Escape to Chiang Mai

We are driving to the summit of Doi Inthanon, Thailands highest mountain . It’s a 100km drive with very steep climbs to the summit so we’re hiring a bigger bike. No more dawdling 2 up on an underpowered scooter willing it to get to the top, we’re going big!

We rented the bike in the city for £30 for the day. It’s a Honda 500, perfect. It’s a 60km ride to where you turn off for the mountain. It’s then 40km up to the summit. You enter the National Park it costs £8 each and a few km in you come to the first waterfall. The last time we came it was more a trickle, this time it had plenty of water. The mist as you got closer just hung in the air causing rainbows and dropping gently on our hot skin, lovely.

We approached the summit and parked. The highest spot in Thailand the sign said. I’d seen that sign already in the multitudes of weed shops on every street…

We came on this trip to go back through the Hmong tribal villages which are all over the mountain, another all time favourite bike ride and to see an old friend.

The villages are surrounded by seas of plastic poly tunnels overflowing with flowers and vegetables and lots of places to hire a tent, the Thais love camping.

Some of the growers supply all the floats for the floral decorations for the upcoming flower festival. The floral scents attack your nostrils, woody herbals and wet earthy aromas, citrus all pervading as you journey along.

We are making our way to Mae Wang, elephant country. Winding rivers meandering in the wide valleys, small hills and lots of vegetation.

The unmissable elephant smell, strong and pungent lingers briefly around every corner. We are close to our friend. It seemed busy, lots of tourist buses. We looked at the coral where she would be, it was all covered over.

A man asked what we were doing so we explained we had come to see an old friend Vissa. We hadn’t been for 3 years. The elephant camp had been merged with another camp so instead of 6 elephants there were now 16. All the staff had ‘Pon Elephant Camp’ T shirts on and walkie talkies, very professional, a lot had changed.

During Covid the elephant tourist business came to a sudden halt, no tourists no money. Some of the mahouts went back to their villages with the elephants as they couldn’t afford to feed them. They really suffered. An elephant can eat 150kg of food a day and drinks 30-50 gallons of water.

The guy in charge listened to our story, the elephant we called Vissa was actually Fa Sai, born in 2008. Her name means clear sky. He said if we took a walk to the camp base the mahouts would bring her so we could see her. We were taken to a clearing over a very wobbly bridge. There were modern little huts where you could stay overnight, the whole place had been transformed.

We chatted to a young female guide who spoke English and she told us Fa Sai was 7 months pregnant. Elephants have an 18-22 months gestation. Excited now.

Two elephants approached coming down a little hill. One was Fa Sai, bigger than I remembered and much wider around her girth. They said due to the pregnancy she was a little unpredictable and we shouldn’t get too close. They had a fun time having a mud bath. The camp are trying to turn the space into 2 rice paddy’s but the elephants keep trashing the area. We just watched them having fun throwing mud over themselves.

We will go back to see her next time we are in CM.

We did miss the bristly, snotty snorkel face kisses and the joyous times we had before but it was lovely to see her knowing she was being well looked after.