I'm allergic to Elephants

Staying here in Chang Mai is amazing! The hotel is very small and is in a sort of wide “U” shape. On the ground level, there is a little patio where breakfast is served. And the breakfast doesn’t end either. They just keep bringing more and more food out to you, it’s a little overwhelming, but it’s all really good. Fahrung makes these little doughnut type things that you can dip in sweetened condensed milk that are to die for!  So yummy.

Breakfast, Cathy, Kari and Fahrung.

Our Hotel. Amazing accommodations!

Fahrung arranged transportation for us up to the elephant riding place for the day, so Kari, Matt and I went up there (Cathy has done it several times before, so opted to stay at the hotel to do some work). On a side note, I learned that I’m allergic to elephants, at least that is what I’m going to claim because when I was there I couldn’t stop sneezing and couldn’t blow my nose enough.  I figure that is a pretty unique allergy that needs to be talked about at every doctor visit I ever go to in the future. The Elephant place was really cool, but I had really mixed feelings. I know that there is a lot of maltreatment for elephants, which I obviously think is wrong. And the ability to b able train an animal to perform tricks is really cool to show the intelligence of the animals, but it’s also sad because they have relatively little choice in the matter. I think about how we treat dogs, and how many people the focus is on how to train them, and they make them perform for their friends and whoever comes to visit. It’s pride for the dog and owner. And it’s an accomplishment that both can be happy about. But how is that different. Is it simply different because of the number of animals (there were several at a time performing tricks)? Is it different because elephants have been maltreated, poached, and their numbers are drastically reduced from what they used to be? Is it different because they’re animals that are usually caged in zoos or put into circus acts?  Is it different because it happens here and I’m aware of how much some people in the US are concerned with animals’ rights and that isn’t as much of a concern here? I’m not sure. I don’t know that anyone can answer these questions for anyone else, but they’re thoughts I’ve pondered about since. I often have the same reaction when thinking about or visiting zoos.  I’m not sure I would think about it quite so much if I were going on a group tour riding horses, and why is that the case?  Horses were wild once; is it just because I’m used to them being so domesticated? I guess I’ll keep thinking for a while.

Nonetheless, I was very impressed by the things they had trained the elephants to do. They played soccer, threw darts, painted pictures, the trainers demonstrated various ways to get on and off, etc.  The rides were really awesome too. We went for about an hour. Kari and I shared one (cheaper) and Matt had his own. You can tell that the riders/trainers cater to tourists all the time, they stopped at one point and took our cameras to get pictures of us on the elephants. Most of the riders and trainers are from the Karen tribes (pronounced Kah – rin, with the emphasis on the second syllable). Historically their people come from this area and over in Burma also.  They are most famous for their long neck rings that women wear. The truck that took us up to the elephants had several other stops on the way (that you could take if you wanted, see alligators (people put their heads in their mouths), snakes, feed baby tigers, etc.). One of the stops is at a Karen village to look at the people. It felt a little too exploitive for us, so we opted not to. The other stuff is pretty touristy, and we weren’t really interested in that either.  

Bathing before the show. I'm not sure Why they painted them with country flags.

Soccer!

Painting a picture.

Matt practicing his Thai greeting.

Kari and I on our elephant

We did decide to stop at an orchid farm, which was beautiful! So many different types of orchids. I enjoyed the colors a lot, and the way that they grow is really unique.  We also stopped at a shop to help our driver out (he gets a stamp for everybody he brings and then with so many stamps he gets something). They weren’t Thai, I think the sales people were Middle Eastern of some sort, but wow, were they good sales people! They were very rehearsed. It was a little hard to get out of there, but we managed it. Finally we stopped at a little coffee shop where I had the most amazing kiwi shake. It was kind of a mix between a shake and a slushy, and it was so tasty.  

Orchid farm

I was rather proud of myself for this picture

We went to a Monk chat after that. One of the temples has a place set aside for people to come and talk to Monks about Buddhism or anything really. We talked to ours about his process of deciding to be a Monk. Apparently there is no set time, so many come in to do their education (because it’s free), and that is what this guy wanted to do, he had about 3 years left. They have to follow all their rules the same, but they’re just there for a shorter amount of time.  He talked about the rules of living as a Monk and we asked about what consequences are there if they break a rule. He basically told us there were no consequences, but Karma would catch up to you.  He also told us for a healthy life we should meditate 5 or 10 minutes each morning and night. I kind of wish we could have had an older Monk who had been there longer, but this man was nice to talk to and was kind to answer all our questions. 

A Temple ruin by the Monk chat

Temple where we had the Monk chat.