Travel

Chiang Mai Adventures: Elephant Nature Park

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On the second full day we were in Chiang Mai we had booked a day with Elephant Nature Park to go look after elephants for the day.

Thailand has a poor reputation with tourism and animals such as elephants and tigers in particular and generally any excursions that offer elephant riding, painting, tricks or anything similar should be avoided as well as anything that involves a tiger. Elephants do not paint or do tricks as a normal behaviour and the amount of cruelty and essentially torture that is involved to bend them to human submission should most definitely be outlawed. Riding an elephant is also cruel as the seat is an incredibly heavy metal structure and the animals get worked long hours in the gruelling heat. As for tigers, if they were behaving naturally, there is no way you can get anywhere near them for a picture without coming away with severe injuries. Tigers must be drugged off their faces in order for you to be able to do what they offer. Human entertainment seems a pretty poor reason for these beautiful creatures to be so heavily sedated on a daily basis, unable to live a proper life. It’s like the Chinese tourists I observed yesterday at a waterfall in Pai who were repeatedly throwing rocks into a pond trying scare the frog that was making regular croaks to make an appearance. These animals do not exist for your mere entertainment. They are sentient creatures of their own right. If you’re against human trafficking and human abuse, then consider the methods that are involved in order to make these ventures possible.

Rant over. Saying all that, eco-tourism is booming in Chiang Mai with lots of elephant “sanctuaries” who provide customers with a day feeding, “walking” and bathing elephants. Some of them offer riding without seats (although I’m undecided how I feel about this). Even if the owners of these establishments might be jumping on the bandwagon as opposed to doing it for the animal’s rights, it’s still a step in a better direction.

We ended up booking a day with Elephant Nature Park who, after extensive research, is highly recommended by lots of travel media publishers as well as won lots of awards on its work on rescuing elephants from commercial exploits (like riding, logging and performing). The single day excursions at their parks were all full up when we booked three days before we went. But they have plenty of side projects within the Karen villages where they involve the locals to look after rescued elephants which is good for the village giving them good stable income as well as providing lots of space and care for the elephants. We went to one of these side projects and it was easy to see that the three elephants there were well looked after. They were free to roam and were happy with their flappy ears as we fed and bathed them. The day we had didn’t involve any bare back riding which I preferred anyway as I have no desire to ride on such a magnificent creature.

So if you are around in Thailand and are looking for an elephant excursion, do do your research and work out which ones operate without abusing the animals.

Chiang Mai Adventures: Wat Pha Lak and Doi Suthep

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We ended up spending two and a half days in Chiang Mai before heading to Pai for two nights (currently on the minibus heading back to Chiang Mai). Even at first sight Chiang Mai is so much more relaxed and friendlier than Bangkok. The airport is only 15 minute drive away from the downtown square. There is a shuttle bus available for 40 bahts per person. The counter for this is at the very end of the airport near door 12 (by the international side) however this has limited capacity and when we went we were told there would be a 40 minute wait. There are lots of counters that offer taxis for a fixed price of 150 thb to get into town which isn’t too bad particularly as we were sharing between two.

We chose a hostel at the east edge of the main downtown Square to stay called Thunder Bird Hostel. In fact we’re staying there tonight on our one night stopover. The hostel wouldn’t look out of place in Shoreditch with its scandi inspired decor with lots of minimalist metal work. It’s clean, good toilets, hot showers, has a small rooftop and a comfortable chill out lobby where they serve the included breakfast as well as have a piano and guitar for those musically gifted to have a strum (or even those who just fancy a tinkle). Prices are not extortionate, a bed in a 6 bed mixed dorm is 315 baht per night. The hostel is a little hard to find but just use the GPS on Google maps to navigate your way there. There is also a lovely food market right outside the hostel with plenty of fresh fruit that you can devour.

The first full day we were there we set off on a self-trek to Wat Pha Lak and Doi Suthep. If you’re up for a day of adventure in some stunning sceneries and seeing some awesome temples, it’s definitely worth a go. We followed the directions in this article as well as used the GPS on Google maps. Whilst the first bit is useful, the directions for the actual trek was a bit foggy and we got lost multiple times so ended up taking all day to trek up to Doi Suthep. I don’t know how much has changed since that article but the path is certainly not as easy as following the trees with the monks’ markers as there were multiple routes that had it. My main advice would be:

  1. Follow the trail, it doesn’t suddenly turn off at a 90 degree angle
  2. One thing the article really didn’t make clear is that the trek to Doi Suthep continues FROM Wat Pha Lak. Don’t walk back out to try and find the area with the plaque that suggests you sit down before continuing the journey. It’s just misleading.
  3. Once you’re through the grueling hike after Wat Pha Lak and have hit the second road and near Doi Suthep, walk on the main road. We ended up going up a smaller road which we thought was a pedestrian road and I think ended up trespassing on alot of people’s village/properties!

Make sure you arm yourself with some sustenance and water – it can get hot and if it takes longer than you planned you don’t want to get caught out. There are stalls up at Doi Suthep so it’s easily to fuel up when you get there so only take enough to ease any hunger or thirst on the journey. And despite monks doing the trek in flip flops, I would definitely recommend trainers as a bare minimum as there were a lot of mild scrambles and steep dirt tracks.

Wat Pha Lak is definitely worth seeing with its beautiful waterfall setting. We ended up staying for quite a while just enjoying the serene sound and quiet. It is significantly less busy than Doi Suthep as it can’t be reached directly by transport so tour groups don’t stop there. There are also good toilet facilities there.

