Mae Rim Loop

A couple of days ago Lizzie and I took a swing around the mountains on our motorbikes. It's about an 80 km loop and mercifully, it's cooler out of the city. The riding was really fun - twisty, hilly with lots of switch backs. I'm quite sure it would have been torturous in a car, but on motorbikes it was a blast.

The storytelling highlight of the trip was definitely the elephant camp. I'm not really one for tourist attractions, but who can resist elephants - and a baby elephant at that. We were treated to a baby elephant viewing,
an elephant ride and an elephant show complete
with elephant painting (yes, they paint quite well), soccer playing and log moving demonstrations.

Lizzie and I got a big chuckle out of the elephant ride. The elephant escorting us was quite a character. He was 48 years old and it was clear that he'd been around the block. He wasn't about to let a couple of tourists or the mahout get the better of him - or his agenda which included regular trail-side snacking and avoidance of direct sunlight. After the second or third bit of snacking the mahout gave up trying to disuade the elephant and let him root around until he'd grab a nice green vine. ~Then~ the mahout would encourage our steed forward.

The shade preference was more challenging. The elephant would lumber along at a leisurely pace until the exact moment that he arrived at the edge of the shade. At which point he would park himself. Only the persistent exhortation of the mahout had any effect on the elephant. But hey, at 48 years, we figured the elephant had earned to privilege of thumbing his trunk at a couple of farang (foreigners).


I tried to get a shot from the back of the elephant to give you a sense of the ride. The perspective seems a bit off though. As you experience it, the ride seems much further from the ground. Imagine yourself roughly a story above the ground on a platform that shifts consistently but somewhat precipitously from left to right. Oh, and keep in mind that if an elephant decides to do something that you don't really want him to do...well you're just gonna have to hang on and go with it.






This last shot is a view of the valley as we were heading back into Chiang Mai. I really wish I were more of a photographer. This image is reallly only a suggestion of the actual view.