Elephant trek

After our second orphanage visit we had another day of adventure. I opted to do something I knew Josh would never forget although for me personally it was a little scary!
I booked us in for a whole day trip which started with watching elephants playing football!!!!, and ended with a ride down a river on a bamboo raft. I'm not really into getting animals to perform unnatural acts. However, I was curious to see how the elephants were treated and this was so unlike anything I had ever done before, we just had to try it.
We rose early and taking just a small backpack with water,sunhats and suncream we set off on our organiseed tour. I must admit, it felt very exciting to be a tourist in Thailand and be off on an adventure with other like minded tourists but my real purpose for being there was never far from my mind.
The elephant camp was quite a distance outside of Chiang Mai so I was glad we were in an air conditioned minibus. It's such a great part of a child's education when they can see animals in a more natural habitat than a zoo and when they can experience a culture first hand so I was delighted to watch Josh's face -in wide eyed wonder as we approached the camp and saw elephants among the trees on our left,
eating leaves from the trees and to our right, a river with elephants swimming. I was pleased to see they had so much space.
Sure enough we watched the elephants playing football and then painting pictures and then doing a comical parade, holding each others tails -they were well trained and obedient but I was hoping they weren't cruelly treated. If I was an elephant I don't think I'd paint a picture for anyone!
Then we got into carts pulled by oxen and went a journey of about half an hour into the countryside to visit what was supposed to be an authentic hilltribe village. However, all it was, was a few hilltribe people in all their beautiful Thia regalia,selling goods for a higher price than we'd pay in Chaing Mai. I felt sorry for them because they did seem quite poor so I bought some souvenirs but what really annoyed me after a while was when we got onto the elephants to wade down the river and some men sitting on platforms kept trying to persuasively sell us bananas. After I'd bought a couple of bunches and we'd fed our elephant I really didn't want any more but I was getting disgruntled looks for saying no thank you. I was beginning to understand just how different the Thai culture is from my European culture.I realised it would be difficult to adapt but it didn't put me off. I just wanted God's will in my life.
I will continue this adventure in tomorrow's blog - about the monkey show and the bamboo rafting.

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