Doi Suthep is also worth the 30 baht entry fee, with its ostentatious gold circle and also insane view of Chiang Mai. This is the point where you feel an amazing feeling of accomplishment when you see the radio antennae where you first started the hike and realised how far it actually is!

There are plenty of songthaews (red taxis that hold up to ~10 people) up here which offer rides back as far as Tha Phae Gate (the east gate of downtown) for 80 baht per person so that’s a good option if you’re not wanting to do the hike back down.

Bangkok to Chiang Mai

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After a short stay in Bangkok we’re just on our way to the airport to fly to Chiang Mai. Bit of a cheat I know but when you can get return flights for £65, you have to ask yourself if it worth spending 8 hours on a train…

My travelling partner and I aren’t particularly city people so planned only a short stay as we predicted we wouldn’t particularly love Bangkok and we were right. I do have to say though that the street food is incredible, so I didn’t hate everything about it.

I was born in Hong Kong, spent my early years there and have since been back roughly around once every two years to visit family. Bangkok had lots of things that reminded me of Hong Kong but also was more rundown and dirty. We stayed at a hostel called Bunny Burrow (which was great, it’s not a party hostel but we weren’t looking for that) that is about ten minute walk south of Chinatown. I don’t know what the sewage systems are like but alot of the places we walked you would get the faint waft of sewage every so often. Coupled with the heat and exhaust fumes from traffic during the day, it makes Bangkok quite an unpleasant city to walk. Tuktuks are all involved in some sort of syndicate so it’s nearly impossible to get a cheap tuktuk unless they’re driving you to the pier to try and coerce you to buy one of the extortionate tourist ferry “tours”. Metered taxis can actually be cheaper than a tuktuk.

Khao San Road, the notorious tourist/backpacker Road could be lifted straight out of some Spanish holiday destination. We popped there briefly for a spot of quick shopping but didn’t stay for the bars and restaurants.

We also went to the Wat Pho temples which was interesting to see. It’s amazing how intricate Thai designs are. We tried to get to the Grand Palace (having initially mistaken Wat Pho for the Grand Palace), but visiting hours had finished by the time we got there.

Overall, apart from the street food, I wasn’t overly in love with Bangkok. However we did only spend a brief time there and trying to travel on a modest budget I don’t think suits going to a city like Bangkok. Anyhow, sitting waiting to board the plane to Chiang Mai and looking forward to breathing some clean mountain air.

Onwards to Bangkok!

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Writing this post whilst sitting on another ferry, this time leaving Koh Tao for Chumphon and onwards to Bangkok for two nights.

I have mixed feelings about Koh Tao. I’ve absolutely loved doing the open water diver course which now means I’m a certified autonomous diver (although, I’m not sure I’d want to be completely autonomous after just four dives). The dives were awesome with some amazing marine life here – we even saw a stingray yesterday! But the island is essentially a tourist island. Everything I’ve seen here is geared towards catering for tourists. On the one hand it’s good but on the other, it gives it almost like a theme park feel. And on our walk to the pier we saw deforestation to make way for more resorts and holiday homes. It is definitely a place that will change a lot in the next three to five years.

We stayed near Sairee beach and dived with Mojos. That area of town, particularly with the amount of beach bars etc. on a busy night feels a lot like somewhere like Magaluf. I do however recommend the duck places that do amazing roasted duck on noodles and rice.

The diving itself… most signs I’ve seen advertising open water courses sit at around 8,000 thb for the three and a bit day course. A lot of the dive shops will offer four nights accommodation included for 9,000 thb which is pretty good. Not that I have anything to compare it to but I really rated Mojo Divers. The staff were friendly, knowledgeable and they really look after you to make sure you get your certification even if that means switching around dive schedules or going out an extra day. We even got bought a beer when the dive boat arrived back late so we ended up setting off much later than originally planned.

Diving is an amazing experience, the amount of marine wildlife we saw was incredible. I’m looking forward to doing it in the Philippines!

End of the First Leg

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Currently sitting on the boat to Koh Tao having left Tonsai this morning. It was probably a good time to leave as there were numerous cases of Tonsai tummy (myself included) and, more worryingly, Dengue fever cropping up.

It was my first time doing such a long climbing trip and it was really good but I don’t think I was prepared for quite how mentally tiring it would be. Majority of the visitors to Tonsai will be there for climbing, most casual holidaymakers would choose Rai Lei which makes sense – the sand is nicer and there are more resorts. But it does mean that it is nigh on impossible to escape the climbing talk save from locking yourself in your room.

But that is the main complaint (which really isn’t much of a complaint really) I have. I very much enjoyed my two weeks staying and climbing in Tonsai. I definitely felt like I made a lot of progress on the trip having managed to redpoint Stalagasaurus (6c+) on my fourth time up on the wall. My goal of 7a is definitely achievable. The most important thing I have gained is thinking I’m capable of it.

If you’re going for a short time or have a little more money, I would certainly recommend staying at Dream Valley Resort. It’s a bit more luxurious than the non air conned cinder block rooms at the other places but still very affordable by western standards (I think we paid £32 per night, sharing between two). When you’re putting yourself through the heat and humidity of being at the crag and climbing all day, it was definitely a relief to be able to get back to a comfy hotel room that offered WiFi and air con. In Tonsai this seems far and few between.

Favourite dish was definitely the noodle soup with big noodles at Andamans. Super moreish but also really good food for when you have a dodgy tummy. I would definitely taking precautions for in case you get the infamous Tonsai tummy.

So anyway. That’s Tonsai done for now with plenty of progress and also projects for future. Onwards to diving in Koh Tao!