February 24th - Day 18 - Sappraiwan to Chiang Mai

Many of the hotels we are staying in appear to be virtually empty. Last night it was clear we were the only people at the hotel. I don't know if this is because it is out of season, or a result of the 'credit crunch'. I must ask our guide.

Before I describe our drive I am posting another one of the amusing notices we have seen on our tour. This one was at the hotel last night.

Our drive today is about 450kms and we left the hotel at just after 7am. As we were driving out of the hotel we saw three of the elephants.

Nearby was this mahout on one of the large adult male elephants. Only the male Asian elephant has tusks.

The first place of interest to visit was Sukhotai, the 13th century moated former capital city. The historical park where all the old temples, with their magnificent Buddhas, are located is a beautiful place. The ruins house several giant Buddhas that look down on you, each with their own slightly different serene gaze. Once again I hope the photos do the Buddhas justice.

There was this wonderful tree growing near the temples. I'm not sure what species it is, but it appeared to be very old indeed. It made for a great photo with the ruins and two Buddhas in the background.


There were giant standing Buddhas, each enclosed in a brick building.

Looking across the moat at the ruins with three of the Buddhas in view.

Close by is the famous seated Buddha at Wat Si Chum, with its golden hand.

We left Sukothai after about an hour. It is definitely worth a visit if you are visiting Thailand. Our drive was due north through very green fertile farming land where they were growing corn and rice.

We went through one small village and saw this stall by the side of the road. Twenty minutes of haggling and we bought a beautiful teak carved wall plaque and several small items for the spirit house. The stall owner would write an amount on her pad. I would cross it out and put down my figure and we would end up somewhere between the two! Me haggling with the stall owner.

My car is now nearly full and I'm not sure how we will take Reza when he returns to the car. They managed to hire a car for these few days in Thailand, but have to return it when we get to our last town in Thailand, Nan, in three day's time.

We drove on towards Chaing Mai, stopping for a short break at the temple of Wat Phra That Lampang Luang, which reputedly has the oldest wooden building in Thailand. As we walked into the temple grounds we went past this banyan tree that had hundreds of poles supporting the branches. It obviously had some sort of religious significance. Once again does anyone know?

Our final visit was some 65kms from Chaing Mai, the Elephant Conservation Centre. This is an institution that is devoted to the care and breeding of the ever diminishing numbers of Thai elephants. When we arrived a friend of the man who ran the centre, was being shown how to mount an elephant. She then rode the elephant right up to us in the viewing stand!

Then Ernie Nelan was persuaded to climb onto one of the elephants. She looked pretty relieved when she had dismounted!

We then had a display of elephant traditional working skills and their great strength.

This was combined with an amazing display of their intelligence. Three of the elephants painted pictures of flowers and elephants with mahouts riding them!! The mahouts dipped the brush into the different colours (elephants have poor eyesight and apparently only see different shades of grey) and handed the brush to the elephant who then painted the picture.

The incredible painting skills of the three elephants.



As a postscript, I should mention that several of our group are very unhappy about the unnatural way the elephants are trained to behave. Even though I can appreciate this point of view it seems to me that there has to be a trade off between the almost certain disappearance of the species in the wild, and attempting to protect them. The work at the centre needs tourism to support it and training elephants to show their capabilities helps to increase the public's awareness of their plight. It's a small sacrifice in my opinion to pay.

The final 65kms into Chiang Mai took us about one hour. We are here for three nights and will have plenty of time to visit this historic city and the surrounding region, which includes Thailand's highest mountain, Doi Ithanon at 8,393ft.