing, either. I think we all forget that these are very large wild animals at the end of the day and many in these sanctuarys are rescused animals, so have not had a great start in life. Incase anyone is interested I was sent this link about real ones to look out got: https://www.worldanimalprotection.org/news/tourists-choosing-elephant-bathing-over-elephant-riding-unaware-cruelty-involved
I’m sure your asking what happened now to make this the worst day of the trip, i’m coming to that. I was picked up from my hotel as planned and taken into the mountains with another 6 people in a van.
It was a large group of us in total, I would guess, 30+ people. We started with a briefing, which I will come back to the information they gave and were informed how and where we can touch the elephants for photos, etc. Firstly, we went and fed them watermelon, we had a wooden fence between us and the elephants, and they were taking the watermelon out of our hands with their trunks to put in their own mouths. We had photos here with them, and once all the all the watermelon we split into 3 groups.
There were 7 elephants at this camp, and it was a split-second decision that I made to walk towards the river and see the 3 elephants that were down there. 1 of those didn’t really want to mingle, so we stayed with the other two. They gave them piles of leaves (sorry, not sure which, you might be able to work it out from the photos). We were then advised we could have photos and touch them, though in the briefing, we were informed only to touch the trunk and sides of their faces and front of their sides nearest the head. Never the legs or to go behind them. Suddenly, we could hear two elephants that were up where we started under the wooden cover start making alot of noise and then screaming from the people there. We looked up to see a woman on the floor being kicked around by both elephants. The keepers were trying to get to her, but the elephants were moving to not allow it. With all the noise from both the elephants and people, the other elephants started to get agitated, and we were advised to run to safely. For me, that meant across the mud, and I lost my shoe and went back once I felt safe to do so. We could hear the woman crying, and then she calmed, not sure if that was from drugs or passing out as we were too far away to see. An ambulance arrived maybe 20 minutes later, and they straped her in and took her away. I was shaking from the adrenalin and shock of it all and telling myself I wasn’t allowed to cry as I wasn’t the one that was hurt. The time we spent waiting felt like ages, but in reality, it wasn’t. After the ambulance had left, they announced they were ending the activities for the day, and if the van we came in was there, we should leave straight away. Mine wasn’t but arrived 10 minutes later, and we were taken back to our hotels.
It was definitely one of the scarest moments of my life as with all the elephants agitated and making loud noises and running around, to people screaming to me trying to stay upright and move across the mud as quickly as I could, while feeling guilty for being grateful it wasn’t me under those elephants.
I was glad they did that as I wouldn’t have been able to go near them again. The experience I booked was 2 days and an overnight stay.
It turned out the two elephants that trampled the women had only been there 1 week! Which in hindsight how was that even allowed!
I’ve chosen not to put any of the photos on social, as I feel guilty to have them when I don’t know what life changing injuries that poor women has, but secondly I feel stupid that I thought it was safe and it clearly wasn’t. I’ve added the photos here as it was part of my experience and certainly one I will not be forgetting in a hurry!
On the way back to the hotel I booked myself into a nicer one. The one I had been booked in at was a cheaper one as I wasn’t suppose to be there for 2 days, just a place to leave my bags safely. I was grateful to video chat my friends when they were up.
I emailed the company to ask for an update on the woman and got two responses, this was the second one:
I also had someone reach out to be on fb messenger for the details, as she campaigns for better treatment of elephants, I’ve shared why I thought it was ethical and the details of the incident.
In the briefing, they gave us some of the following info:
Elephany Jungle Sanctuary has 86 elephants across 20 locations. Elephants eat 10% of body weight a day, and they have an 80-100 year lifespan. An elephants pregnancy lasts for 18-24 months and they said the babies only stay with their mothers for 2-3years (I’ve found out since that is not true but the time they allow them to stay with their mothers before they separate them). On average, elephants could have 3-4 babies in their lifetime. Asian are smaller than African. Males have trusks, not females. Also asian heads are bigger but smaller ears. Elephants only sleep for about 5 hours a day on their sides.
There were 7 elephants at this Chiang Mai camp 2 and they were rescued from riding camps and elephants shows.
