February 23rd - Day 17 - Korat - Sappraiwan

Firstly, I'm sorry there have been no postings for a couple of days, but the Internet access at Sappraiwan was not very good, and then yesterday by the time we arrived at Chaing Mai and unpacked, organised laundry, had a briefing about the city and ate at the tapas and BBQ, I was too tired to post.

Before I describe the drive from Korat to Sappraiwan, I must mention the very enjoyable evening we spent at the Dusit Princess Hotel, in Korat. My school friend Thavi and his wife Ouratai had driven up from Bangkok, about 250kms, to see us once more before we leave Thailand. We had the most delightful Chinese meal at the hotel, and then to cap the evening they presented us with a beautiful gift: a wooden spirit house. As I have said before, we have been looking to buy one but could only find painted houses made of stone or concrete, which were much too heavy to send back to England. We will post a photo of this very special memento. It will be a wonderful reminder in years to come of our great time in Thailand. Thank you Thavi and Ouratai.

We rose at our usual time of just before 6am, and Wendy took this photo from our room of the sunrise over Korat.

Turning now to the 450 kms drive from Korat, we had looked at the route and made the decision that we would miss out on the first 180kms by taking the main road north, which joined the route after about 90 kms. This saved us just under 100kms on the day's drive. We felt missing out on a visit to a large banyan tree and another temple was not too big a loss. In fact, I think I speak for several on the event, when I say we are close to being 'templed out'!!

The roads in northern Thailand are very good, with very light traffic. It is noticeable how few large trucks there are, which has surprised me, but this has made the driving really easy. Wendy took this photo of a typical twisting empty Thai road.

After some 250kms there was a short 45kms section of off-road track, taking us through the poorest farming region we have seen in Thailand. Subsistence farming at its most basic. Terrible shacks and very poor farming conditions. It was rather depressing, even though the drive was great fun.

The start of the track through the hills.

Fording a small stream.

A small yellow bird feeding by the stream. Any suggestion as to the species, from my ornithological friends?

A slight delay on the drive!

We returned to the main road after about an hour and continued the drive north on typically empty roads.

The route then took us up into some very green and beautiful hills and to the location of the King's summer residence. We were the only people there and the place looked deserted. There were some fine views over the surrounding hills.

and we took this photo of the palace through the trees, with this assortment of items used as a barrier! Not the normal security we are used to!

The remainder of the drive was pretty uneventful and we arrived at our resort hotel in Sappraiwan at about 3pm.

The resort is known for its group of elephants, and at 5pm these were brought out for us to feed them with bananas. I've never fed an elephant before, so I was amazed to see, at close hand, how wonderfully 'dextrous' their trunks are. We all spent a very enjoyable half an hour feeding them. James Walker feeding one of the elephants.

Julie Brogan with some friends for life!

John Brown and Mark & Dorothy Freeman, enjoying the moment.

A mother and baby. The baby decided that it wanted some of its mother's milk, rather than a banana.


A couple of items about participants. Richard Smith, Car 24, has made the decision to skip Sappraiwan and drive directly to Chiang Mai, to see if he can buy another tyre, following the puncture he suffered at the border. The tyre has been temporarily repaired and can only be used as an emergency spare. With nearly 3,000 miles still to go, you really do need a good spare wheel.

Several people have been suffering from the Thai equivalent of Delhi Belly. Should I call it Thai Di? It looks like a bug is going round, as each day someone else goes down with it.

We head for Chiang Mai tomorrow and three nights at the same hotel, which is a rare occurrence for a HERO event.

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.

February 25th - Day 19 - Chiang Mai

The first of two full days in Chiang Mai. We have already decided that we will not do tomorrow's 550kms 'loop' through the hills, including the highest mountain in Thailand. Apparently the views were poor when the advance car went through, so a second day in Chiang Mai means we can enjoy a rest as well as seeing some of the town and the area around it.

