Chiang Mai Elephants and Markets

We started on our way to Chiang Mai on the old train at seven at night and arrived at four in the morning. I thought it was going to be a seven hour train ride and it ended up being nine, the train was cold, gross (the trains in Thailand are not as nice as other countries, they are not very sanitary), and the people selling food in the middle are obnoxious. A good thing is we made a friend who is a spaniard and we met a Canadian in the hostel.When we got off the train we got a tuk-tuk and headed to our hostel, finding out that we didn't have a room that night so we ended up sleeping on wood pallets with some thin pillows for a couple hours in the front room.

Panda Tour (the elephant sanctuary) picked us up from our hostel at 8:30. The elephants were an hour away from our hostel. When we were getting close there were a lot of trees and elephants that were roaming around. When we arrived we began right away, we put on denim clothing (not the most flattering outfits ever). We also made a friend who was Italian!

First we had our training, we learned the commands and how to feed an elephant while standing. We fed them whole bananas, not even peeled!

Second, we got on the elephant learned and said all of the commands and fed them, while on top of the elephant. Also while saying the commands you use a bamboo stick and scratch them in a certain area so they go the right direction. After that we were finished with training and we started our ride around the area.

Third, we finally got to ride them. We walked into a river, seen the other elephants, swam with the elephant, washed the elephant, and much more! At one point our elephant started to sprint down a hill  and I needed to hold on for my life. :O :P :) When we were done we needed to get off, and to get off you slide off the front of the elephant or the elephant walks up to high land and you step off.

After the elephants we went to the night markets, I enjoyed them and I got pretty good at bargaining! For the first time bargaining I got elephant pants and Birkenstocks. The elephant pants started at 200 baht and we got them down to 110 baht (about three american dollars). The Birkenstocks ended up being nine american dollars. Definitley going back again to bargain some more items!