Pai - Thom's Elephant Camp

Last we came to Pai, a small town north of Chaingmai via mini van. The road here was only 135km but it had roughly 762 curves in it. (according to the tacky tourist shirts available in town) It took us almost three full hours to get here and it is safe to say, it was slightly terrifying. The driver was going way too fast and the oncoming traffic often looked as though it was an inch from my shoulder!

Our main reason for coming all the way to Pai was to spend the day with the elephants at Thom's elephant camp. This place has great reviews on trip advisor and in the lonely planet guide books so we decided to come here for elephants rather than seeing them in Chiangmai. We rented cute little bungalows on the property and Thom herself, picked us up at the bus stop where we jumped in the back of her truck for the short drive to camp. The camp itself is very nice and we learned that the elephants here have been in Thom's family for many years. We had a meal ( I'll have you know I ate tofu) and then got to bed early.

Today when we woke up we went down to greet the animals and to have breakfast. Even though we are the only guests staying the night at Thom's many other tourists were here and ready to go out on an elephant ride. We were given the option of riding bareback or with a seat. Since we wanted to semi with the elephants, we chose not to use the seats. To get on the elephants, you could either climb up the trunk or, walk up to a high platform and jump on their back from there. We chose the platform! We set off for a ride through a field and then went down to the river to swim! I have to be honest, the elephant was not a comfortable ride! My butt really hurts now but it was so worth it. At times going up or down hills was a bit freaky with only a small rope to hold on to. When we went in the water, the elephants really came to life, spraying us with their trunks and shaking us off of them ! I don't have many photos since we were not really supposed to take our cameras on the trail. We bought a cd with good pics on it but here are a few I took myself.





















-




























In the afternoon, we went rafting on a bamboo raft down the Pai river. This was relaxing and scenic.







































Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Pai -Northern Thailand