Discovering the Jungles of Thailand

Day 6: Trekking into Elephant Territory

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We only spent one night in downtown Chiang Mai before heading out into the jungle. I had arranged a 2 day, 1 night jungle trek with Chai Lai Orchid, an Elephant sanctuary in the Mae Wang area of Thailand. Elephant ethics is a complex thing to navigate. There is a whole spectrum of views on what is appropriate in terms of tourism related to animals. Riding elephants is a generally accepted no-no these days - which I think is a recent revelation. We chose a sanctuary which got great reviews for their care of the elephants (but I'm sure someone, somewhere will still have a problem with them allowing for any tourist interaction with the elephants). This was probably the biggest 'splurge' of the vacation, costing us about $475 for 2 full days of activities, transportation, overnight accommodations and our meals. Since I booked directly with the sanctuary, there wasn't additional travel agency costs on top of it.

We didn't get a lot of instructions ahead of time. Meaning, I only had whatever information was on the website, which wasn't much. We decided to leave some of our luggage back in the Chiang Mai hotel so we weren't lugging it around, so we took two small backpacks and an overnight backpack. We figured we'd hike with our small backpack and leave the overnight pack wherever luggage would go.

We were waiting to get picked up, as were many other tourists for their day trips. Everyone was getting picked up in large luxury tourist vans. Then our ride showed up - the yellow songthaew. I was so happy. My kids were laughing at our ride, of course we are the odd ones out. "Hop in the back, kids!" The ride took a while, mostly because we had to pick up a few others around town. It was about 2.5 hours later before we made it out to the lodge, which was an hour more than I had told the kids it would be so there was a bit of crankiness with that one.

There were many people at the lodge upon arrival, and a couple of elephants wandering around the arriving crowd of people. They at least have a fairly organized system to check everyone in there and assign them out to a guide for the activity which we had signed up for. It was supposed to be a private tour but we ended up getting grouped with these three young women from Croatia. We didn't mind the company so we didn't complain, in fact it was better to have them along, but it was different than advertised. Also by the time we figured it out, we were with some guides with limited English, so to try to explain would have be futile.

We had to drive another 30 minutes to where we would start our hike. (Sorry, kids, didn't know there would be more driving..) After we arrived at the starting point, which was a tiny village in the middle of the jungle, it started to rain. We also came to realize that there was no one taking our overnight bags. We had to hike with them. Good thing we had left most of our luggage at the hotel! I have no idea what we would have done otherwise.

We hiked in the rain for the first 30 minutes. It was pretty slick and muddy but we made it to a single house in the middle of farm in the jungle where our guide was going to make us lunch. Our daughter was not exactly thrilled with this adventure thus far. Her adult size poncho made it impossible for her to hike and climb over logs. We still had quite a ways to go so we needed to cheer her up. We broke out some Uno while lunch was being made. Sometimes it's the little things that make a difference.

The lunch that the guide made was delicious. We had a fried rice bundled in a banana leaf (I don't think he made this), and then a coconut milk soup with pumpkin in it and lots of fresh fruit. It's amazing what kids will eat when clearly there are no other options! The teenager requested a second pouch of friend rice even.

For the second part of the hike, there were two guides and they offered to take us separate paths. I didn't quite understand what they were saying/offering at the time. They told us the jungle was slippery... ok, that doesn't sound too bad, right? So we set out with our new Croatian friends and 2 Thai guides into the jungle for a 1 1/2 hour trek to where we would stay the night.

It had at least stopped raining, but the rain had done its damage to the rugged trail. We were going up and down these steep embankments that were almost slick as ice trying to navigate. We came prepared with proper gear - we all had brought our Keen hiking sandals, Marmot rain coats, and hiking Osprey backpacks - we were a walking REI advertisement, and they gave us hiking sticks, but we were sliding all over the place and caked in mud. Most of us took a spill at one time or another. The kids were leading the pack most of the time and having a blast. The guide was very keen on making sure I didn't fall - he'd hold my arm up and down most of the embankments. It was rather comical. They knocked over a banana tree at one point to get some food they would use for dinner later and made us hats from the banana tree leaves - making it more fun than nerve wracking.

We saw some coffee plants with ripe berries on them. We had gone to a coffee farm in Nicaragua to see coffee beans but the trees had just been harvested - so it was great to actually see the red berries on the plants! We tasted them too! Near the end, my daughter was once again just done with the hike. The guide offered to carry her but she very clearly wanted nothing to do with that!

We eventually arrive to a few bungalows on a hillside. They said we could sit and relax, so we did. I tried to ask a few times if this is where we were staying because the advertisement for the trek was that we were staying in a tribal village. I don't know that I had a clear expectation for what a tribal village would entail, but I really don't think 3 bungalows was what I had in mind. Eventually, it became more clear this is where we were going to sleep. Not exactly what I had in mind for a tribal village, but again, clearly nothing I could do about this in the moment between the fact we were very remote and there was a language barrier - not to mention if I get stressed about something, it stresses the kids out - so better to just accept and make the most of it.

