Journey back to Chiang Mai

Before we took the mountain road back to Chiang Mai we went on a trip on the River Pai. Most of the long boats take tourists to see the long-neck women at one of the villages down stream but we decided that we did not want to view these women like zoo animals so we just had a trip , just the two of us and the two crew. We swept down rapids beneath towering cliffs and saw the beauiful montain landscape from a different perspective.
Back in Chiang Mai after an exciting journey over high passes and numerous switchbacks wth stupendous views we decided to go to a different guest house as the previous one was noisy at night with music from next door until the early hours. We stayed at the Peoples Hotel which was next door to the night market but we were on the 4th floor and had a peaceful night. In the evening we got caught in a tropical downpour but it all cleared after a short while and normality resumed.

We took the road south out of Chiang Mai in the morning and shortly stopped at the Elephant Conservation Centre. They look after about 100 hundred elephants including some very elderly ones that are kept away from the public. We saw a demonstration of about 20 elephants doing tasks they were trained to do as working elephants such as pulling logs either on their own or in pairs if the log was too heavy for one; they pushed the logs and were able to stack them. Later we visited the hospital where there were a number of sick animals together with two elephants with their mothers. We then had a short ride on an elephant which was not particularly comfortable but fun but 10 minutes was enough!

We continued our journey to Lampang and are now in a guest house overlooking the river Wang. There is of course a night market here at which they sell deep-fried cockroachs and other similar delicacies. I have not yet decided as to whether eating some would be an experience too far.