Thailand: Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai was great. The city seemed to be totally traveller friendly whilst maintaining a non-touristy feeling. The main activity here, it has to be said, was shopping. With New Years Eve a couple of days away, not only was the Sunday walking market set up, but also another road and city square full of tribal crafts and everything Thai you could think of.



New Years Eve came around quickly and was unlike any we had experienced before. Everyone in the city (including us) let off a paper lantern from the moat around the inner city walls, so that by the time it got to 11pm the sky was filled with them going in one direction and it looked a bit like a fake milky way. Whilst lighting our lanterns and walking towards one of the city gates (where there was music etc) we had to negotiate lots of fireworks, mostly held by small children/parents. We decided that at midnight we would chose a safe-ish place to stand to avoid dodging any. This back fired (literally) as we happened to be standing right next to THE biggest set of "rockets" that were launched from the wall that we were standing in front of.

There was one activity in Chiang Mai that was a must for me, and after many frantic emails trying to book something in last minute during the holiday season we finally managed to arrange to see elephants. I'd like to say at this point that I had done a lot of research into ethical companies as many of the elephants are still treated with very little respect (e.g. mothers being separated from their babies to work, elephant football, elephant painting...). In the end I decided on the elephant nature park where rescue elephants are taken after being abused in the logging/tourism industry (and in some cases rescued from the wild as babies if the mother has died). No riding of elephants takes place here, but instead lots of feeding, washing and generally just walking with them in the massive expanse of land they have here. This was definitely a worthwhile experience, especially learning about training regimes that all domestic elephants go through in order for them to be ridden. In short they are forced in to a small cage at a very young age (2 years old approx), and are prodded with sticks with nails on the end until they submit. They can be in this cage 24hrs a day for up to a week at a time. There are many people that are campaigning against this treatment, but as it has been a tradition for many decades it is difficult to see an end to it any time soon. Having said this the elephants we met were amazing, and so friendly- which is surprising for what they've been through- apparently they remember the culprits of their mistreatment.

After a day with the elephants we decided to go an see a muay thai match- traditional thai boxing. It was great to watch, a lot more exciting than regular boxing so many more interesting moves. The 'special fight' was also interesting and basically involved 3 men being blind folded and set loose on each other in the ring whilst gangnam style was played in the background...  



Argh I've done a Nick and written loads. Chiang Mai went by very fast, especially as we were there 2 days later that planned. Next on the itinerary: South Thailand and diving..