This is going to be an interesting day! This is Elephant Day.   We drove to the Mae Ping elephant camp... and there the are... all the elephants just waiting for us... and a hundred other people.



We hear how great the elephants' lives are and how they and their mahouts are so devoted to each other... like family. This all sounds warm and fuzzy... but I don't get this impression when I see it all. It looks to me like the elephants have a hard life and are unhappy. The whole thing makes me sad. But we have our elephant ride... and it is a pleasant one. We trekked by elephant down river a bit then over the hills to a village. There people have vendor stands built on stilts to try to sell items to the people on elephant-back.



After the ride, we sat through an elephant show. Gypsy was very unhappy as she hates trained animal shows... they are so degrading to the animals. This was the definite low-point of the trip.



Then we were off for a float down river on bamboo rafts. Now this was fun. As the elephants cross the river, they frequently make "pit stops". So as we floated along the beautiful Mae Ping.. along with us floated countless, great balls of elephant dung. Yes, I did take a picture of it! Never again will I ever joke about foreign tourists who photograph every silly thing!

"Mae" means "river" and I wonder if Ping means "dung" in Thai... but I rather doubt it.   People were swimming and bathing and doing laundry in Mae Dung... and also a woman met our raft by wading into the Mae Dung to sprinkle us with water and throw water on our backs! Happy New Year to YOU, too.   Actually, we had a fun time here... even with our dung-water blessing.

Also today we visited Doi Suthrup and walked up the 300 steps to the temple. I would like to know where they started counting, we first we had to walk up a steep street to a market along a plaza that went up many, many steps.... then we finally got to the 300 steps. I was hot and limp before the count even started!

But the climb was worth it.. it was a fabulous temple. The temples here are all so absolutely gorgeous and all are different and all are major works of art. Because it is New Year, we were able to go into a room in the temple where a monk was giving blessings.   He had a thing that looked like a bamboo whisk which he dipped into holy water which he splashed over us... while intoning yet another blessing.



The trip down the 300 steps was a lot easier than the trip up. I really needed that cooling blessing by the time I reached the temple.

At the bottom of the stairs was a bird seller. They have baskets that contain live finches. You purchase what ever number of birds you want... and then you open the baskets and set them free. Of course, I bought some birds... well, I bought two birds. They flew to freedom, bringing me even more blessings, prosperity, and happiness in the new year... which is the whole idea of releasing the birds in the first place. The is no such thing as too much prosperity.



Travel back to our hotel literally took hours as the water fest is at full peak and traffic is at a standstill.   The water throwers were so happy... and smiling and waving and wishing everyone a Happy New Year.. and effectively halting traffic citywide.



The next morning, we rise early and leave on our bus before breakfast. We are going the to alms giving.   We drove back to the bottom of the mountain where Doi Suthrup is located and there are monks walking down the 300 steps and along the roads. Most are walking alone, but there are some groups of Buddha Campers of various ages... lead by a monk.

We bought food from a vendor...already wrapped in plastic or sometimes banana leaves, also lotus flowers and incense sticks... and we put this offering into the alms bowls of a couple different groups of monks/campers. Then we knelt down to receive a chanted blessing from those groups we had made offerings to.   More and more blessings... where will it all end? At this rate, I am destined to have the happiest, most bountiful year of my life!



After breakfast we travelled to Chedi Luang, a temple within the city. There we met a monk who discussed frequently asked questions about Buddhism and told about the monks and their daily lives.   He was ready to answer any other questions me might have.   This monk spoke wonderful English and had travelled in the US. He had a sharp sense of humor and was a delightful speaker. We truly enjoyed his visit with us.

We visited the other buildings of the temple grounds... including the temple itself where a group of monks were doing their morning chanting before Buddha.  The sights, sounds and scents of Thailand will be my treasured memories.... chanting monks in an incense scented temple... how can I forget it?



This evening we had dinner in the lovely, country summer home of a Chiang Mai resident. We were greeted as honored guests and invited to tour the house. Again very sparse... but mattresses and a small chest or two in the bedrooms.

The house was built off the ground with the bedrooms and gallery areas above. Below.. under the house were the living areas... with comfortable pillow seats and low tables.   And the open air kitchen! The whole downstairs, under the house, was open air with no walls at all. We had a lovely meal and the enjoyed the beautiful home and grounds as the sun set.



After dark.... two white balloons were brought out... cylindrical in shape, open on one end, and about the size of a cow. They had a cork wired into the open end, and this was lighted and caused the balloon to rise. We each touched the edge of the hot air balloon and made a wish before it rose and sailed out of sight into the darkness... with its flame glowing and firecrackers popping. We celebrated our wishes' rise to the sky by lighting sparklers. My goodness.. what wonderful and interesting customs, and how fortunate we were able to share them.



The next morning we said goodbye to our driver and bus boy... we will miss them. We now fly back to Bangkok and to our rooms at the Monarch Lee Gardens. The first time we saw this hotel we were strangers here, not knowing what to expect, although we had expected to be able to open our door... and now we feel so at ease... as though we were coming home again.

On the way to the hotel, we stopped for lunch. There was a soup with a whole creature in it... Sharon asked what kind of soup and was told, "Chimp". Don't you love it... he meant "shrimp"!   We all tried the chimp soup and we all ended up in coughing fits, as it grabbed you right by the throat.

I had some tasty "pock" and when I went to cut it with my spoon... you don't get a dinner knife in Thailand and a spoon works perfectly well... it went flying across the room.... lively "pock"! Nothing about this meal seemed to go right... everyone was having a very animated lunch.



Back at the hotel this evening we had a little BYOG party in one of our group's room. This was a Bring Your Own Glass party. Plenty of booze... no glasses.

Sharon and I decided to go to the night market this evening... big surprise, huh? We found the usual things... I got another skirt. Around the edge of the market.. were the strip joints. They were even trying to hustle us inside although I can't imagine why they thought we would be interested. Couldn't they see we were only interested in clothes and trinkets?