The travels of BBQboy

We lucked out on this trek with Tiger Trail (booked in Luang Prabang): http://tigertrail.travity.de/page.asp?id={D973D667-CD7E-484B-BB1D-C907D6811A83}

The hike started 15 km out of Luang Prabang at the Lao Spirit Resort which is afiliated with Tiger Trail (it looks great, wish we had stayed a night here!). The resort is surrounded by mountains and is flanked by a river accross which is Tiger Trail’s Elephant Camp.

I’ve been on more spectacular hikes and have had much better guides (our guide at Tiger Trail was not very good at all) – but this hike was special in other ways; we had the fortune of meeting some very interesting fellow travellers including a Dutch couple who were biking their way through South East Asia and an English girl who was taking a 3 day mahout training course. It was a scenic hike, lots of mountain scenery and a few hill tribe tribe villages where we were “Sabadee-ed” by tons of friendly little kids. 

We finished the hike with a stop at a school where the children greeted us with a singing of the Lao national anthem. The interaction with locals made the hike very special and was one of the highlights of our trip to South East Asia. I would suggest bringing something for the kids (I gave the kids colour markers that I had bought at the dollarstore in Montreal – they seemed to really like that).

http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/

The Elephant Nature Park was started up in 1999 by a woman named Lek who made it her life’s work to rescue and take care abused elephants. The success of the park can be attributed to an incredible marketing campaign – The Elephant Nature Park has been covered by National Geographic, Animal Planet, and the BBC among others. Stars including Meg Ryan have come here. The result of all this publicity is that Elephant Nature Park has received donations from very generous donors and can count on Western Volunteers to do much of the labour (paying volunteers I should add). The park is a nature haven, not only do they have Elephants, there are also dogs, goats, and water buffalo, all living together and cared for in this park.

We arrived at the park at about 9:30 am and had about 15 minutes to meet the elephants – the 31 elephants are here due to many different reasons: victims of landmines, inflicted blindness, drugging, poaching, car accidents, or sometimes just general neglect. At about 10 am they were ready for the 1st feeding of the elephants – we ended up feeding Lilly, an elephant who had been hooked on amphetamines (her previous owner had fed her drugs to keep her working through fatigue).

Lilly is a docile elephant who eats slower than most – we fed her pineapples, sugar cane, and bananas, while patting her huge trunk. The Park has profiles on each elephant which are worth looking at; elephants are different, just like people, with different likes and dislikes, different temperements and fears. Lilly for example is afraid of other animals, especially dogs…

After the feedings, it was time to bring the elephants down to the river for bathing time.

After bathing, the elephants have “fun time” in the mud pool and then run around jumping and pushing each other. In many ways elephants are just like dogs, the only difference being that they can end up crushing you in their playfullness…

 We had lunch, were shown a video (about the history and role of elephants in Thai culture, and highlighting the accomplishments of the Elephant Nature Park), then repeated the same routine in the afternoon – once more feeding Lilly (who we got quite fond of), then watching the elephants bathing in the river.

At 5 pm it was time to go – the elephants were back in their kralls (they walk there by themselves, familiar with their daily routine), and the goats and water buffalo were likewise back in their enclosures. As we left we saw the dogs getting fed by the volunteers.

It was an expensive tour (6500 baht, or about $200, including pick-up from Chiang Dao). It’s easy to criticize Elephant Nature park for it’s success – one would hope that other Elephant parks and camps get their fair share of money for their elephants. Do poor locals resent the fact that foreigners pour money and effort in helping wild animals over people? How about the historical role of the elephant as workers – here they are getting pampered by rich Western tourists. It raises a lot of questions. The park re-iterates that money goes to educating the local population and that it funds different projects in villages. But the bottom line is that Elephant Nature Park has worked tirelessly doing good in the world, helping not only elephants but also other animals and, we hope, the local population through programs and by providing employment opportunities. You can’t really criticize that. There’s no doubt that without Lek that elephants like Lilly would be dead; we left feeling good that we had at least contributed a little to a good cause.

http://nest.chiangdao.com/

A beautiful spot with clean and modern bungalows – we had some of our best sleeps in Thailand here! Nights actually get cold here and we appreciated the shower (which generates very hot water at high pressure!) and the heavy blankets on the bed. No complaints at all about the bungalow.

