Chiang Mai 3

Afeter the elephant show it was time to do the bamboo rafting so we walked down to the brown river where we were given life jackets which were totally too big for me and which would have just risen over my head if I'd fallen off the raft but despite a rapid search I couldn't find a smaller one in time so it just had to do. As it turned out the river didn't seem too deep as the guides' poles easily reached the bottom to help steer us along. The rafts are exactly as described - made of bamboo and seating 6 people. We floated down the river for at least half an hour seeing jungle and elephants belonging to the park - they have about 150 altogether - and it was a good experience, not scary at all even when the guide would jolt the raft and pretend to fall off!

Our raft guides after putting us ashore

Following the rafting we wobbled along the muddy, rutted ground in carts behind two oxen for some time to where we could climb up to the mounting platform to get into our seats on top of the elephant - we had a very cute baby one accompanying us as well. We found we had to hang on all the time as the ground was pretty rough and we were thrown from side to side and we were pleased that they provided us with an umbrella to give us a bit of shade from the sun - it was very hot. The time we had on the elephant, maybe 20-30 minutes, was good and plenty long enough because of the jolting - I don't think it would be that great to do it for a whole day on uneven terrain!

L & the 5 girls!

By now it was lunchtime and we were provided with a buffet meal back at the Elephant Park headquarters. It was OK but nowhere near the standard of the buffet that we had at the Rosegarden on the Floating market tour in Bangkok - I think we had been spoilt.