Thailand : Chiang Mai : Trekking : Elephant Riding

We started out with a long walk, winding through the village. Two filled us in on many aspects of village life - the fruits and herbs they grew, rice threshing, their beleifs. They mainly worship spirits. This is very cumbersome to the encroach of Western Medicine as they vehemently prefer spirit doctors to medics. There are also some strange customs such as burying the umbilical cord of a newborn under a huge tree (massive trees are considered to house spirits and are therefore sacred). The person can then later make offerings at the same spot, or on the top of a big termite mound. This will give them good luck. If someone is having difficulty having children, the queen termite from the middle of the mound preserved with whisky should solve the problem. If a boy has a ball that hasn't dropped, they are given an earring (and for males in no other circumstances). The hill tribe people find Western men with earrings quietly hilarious.
Crossing rivers was particularily tricky - usually a bridge was simply a thick felled tree. Two told us after much wobbling that the locals carry goods to market on motorbikes over these tightropes!
He knew everything about local plants - we tried to trick Liv by covering my hands with a red dye he extracted from teak leaves. She was not impressed.
The Thais have a great sense of sanuk (fun). Two loved surprising us - jumping out in front or splashing us - "A SNAKE! A SNAKE!"
His favourite gag was - "OK, in five minutes we arrive at elephant camp!" Over a mountain and splash through a river delta - and we did.
When we got to the elephant camp the elephants were having a wash. They were bent down in the middle of the river, with men on each back to scrub them. Their skin was very wrinkly and baggy and hung down in dusty folds around their legs.
When I sat astride their thick necks I could see their thick black hairs - sharp bristles.
My elephant was very gentle. It lumbered through deep mud and rivers, wide ears flapping and flicking against my legs. It was a funny elephant, always wandering off to grab some food - a small bush or so. It drove its keeper to distraction - in the end he was forced to cut down a big bush in entirety to satisfy it.
The elephants dropped us off a little way from the village we were staying at - I think the keepers just got bored.
The path was mud - cratered with elephant footprints. We had to clamber from well to well but it was worth it. We were staying in a beautiful village around a river. The banks were thick with mud, bamboo and tribesmen. The whole village was involved with raft-building and preparing the bamboo right down to the grannies- sitting amid a grassland of white bamboo strips expertly split from a large chunk.
Jean Pierre ran out of money. He couldn't even buy water. He wandered round villages and managed to find someone willing to change two Euros. He was now rich!
Two got things going after dinner with the CHANG SONG, animated actions and some local moonshine in bamboo cups. It was gorgeous - really smooth (and much nicer than Talisker, even though it's so simple to produce). The locals emerged from the village, tempted by Western quantities of alcohol. They got hilariously drunk, along with our guides. Two tried to get all of us to sing - "We need France song, England song, Switzerland song"...The Swiss girls sang "Take me home, country roads".
Liv and I got everyone doing the "Hokey Cokey" - the Thais loved it and wanted to know what the words meant.
Jean Pierre sang a fantastic campy song about a rabbit and a deer who make friends in the face of hunter adversity.
We were drinking shots here and there, the drunkenness gap widening. The Thais seem to think drunken driving is absolutely hilarious - one guy told us it was his favourite time to ride his motorbike and take shots at dogs. "In Thailand, we don't like the dogs, we have too many. So I hit them with my moto. Somtimes, I fall off"...He had a meaty scar around his collarbone.