We had fortunately packed like we would be camping - but we weren't sure how rustic it would be. One review had noted about having a lovely outdoor shower. There was no shower here. I think some people must trek to other locations. That's ok, I brought body wipes so we could freshen up. I wasn't sure if there would be electricity, there clearly was not, that's ok, we had lots of battery back ups and our phones didn't connect anyways. I figured there would at least be a toilet, which there was and it wasn't even a squatty potty - score! It didn't flush really, there was a spickit and a big bucket of water with a large ladle in it which we guessed we had to ladle the water into the toilet for it to flush. No sink, that's ok, we have hand sanitizer and wipes.

We hung out for a while with the Croatian ladies, we walked to see a nearby waterfall, we observed the farm animals that wondered the tiered rice fields around our bungalow. The ground all around was still pretty muddy so we were inclined to stay put. Even the walk to the outhouse was a bit treacherous, up and down steps dug into the earth which was all mud.

Our guides made a traditional Thai dinner over a fire in a nearby hut that I got to watch. It was nice to watch everything brought to a nice rolling boil for a while - greatly decreasing our chances of intestinal issues. Phew. He made a delicious chicken curry, another dish with stir-fried cucumbers and chicken, mashed pumpkin, and a smashed banana flower dish that he had picked on the hike through the jungle. We ate with the Croatians at our bungalow and chatted for a while. A couple of them have rental properties on the coast and in the mountains of the country - maybe we will end up there someday!

We had two bedrooms in our bungalow with large beds in each. They were covered by mosquito nets. We had gotten tons of high powered mosquito repellant for this outting and although we used a tiny bit of it, the bugs were not bad at all. We saw very few mosquitos which was a pleasant surprise. We slept OK - there wa a raging, loud creek nearby that drowned out any and all noises. We were all awake in the middle of the night for a bathroom adventure and then watched a downloaded show to help us get back to sleep.

Day 7: Bamboo Rafting and Elephant Play

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The next morning we had a lovely breakfast on our deck. We played some Uno and learned some new variations of the game from our Croatians friends. A local lady stopped by with some handmade crafts to buy so I got a couple of bracelets. Then we set back out to a nearby village where we would be picked up. I had told the kids we only had to hike one day, so the fact we had to hike back out (but a simpler/shorter path) was met with some 'looks' of 'Mom, you lied to us'. Sigh. They seemed to enjoy the hour hike anyways. The guides did a good job of finding things that were entertaining along the way, including foraging for fruits and showing how a certain type of leaf could be use to create a 'bubble maker' if you tear it and then blow on it. I love jungle creativity!

When we got to the village, we hung out for a little while waiting for our ride at a little store which had some puppies wondering around. Built in entertainment. Our ride then picked us up to take us bamboo river rafting. Another 25 minutes in the car.

Pulling up to the area where would start the bamboo rafting had elephants walking through. They were huge. These ones had riding gear attached - they weren't associated with our tour but it was proof that there are still riding operations. Our whole family fit on one long raft with a rafting guide. He stood in the front with a long bamboo pole to guide the raft. The water wasn't very deep but we had life jackets for the kids still, which was good. We went through some rapid like sections which were just enough to make it exciting but not so much that we were worried about falling off the raft. We went under some interesting walking bridges and saw several fields with elephants along the ride. It lasted about 30 minutes which was a good length.

Our driver was waiting at the end to pick us up and take us the 20 minutes up the road back to the main Chai Lai Orchid lodge to eat some lunch, which was of course delicious again. After lunch was our turn, finally, to hang out with the elephants. He drove us down the road a bit to their riverside area where it seems most of the elephants are housed. The first thing we got to do is feed several elephants some sugar cane. It was a good warm up to being around the elephants and their massive trunks. They would happily take the sugar cane right out of your hand, or you could yell 'bom' and try to feed it directly into their mouths. The teenager has never been one to enjoy animals much, and in this instance, he decided he wanted absolutely nothing to do with being near the elephants. The little one though, loves animals and had no fear in feeding and petting.

Next up was meeting a baby elephant who was about 4 months old. That was amazing. Getting to interact with him and his mama was surreal. Most of us loved it.

The final activity was bathing the elephants in the river. We got in the river with 3 elephants. They had the elephants sitting down and we splashed them a bit. We fed them some sugar cane. We got some photos. The mahout (caretaker) would give commands to lift their trunks, sit, stand. All in all it was amazing and the elephants seemed well cared for and treated the whole time we were there.

We were all exhausted and it was time to head back to Chiang Mai to our hotel and get a shower. The whole experience was a bit different from what I expected, but still pretty fantastic. Sometimes I get a little more adventure than I bargain for!

The ride back in the songtheuw seemed to take a lot less time which was welcomed. After showers, the kids were requesting pizza/burgers for dinner. After the long days out and all the foreign food they ate without complaining, we figured that was fine. We went to a restaurant that had both Thai and western food and got good reviews online, but the prices when we got there were horrendous. It pained me to pay 3 times the local price just to have a more western dinner experience. I ordered more Pad Thai because I figured I only have so many days to have it. It was terrible. So disappointing, should have just gotten the pizza!