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The second leg of our Thailand holiday was a 4-day stop-over in Chiang Mai, the second biggest city in Thailand, located in the northern region of the country. Compared to the crazyness of Bangkok, this city was smaller, friendlier and much more relaxful. We arrived in Chiang Mai on wednesday October 13 and spent 4 days here.

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The highlight of Chiang Mai, and possibly the whole holiday, was the elephant farm located a short way out of Chiang Mai. When we woke up on the morning of our elephant farm visit, it was pouring with rain. In Thailand when it rains, it really rains! So we didn't hold much hope for a fun day in the pouring rain, but perhaps the great Buddha was looking down on us, because as soon as we arrived at the elephant farm, the rain disappeared and the sunshine came out.

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The visit to the elephant farm consisted of 3 main elements where we interacted with the elephants. Firstly, getting to meet the elephants and feeding them bananas for breakfast. Secondly, sitting back and watching the elephants put on a show for us, where they did everything from building a wall to dancing and even playing soccer and basketball!

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Finally, we climbed on board the elephants and they took us on a trek down a river and into the wild which led through a forest, over some hills and into a native village. Like everyone else in Thailand, it seems, the natives had modified their village to accomodate tourists on elephants, and had setup little shops selling their handycraft in the hope of making a few Baht from rich tourists.

You will see a few shots of the back of John and Brenda's elephant because we were following them on the trek.

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The elephant trek lasted for about an hour and a half and was great fun. The elephants were very intelligent animals, well behaved and very sure-footed, which we were thankful for as some of the paths were quite narrow.

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After the elephants dropped us off we were ushered onto bamboo rafts and chauffeured down the river to our buffet lunch. The river was very calm and the raft ride was very relaxing.

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Along the way we could see off-duty elephants grazing on the sides of the river.

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Not surprisingly locals even attempted to sell you things on the river! This chap had an esky full of drinks and was selling refreshments to the raft riders. You have to respect the Thai local's resourcefulness if nothing else!

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The tour ended for the day at an orchid farm where we saw row after row of (can you guess?) .... orchids!

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Orchids came in many colors and were very pretty, but it was all very unexciting compared to our morning with the elephants.

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The girls thought they were as pretty as the orchids and could hide from us by camouflaging themselves with the flowers. Do you think they were right?

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Chiang Mai had a great temple built on top of a mountain overlooking the city. It is called Wat Pra Thart Doi Suthep, and these are some images of it. The temple also provided a great view of Chiang Mai city (the image at the top of this page).

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