Well I got on the sleeper train to Chiang Mai and it was nowhere near as bad as I imagined it to be, it was really comfortable and I had a good 13 hours of sleep.
The only really random thing was the toilet. On most trains when you go to the toilet you do not see a hole in the floor and see the tracks below! The funniest part, the toilet had a flusher, which was the most pointless part of the whole thing.
I managed to find my hotel, this time though it was like the photos and was lovely, I checked in and got to the pool, not a bad way to spend the day. I booked an Elephant Camp trip for the morning so I got an early night.
I got to the Elephant Camp after a 1-hour mini-bus ride. I spent the time running after our guide, which was not fun as I hate this sort of thing where everyone follows someone with a flag around, and then hope no one asked him lots of questions before we could move on and finish the tour.
We then went to watch a show that the elephants were going to put on, I did not have high hopes, I was not expecting ‘Cirque du Soleil’, but seeing elephants bow, walk backward, and hold their tales was what I got. I was getting a bit bored, and when I looked around everyone was loving it, clapping and laughing, and taking photos, so I got in the spirit and took a few.
The ones below are not actually mine, but my friend who I met, Marcus as his photos were a lot better than mine!
When the elephants started painting things onto a canvas you have never seen anything like it, there was a mini stampede, not by the elephants, but by the mental tourists wanting to get closer to the action, they showed us the painting and it looked like a Jackson Pollock.
We then went for a raft ride, which at first was pretty good, but after 5 minutes the enjoyment soon started to fade and I was stuck on a raft for another 50 minutes, it was like Scooby-Do, the same thing over and over, looking at water and trees.
We then had lunch and then a ride on an OX, to eventually riding on an elephant.
I was not keen as it seemed pretty cruel but I had no choice as I had to take the elephant back to the entrance. The other issue here was you had to ride in twos.
I got on an elephant and a Chinese bloke sat with me. Thankfully, his English was as shit as my Chinese, so it was a nice quiet ride, both looking at each other, he kept bowing his head, so I did the same and we then spent the ride bowing our heads going “Ahhh” or “Ohhhh”, mixing it up a bit, at the end of the ride the elephant in front let out a massive fart. Neither of us could really discuss this, but we both had a little laugh with each other about it.
We left the Elephant Camp but then we randomly stopped halfway at an Orchid farm. I am allergic to Flowers so this was utter hell for me.
We were told we had 90 mins to look at all of the flowers. I decided to go outside, get a cornetto and I spent the 90 minutes watching people’s reactions to where they had turned up, like me, they did not seem too pleased, which I am not going to lie made me feel better!
I finally arrived back at the hotel and I chilled out a bit by the pool.
Me and Marcus, a lad I met on the trip went to the Night Bazaar for tea, then a few drinks. Now I challenge anyone to find a bar in Thailand without hookers throwing themselves at you. We walked up and down, up and down to find one that did not have loads of women outside trying to get us in, then we both decided we need to just brave it. At one bar we walked past a lady literally threw herself at Marcus as he walked past, missed him, and fell on the street. Eventually, we picked the bar without the most women.
I won the first game with Marcus, then a woman made me play against her. She scared me how good she was at potting balls, didn’t want her near mine. So, I made a quick exit and went home.
The next day I decided to check out of my nice luxury hotel with a pool, and all the comforts and rough it up in a hostel as I was not really experiencing the true backpacking culture. I got a tuk-tuk to the “Little Bird Guesthouse” and checked into my £1 a night room.
Not bad really, like most places in Thailand, you have to put your toilet roll in a bin next to you which is pretty minging, and use a bucket to flush your “business”. I really should have done my “business” in my last hotel, it took me 20 mins to flush that bastard.
I got a tuk-tuk back to my old hotel as I had booked a trip to Tiger Kingdom, and I did not have time to change the pickup location, and thankfully, Marcus had booked the same trip as well so at least I knew someone now.
This was amazing, really impressive, there is a place in the Bangkok area that does this sort of thing but it put me off it when I saw them all chained up and heard about them drugging the Tigers.
I saw the baby tigers first, which was lovely. The one that came over to me then decided to piss on me, which was an experience I guess.
This place they were all walking around and we were told raised around humans, so we were safe to get in with them and get some photos.
We jumped in a Songthaew, which is basically a big red truck that picks people up and you jump in and out whenever you like and pay one set fee. I paid my 40p for a 30km ride back to the City.
I stood around watching a load of people pull a car out of the moat around the city, which passed 20 minutes or so. Thankfully, there was no one in the car.
The following day I went on another trip to a place called, Jungle Flight, which was similar to Go Ape, but loads better!!!