Likewise, the whole infrastructure of Chiang Dao Nest is great; there’s an internet shack (with high speed internet!) and a very comfortable dining area. The grounds of the hotel are beautiful with a huge variety of exotic plants and flowers. Just gorgeous! The price is also very good (about $30/night).

2 things we didn’t like here: 1) We found Wicha, the owner, very rude. It started the minute we arrived and set the tone for the rest of the stay. I looked the hotel up on Trip Advisor and opinions vary – people either thought she was great or that she was really rude. My feeling is that it depends how she likes you, she’s obviously the queen of her kingdom and will treat you accordingly (very un-Thai, but everything about Wicha and Chiang Dao Nest in un-Thai). The following review made me smile because it was an exact mirror of our experience;

 http://www.tripadvisor.ie/ShowUserReviews-g293917-d607620-r13957349-Chiang_Dao_Nest-Chiang_Mai.html     I agree with him – she should manage the details but stay away from dealing with customers.

The 2nd thing that disappointed us was the Western food. For all the talk about how the Western Food is so great here, we found it very disappointing! If there had been a Thai restaurant nearby we would have eaten there. I would really recommend that Chiang Dao Nest have at least one Thai plate on their menu (Chiang Dao Nest 2 has a Thai menu but it’s pretty far down the road…)

I would give this place a 3 1/2 out of 5 – my 2 negatives aside, this would be a pretty perfect place!

———–

On Chiang Dao:

Chiang Dao is a lovely little town about and hour and a half north of Chiang Mai. We spent 2 days here; the first day we discovered the surrounding area including the Chiang Dao caves (quite remarkable, the cave complex actually goes 14 km into the mountain!) and the temple on Chiang Dao mountain (nice views!). The 2nd day was spent at the Elephant Nature Park (see next post). Chiang Dao is also a nice base for trekking activities. A beautiful spot!

We weren’t in Chiang Mai very long (about 24 hours) but we were quite impressed – the weather is cooler and the city much cleaner than Bangkok. It has a more provincial feel – people are very friendly and seem unhurried. The walled city is full of temples and ruins which, as everywhere in Thailand, seem to have countless stray dogs sleeping around the grounds; they look up at you as you walk through them but we never had any bark at us. A European commented to me that the dogs in Thailand seem completely unagressive when compared with the ones in Europe or North America. I remarked that they live collectively and most likely just havn’t learned to be protective of private property as we’ve taught our dogs to be. Buddhism is also very enlightened towards animals; besides being peaceful places, dogs love temples because they know they’ll get fed by the monks – maybe this interaction contributes to their relaxed behaviour?  If you love dogs and would like to know more or, better yet, help out Chiang Mai’s dogs, I would recommend this link;
http://carefordogs.org/

Ko Yao Noi was the highlight of our trip to Thailand – we absolutely loved it. It’s not as spectacular physically as Phi Phi and the beaches are not as nice (the picture above is at low tide) but the inhabitants were just incredibly friendly. We rented a motorcycle and drove around the island, enjoying the views off the east coast, then going inland and seeing water buffalo grazing in rice paddies. The main town is quaint and has very little traffic – we stopped and did a bit of souvenir shopping (finding prices about half of what they were in Phi Phi). Ko Yao Noi was wonderful.

Also worthwhile is a visit to Ko Hong, about half an hour off the east coast by boat.

We ended up loving this place; http://www.lomlae.com/index.htm

Firstly, this is not a luxury resort; the wooden bungalows are rustic with large windows. Bugs can get in (for those that are squeamish). I killed a couple of cockroaches – but as I said to Lissette, these are “nature bugs”, not the roaches we are used to seeing in the city. Another negative is that the beach is really not that great; it’s either high (at high tide) and a bit rough, or low (at low tide) and rocky. On the other hand, the views are great and there are some nice beaches a short boat ride away.

