SE Asia Day 9 – Thursday, 6 February 2014

Picked up by tour van at 8:15. Made several stops until we had all 14 passengers from various hotels around Chiang Mai. I was sitting with a man and woman from New Zealand with their 3 cute little boys ages 3-7. Sweet, well behaved boys! The oldest, a first grader, was reading on his Kindle most of the way.

Headed out of town on about an hour drive to Maetang Elephant Camp.

Upon arrival, it was easy to see this place is very popular. There were a few hundred people there.

The first part of our day was a chance to touch and feed a couple elephants. We bought bundles of sugar cane, about five stalks 8 inches long. The elephant grabbed them and crunched a couple times then down they went!

I loved this little convention of mahouts. 😉

The elephant ride was a lot of fun. We’ve all seen how shift from side to side when the walk in the movies, etc. Their walk is very gentle, albeit rocking. The mahout sits on the back of their neck with his legs bent back under himself and resting on the backs of their ears. We were already at the Ping River as we abled down a path on its edge. We then went into the water. It was a beautifully sunny and hot day. My mahout stopped our elephant on a series of rocks in the middle of this fairly narrow river. He got off, told the elephant to stay and took my pix! It was really great fun.

PIC ON RIVER

We walked on through the river a bit then crossed to the other side and up on the hillside. Then back into the water toward our destination,  back at Maetang Camp. Buddy was in front of me and his guide took him up a VERY steep side of the hill! I thought Buddy was about to fall out the back! LOL

Took a snack / beverage break. Waited about 45 minutes for our groups turn to do the bamboo raft ride. You should have seen us and felt our pain, LOL, as we had to sit on these wooded boxes that were only about 8 inches off the deck of the raft. The Kiwis were the only other people on the raft with us. We loved those 3 boys… Miles, Theo, ?  Buddy were the front squatters so it was fun having our raft pilot standing two feet in front of us using his bamboo pole to push and steer us. There was another guy in the back who was probably doing more of the work but we really didn’t see his endeavors… though much appreciated! LOL

The ride was through the jungle with elephants on either side in spots. Some were for tourism, some were for work. The river meandered through very quiet fairly dense vegetation. I say jungle but in many ways it reminded me of some desolate areas of Florida. I mean there was a mountain road that was within 200 yards at times. It’s not like Tarzan and Cheetah were going to swing across the river on a vine or something. It was sweet.

We were on the raft about an hour… the sun was really getting to us even though we all had Vietnamese Sam Pan hats on. We had nothing to drink so it was kinda HOTTTT. Probably about 90F.

When we reached the end the guide told us it was bout 4km which is about 2.5 miles. That’s a heckuva long way to push two fat, old white guys and two skinny adult kiwis and three little pipsqueaks!  ROFL

Tony and our van were waiting for us at the end. After our “Jungle Cruise” there were a couple little stalls selling water, soda, etc. I just wanted a bottle of WATER. I think it was 15Baht. I gave the lady 20Baht and motioned for her to keep the change. She was genuinely grateful… that is about 15 cents!!!! I was still kind of learning the money or I’d have given her more. This is one of the things that people always say about the Thai people, especially the poor, of which there are so many… they are truly greatful for any kindness but they invariably extend their smile prayer greeting with a head bow first. It truly is the Land of Smiles. Beautiful people inside and out.

We drove off the mountain back toward Chiang Mai and stopped at the Orchid and Butterly Gardens. The orchids, ALL kinds, were unbelieveably beautiful. The butterfly garden was nice but I only saw about three and we were looking pretty carefully. There weren’t any fluttering about!

Got back into Chiang Mai and made 4-5 hotel stops before ours. We were beat and took a nap then went into town for dinner (our hotel on the river was the outskirts of the downtown area so we always took a Tuk Tuk (took took) in and out of town. Take a look at the pix to get an understanding and then realize they are powered by a 125cc motorbike!!! OMG! They are very convenient but the video of us getting in and out would be priceless. Buddy is about 6’1, I’m 6’4″ and we’re both big boys. LOL

So, we had dinner at Duke’s that has Western Cuisine. Buddy wanted to go to New My Way Club but I begged off realizing that I would be no fun. Went back to Club One Seven for the night.