This experience has taught me not to put myself in unnecessary danger, especially with animals, and especially for a bloody photo!
Today we had a free day in Chiang Mai. After breakfast we had massages, with Noah having his first ever one!
We then we exploring the old town and market.
We went back to the night market for dinner and more shopping.
Day 7
That’s the end of the tour, the smallest and shortest one so far. Hannah, Noah and Michelle carried on straight away for a tour in Vietnam. I’ll be doing the same tour in a couple of weeks time.
Today, we finished the drive up to Chiang Mai. In the evening we went to the night market and brought souvenirs and dinner from the food market.
Afterwards we went to the Ladyboy show, which was so much fun! Bless him Noah was sat inbetwen Hannah and myself and scared everytime one of the ladies came off stage lol was very shocked that in the audience there was a 7 year old girl and her brother looked about 10. Another lad that was probably 15, and when the lady touched his face, he didn’t move or make any facial expressions, lol
We had suck me shots, which tasted like aftershot (blast from the past). 4 men were chosen to dress up and they were fab!
On the way back Hannah, Noah and myself squeezed into the back of a tuk tuk. The driver decided to rev the engine at the lights and due to the weight on the back the front wheela went up abit! We were screaming as he drove faster and took the corner. He was loving it! Very funny ride back!
More driving today to arrive at Sukhothai historical park. This was the first capital of Thailand, second was Ayutthaya. We hired bikes and rode around the park to see the temples. Enjoyed this alot more than I thought I would!
We went over to the night Market that was in the temple, its only their 3 weeks of a year, so we were lucky it fell when we stayed.
One thing that was shocking was the birds!! There were so many and they were so loud!
Today, we started with a trip to the Erawan waterfalls, which have 7 tiers. I only made it to number 5, but Hannah and Noah made it to 7!
There were two kinds of fish in the water, massive ones and tiny little ones that nibbled at your dead skin. I only managed to paddle as it was quite difficult to get into some of the pools.
Tham Krasae Bridge & Cave
Tham Krasae was our first stop on our journey of the infamous death railway built in second world war. We were perfectly timed to see a train go over the bridge, with the other G-Adventure tour on.
We also went into the cave that is next to the track.
Thai-Burmese Railway Museum
Thailand-Burma railway was built in 1942–43 by the Japanese using Prisoners-of-War (POWs) as labour. The camps conditions were awful and would have contributed towards the death counts. Which nearly 7000 Britons. The museum was really interesting and sad to read. Below are some of the info to read further of your interested. We also went to the graveyard next door, which has British, Australian and dutch graves.
Bridge on the River Kwai
This part of the Bridge was bombed by the Americans airforce in 1945 to stop the Japanese army’s vital supply line between Burma and Malaya.
When we got to the hotel, there was time for a dip in the pool before we got ready to go for dinner.
Some of the group opted for a river cruise and temple this morning, but as I’d already done that I had a layin and lazy breakfast before leaving with the driver and all the bags to collect the rest of the group.
We travelled in the van to Kanchanaburi, where our accommodation tonight was a boat raft. I am personally not sure what this added to the trip and would have been more comfortable in a hostel or hotel.
We slept in 2 rooms, with girls in one and boys in the other on the hardest, most comfortable beds or my trip so far!
Meet my new group to go from Bangkok up to Chiang Mai, smallest group yet with only 6 people! 3 from UK (including me), 1 USA, 1 Swizz and 1 Canadian.
As we normally do after the kick-off meeting, we went for dinner. We ended up having duck noodles from the market. I was feeling brave, so I decided to try the bugs that I’ve heard so much about. I went with a cricket and bamboo worm.
Where they were roasted and had seasoning on, they tasted like a crisp. The worm was almost hollow.
Was told that a must when in Thailand was to see a Muay Thai fight, so I decided to treat myself to VIP at the Rajadamnern Muay Thai Stadium. There were 7 fights, and the only knockout was the fighter from the UK!
Had great seats and being VIP it was it was unlimited beer and popcorn. I really enjoyed the night and can be heard giggling and cheering on the videos, especially the England one, lol
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