It is an incredibly relaxing spot; the views are great, the grounds of the resort lush. You could spend several days on the veranda, reading and drinking beer (like our German neighbors).  The mosquito nets at night were romantic and we slept well knowing the bugs couldn’t get us. They also have motorcycles for rent – we had one for a day (350 baht) and had a fantastic time discovering the island (more on that in another post).

But the best thing about this place is the food. The Thai food (they even had a few Indian dishes) served was exeptional. The relaxing open-air eating area was very cosy and comfortable and we found ourselves sitting there and eating all day long.

It might not be for everyone, but we ended up really enjoying this place – is was so laid back and relaxing and our only regret was that we didn’t stay a few days longer.

One negative – I found that at 2100 baht a night ($65 CDN) the bungalows are overpriced for what they are. On the other hand, this is Southern Thailand in high season…The food and dining area, location, and grounds make this place – I still give it a 4 out of 5.

One of the highlights of our recent trip to Thailand was flying by seaplane from Ko Phi Phi Don to Ko Yai Noi with Destination Air http://www.destinationair.com/

The flight took a total of about 15 minutes between islands – the picture below is of the plane taking off over Phi Phi Don (note how construction has just taken over the center of the island…see my rant in the next blog)

about 10 minutes later we descended past the islands off Ko Yao Noi’s east coast (including Ko Hong which we would tour by boat later).

The plane dropped us of on a floating pier next to the Paradise Ko Yao Noi where we would be picked up by a longtail boat sent by our hotel. It was a really cool experience and Lissette only pooped her pants once!

 It is incredible how this place has changed since the Tsunami. When I last came here in 2002, all hotels were bungalow-type operations on the strip of sand that makes up Tonsai village. Coming in, you could barely make out the bungalows among the tall palm trees – the island was a lush paradise of palm trees, white sand, high cliffs and emerald water. It was the most beautiful place I had ever seen.

I was really disappointed coming back (Feb ’08). The palm trees are gone, wiped away either by the tsunami or the developers. The bungalows have been replaced by swanky 3 or 4 level concrete hotels and Tonsai village is now a mini-Phuket with massage parlors, bars, internet cafes, and tons of stores and restaurants. Backpackers have been replaced by young, package-tour travellers from Phuket – Tonsai village is PACKED. They even have a Muay Thai stadium! The scary thing is that only half of the isthmus connecting the two bays has been rebuilt, the rest of Tonsai is a barren landscape which the developers are only getting started on. Tonsai beach is no longer a beach between the new pier they are building – and it’s a big one – and the hundreds of longtail boats parked on the sand. What a pity.

Most of these pictures are from Long Beach which resembles what Tonsai used to look like. This is the place I would stay if coming back to Phi Phi – it’s quiet, has great views (that’s Phi Phi Ley in the background), a beautiful beach, some small family owned restaurants, and great snorkling!

More bitching and complaining ; don’t bother with the visit to neighboring Phi Phi Ley – it’s become a zoo. I remember the last time here visiting Maya Bay and thinking it was getting popular because there were about 10 other longtails in the bay at the same time. This is what Maya Bay looks like now…

Somehow, through it all, the Thais here are still friendly and smiling. Having been here twice before though, I felt dissapointment and even anger at the greed that has transformed this place. A rare piece of paradise has been ruined probably foreever and I’m just thankful that I saw it before. Shame!

Phi Phi Don before and after the tsunami:

Ayutthaya was the capital of the Kingdom of Siam between 1350 and 1767, when the city was sacked by the Burmese (after which the capital became Bangkok). It’s a nice day trip by train from Bangkok and is a relaxing and peaceful place with impressive ruins.

The best way around Ayutthaya (which looks compact on a map but in reality is very spread out) is to hire a tuk tuk driver for a few hours – doing this we managed to see most of the ruins, plus the Elephant krall, in about 4 hours.