Day 11 Friday, 7 Feb

I’m writing this on 21 Feb on my way home so trying to recall events. We hung out at the hotel that day. I got a massage in the afternoon… 950Baht ($29!!!!!!). It was a good full body massage. Too bad they’re not that cheap at home! Or even close!!!

We went back into town to the Night Bazaar where I bought some souvenirs and we went back and ate at Dick’s again! We liked it there!

From there we went to New My Way Club. Got to this small club about 8:30 and were the ONLY people there but that’s the way a lot of clubs are and have always been. About 10:30 it filled up with about 75-100. Fun place.

Out late that Friday night.

Day 12 – Saturday, 8 Feb

We went to see a temple inside the old city walls of Chiang Mai. VERY huge and OLD. Need to check sources but maybe 12th century. In credible architecture.

Walked a good bit of the downtown area throughout the afternoon then back to 17. Waited for one of the guys that works at 17, Kim, to get off at nine. We then went to a little cafe bar for dinner and drinks. Met his friends Nam and Kong there. That is also where our little friend came to peddle orchid necklaces. “Come on, Come on!” I arm wrestle you. What a booger. Of course I gave in. He used both arms and his whole body to easily beat me!  LOL Then came the Buddy challenge, “Come on, come on!” Buddy lost too. LOL

We had a morning flight the next day back to BKK (Sunday). Buddy loves to party but not the night before an early flight so he went back to 17. Kim, Nam, and I went to G-Star Vintage. What a wild, fun place. It was packed with several hundred people. Besides being so cheap in SE Asia… none of the clubs charge any kind of cover. The music was great. Very friendly crowd.

Day 13 – Sunday, 9 Feb

I got about two hours sleep… MAYBE… before I had to get up, eat, and taxi to CNX.

Back to BKK Sunday afternoon. Stayed in for the most part. Got needed sa-leep.

Day 15 – Tuesday, 11 Feb

When we got through Customs we walked outside where you would have thought some HUGE CELEBRITY must be about to come out the doors behind us because there were THOUSANDS of people there waiting for their special person. Thank goodness I got pix. I mean MASSES of people. THEN the taxi ride was a trip of it’s own. Traffic is CRAZY heavy in Saigon… Cars, motorbikes by the THOUSANDS, trucks, bicycles and traffic circles! The driver must have honked his horn 75 times in the 15 minute ride. We soon figured out that the honking is a courtesy tap to let others know “you’re encroaching on my space.” And it’s all about bigger is the boss. Amazingly in all the time we were there, I never saw anyone get hurt or even bumped. Although everybody’s in a hurry, it’s a polite hurriedness. Not once did our driver yell nor did anyone on motorbikes yell, flip the bird or ANY negative thing. It was truly polite, organized, chaos!!!! Buddy and I also quickly learned that it’s safer to cross the streets there than in BKK. You make a wise choice when to step out then keep going. They will go around you. I’ve got to implant my video here in front of the KFC. THe setup is that I’m standing at a small cross street to a 6 lane road. The bikes and cars are coming down the hill from the Bridge over the Saigon River. This was on Day

My American pal, John Boulden’s, friend Ha and his friend Minh met us at the hotel and we walked a few blocks to Ngon Restaurant new WinCom Mall. Beautiful restaurant. Buddy’s friend Kye (Ozzie) living in Saigon 2+ years met us at the restaurant not long after we got there. Had what was probably only my second Vietnamese meal of my life. Pho (/fa/) is the name of their soups. It was just ok to my taste. The other guys that are more used to Asian cuisine thought it was great. There a few hours then Kye wanted to take us to Crazy Buffalo on Bui Vien St. in District 1. On the way we passed the first ever McDonald’s in Saigon that was having it’s OPENING WEEK. I was shocked because all the other American fast food chains are there.. BK, DQ, etc. Well maybe not ALL but McDonald’s last to the party!?!?!?