Today I am writing from Luang Prabang in Central Laos after a 3-day trip from Chiang Mai, Thailand using bus and river transportation. Of particular interest was the 2-day "slow-boat" down the mighty Mekong River from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang. There will be an entry on that in a few days as I struggle to catch up the blog.

This blog entry is titled "Exotic or Ordinary?" and is made into a question to elicit feedback from my dear readers. This question popped into my mind while taking a one-day excursion out of Chiang Mai on New Years Day to see the following:
1. Elephant Camp including an elephant show and riding an elephant
2. Ride on an ox-cart the way people in rural Thailand still travel
3. Visit to a Hill Tribe village
4. Bamboo rafting down a river through the jungle
5. Visit to a Snake Farm and watched a snake show

I enjoyed myself immensely. It was an interesting and informative day where I learned alot about the flora and fauna of Northern Thailand. It was also a great way to get out of the city for a day and breath some clean air and see some beautiful scenery, mountains and jungle.

The exotic versus ordinary debate is based on the nature of the excursion and the obvious tourist oriented set up of the camps. The cost of the day long tour was 800 baht (about $10) and included a nice lunch but there are so many ways they get into your wallet during the day it was almost comical.

If the day was exotic I suppose it means that I saw things and experienced things that I would never have back in the States. The elephant camp was quite large with probably 100+ elephants. These camps are a way for Northern Thailand to maintain part of its cultural history in regards to these awesome animals. In Thailand the elephant is revered for its size, religious significance and its practicality in helping build the early infrastructure of the country. Elephant symbols are everywhere and are part of many ancient wats, paintings and carvings going back thousand of years.

Elephants have been trained throughout history to do the heavy lifting, moving logs and other heavy objects, stacking logs and helping build roads, houses, temples, etc. They were also used during war time to transport troops and supplies and to intimidate opponents. The elephant was a partner to men and men took care of elephants. When modern technology (dynamite, bulldozers, etc.) reached the area there was no longer a need for the elephants and many people think that elephants need to be productive in order to live happy lives.

These elephant camps (there are dozens in Northern Thailand and in Laos) are a way to do research on elephants, care for the sick and elderly ones, attempt to keep an ancient cultural tradition of elephant training intact and provide a strong revenue stream from tourism. Win-win? I'm not sure. It seemed a bit to me like exploitation of the elephants for the tourists and in a way, sad.

I don't know if that's the case and it does seem like the camps are doing a good thing in taking care of the elephants but to see the trainers with sharp metal hooks to use on misbehaving elephants really turned me off especially the times I saw them use the hooks on the ears of the elephants. If I was the elephant and I got hooked in the ear I'd step on the guy!

I don't want to be too negative because it was an interesting show and fun to ride Megan the elephant by myself and I have never seen so many elephants in one place. All sizes and shapes and the babies sure are cute.

Here are some pictures of the elephant show (the 4th one down is a little elephant playing the harmonica):
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We then took an oxcart out to a Hill Tribe village
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Note the lack of back support. The ox carts were not real comfortable and the oxen didn't seem to go out of their way to avoid the many ruts and holes on the path.

The ride was beautiful though. We circled through some fields and villages and got a good close up glimpse of rural life.
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The oxcart dropped us off at a Hill Tribe Village of the Liso people.
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The Hill Tribe culture of Northern Thailand is fascinating. There are dozens of separate and distinct tribes each with their completely separate language that is not understandable to each other or native Thai speakers. Some have constant interaction with Thais and tourists and some have less. Tourism and the lure of money has destroyed much of the indigineous culture and traditions of these people as many are exploited by the Thais for the benefit of travel groups and not to the benefit of the tribal people.

This particular excursion to the Liso Tribe was solely for them to sell us stuff. The handcrafted goods were cool and colorful but the whole process was sad and exploitative to me and to the tribe (in my humble opinion). There was no real interactions beyond hustling for sales.

Here is a picture of a pretty Liso girl in Tribal Dress - children are more effective sellers of goods as it's hard to say no to them, they are persistent and awful darn cute!

After going through the vendor mill with the Liso tribe (I did actually break down and bought 2 small hand-carved elephants) we were picked up by elephants for a one hour or so ride through the jungle and streams. They all had seats for 2 harnessed on each elephant.
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As I was the odd man out in our group I rode Megan the elephant alone. After a few hundred yards my guide jumped down and had me take over riding while he walked along beside us and kept Megan on the path. It was fun but hard riding like this. I tried to keep my feet out of Megan's face and there was nothing to hold onto as I was riding on her neck. All I could do was squeeze my thighs together and hold onto her head and whisper to her that she was a good elephant - all in the hope that I wouldn't fall off (it's a long way to the ground from an elephants head!). Elephants are not elegant and bounce around alot. Walking downhill into streams was especially hard as I thought I was going to be catapulted over her head and stomped on! It was great fun and a great experience and would love to do it again.
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Along the route, conveniently placed, were 5 or 6 treehouses with people selling bundles of bananas and sugar cane for 20 baht. Megan was a big pig and made a beeline to each of these tree houses and wouldn't go on until I bought her snacks which I gladly did as she was a cool elephant. It is a good scam though as they get the tourists to pay to partially feed their elephants.

Next we had lunch and then went on a bamboo raft cruise down a river. It was nice as the day was hot and it was a cool cruise seeing some pretty scenery.

Here's the standard cruise wear!

Here are some scenes from the raft trip:
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After the raft ride we got back into van and drove to the Snake Farm where we saw a snake show. It was great fun, they put on a cool show. This is where the picture of me with the Python around my neck in the prvious blog entry was taken.

Everyone loves snakes! Did you know that there are over 30 species of snakes in Thailand, including the King Cobra? I didn't and probably would have been more careful in the jungle had I known, I really don't like snakes too much!
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What do you think about this?

Once again, the experience for the day was great but could I have had this experience elsewhere without coming to Thailand? Is this just an ordinary, but very good, series of exhibitions and things to see and do or was it an exotic adventure in the jungles of Thailand? I have some misgivings on the exploitation I witnessed and the treatment of the elephants but I really don't know if it is a bad thing. I imagine that there is truth in both and the answer may lie somewhere in the middle.

EXOTIC OR ORDINARY?

Thank you for reading this. I hope to make this blog both interesting and entertaining. Please post a comment and let me know your thoughts, observations or counsel. Hearing from readers and knowing I have an audience is a great motivator and will be a great morale booster during down times on the road. Don’t forget to bookmark this site and tell a friend! Please feel free to e-mail me at “JeffMichie at Yahoo Dot Com”