First, a brief word about yesterday evening. Having a couple of days in any place is always an opportunity to get your laundry done. We have used the hotel laundry services in the past but after we were charged £70 for washing a few shirts and underclothes in Bangkok, we took the advice of Paul Wignall and, at 9pm, took our clothes to a laundry down the street from the hotel. The woman weighed the clothes and said, for a wash, dry and ironing, it would be £5.50, and would be ready for collection by 7pm tomorrow. What a saving on hotel charges. From now on that's what we will do.

Returning now to today. The Chedi Hotel in Chiang Mai is the former residence of the British Consulate. It has been considerably enlarged in a modern style, of glass and wood. It is located on the bank of the Mae Ping.

We had a bit of a lie-in and had a late breakfast, chatting with Hugh & Julie Brogan about this event and possible future ones. After lunch we used John Brown's 'tulip' route of the town. This was a short, 14kms, tour of the centre, passing numerous temples. I am posting below a few photos of the two temples we spent some time looking around. At the first, called Wat Chedi Luang, there was a strange mix of the old and the new. The site was dominated by a huge semi-ruined temple which had elephants protruding from the sides, and then alongside it was a new temple where there was this rather strange looking Buddha.

The second temple was called Wat Phra Sing Luang, where the main temple had this large golden Buddha. I was reluctant to take a photo but when I saw a group of monks taking photos of each other in front of the Buddha, we felt free to do the same.

When we returned to the hotel, we found an 'Invitation' to join The Right Honourable Sir Paul Wigglybits and Lady Jayne, for drinks at the British Dinner that was being held at the hotel in the evening. It was, of course the usual 'spoof' by our resident comedian, Paul Wignall. I hope the copy below of the invitation is readable. If not, click on the image to enlarge it.

At the dinner Paul gave a very funny speech, most of which is unprintable, for fear of a libel action being brought against me!

February 26th - Day 20 - Chiang Mai

Of the twenty-three participants only two decided to do the route through the hills, Rolf Pritz and Mark Freeman. It will be interesting to see if they enjoyed the long drive on winding roads through the Thai hills.

We, on the other hand, after talking with Greg Willams' brother Peter, an orchid grower who has been here in Chiang Mai for some years, decided to take his advice and visit an area just north of the town to see orchids being grown. Bob & Thelma joined us in their car and so we set off on the 40 minute drive at around 11am. We found our first orchid farm, Thai Orchids on the main road about 25kms out of the town. We took a a lot of photos of these beautiful plants and here are just a few.





We left the orchid farm and drove about 20kms to the Queen Sirikit Botanical Gardens.

Whilst we were there having a break, Bob took this photo of us with our spirit house, perched proudly on the bonnet of the Landcruiser.

I can assure Thavi and Ouratai that it was stowed away safely before we left the gardens!

One of the very strange Bottle trees that came from South Queensland, Australia. Five were imported but several have fallen over and have died. This one has several cables to support it.

We finally stopped at a small shop selling elephant dung paper. We had seen this being sold at the elephant conservation centre but had not bought any. The shop turned out to be a small production unit and we were shown how they turn the dung into paper. Contrary to expectation it was not a smelly process, just a pretty dirty one. They boil the dung in caustic soda, wash it, beat it and then lay it out on frames to dry in the sun. It was quite an experience to peel off the freshly dried sheets of paper. A little cottage industry turns the paper into all sorts of items.

Here are a few photos of the process, beginning with the dried dung and the vat behind with the boiling soda.

The wet pulp laid out on the frame ready for drying.

The dried paper.

The paper being used to make a variety of items, including photo frames, note books, diaries, book marks and envelopes.

We bought some items as both souvenirs and gifts and then drove back to the hotel.

Tomorrow we drive more or less due east to Nan. Apparently, there have been serious wild fires in the region and a regional emergency has been declared. I hope it doesn't cause us any problems on the journey. The following day we leave Thailand for Laos.

Finally, spare a thought for Sheila and Andrew, who have a problem with their Landrover. A part is being flown from England, as I write this. They will not be able to leave Chiang Mai until Saturday, a day behind us, but with a bit of luck they are hoping to catch us up in Vientiane, the capital of Laos.