Trekking in Chiang Mai

Twelve hours in an overnight bus from Bangkok wasn't a bad way to reach Chiang Mai. I read, I slept and then read some more.  At around 7 am, I collected my travel bag, hopped on a red van thingy with 8 or do visitors which then dropped us of at our respective guesthouses.

Once checked in, I inquired about trekking tours.  For about 1,000 baht, I could book a day tour that would include riding an elephant through the woods, an hours' hike by foot, a visit to the long neck tribes, lunch and water rafting.  When I learned I could this exact tour with another company for 850 baht, I opted for that instead.  

Here's how the day went:

We were picked up from out hostel around 8 am and got acquainted with the other tourists~

The first stop was the Orchid Garden and Butterfly Farm.

Very exotic and quite pretty~

At the risk of being labeled a "Never See Come See" I'll say, I've never been or seen orchids so vibrant.

There was a specific area that was closed off where it's easy to observe the beauties up close.

These giant beauties are hand fed bananas or sugarcane.  Here, this elephant presents it's trunk to be fed.

Trekking lightly atop these gentle giants.

#FromWhereISit

The ride is almost over.... :(

At this point, the trek is over and the elephants take a rest.  Tourists feed them with any/all left over treats~

We transition to trekking by foot

Bath time~

That's a good elephant~

And were off to find a waterfall~

Lunch~  Was thoroughly impressed with this organic presentation of pad thai~

After lunch, we hopped on the jipney towards the the water for some rafting.  A water war ensued just five minutes into the adventure.  Of course I couldn't take my camera and risk ruining it, so no pictures were taken.  Nearing the end of the rafting we switched to a bamboo raft and floated downstream for about ten minutes.

What a great day!!

Tips on getting around Chiangmai:  

1.  Haggle.  You can always bargain for a better price.  Thai's will often up the price on foreigners, so if the price seems exorbitant (or not), haggle for a better price.  You'll likely succeed.  

2.  Check around.  Tours are just about everywhere.  Look around for the best price. This is the same for busses heading out of the city.  I paid 650 baht to get from Bangkok to Chiangmai but only 400 baht getting back to Bangkok.

3.  Get your own mode of transportation.  I was able to get a bicycle for about 40 baht per day.  That's just over one US dollar.  Because I stayed inside the city square, I was rather close to just about everything.  The traffic isn't terrible and I felt comfortable riding in the street.

4.  Keep your belongings under lock and key.  Unfortunately, I got a little careless with my belonging and some Korean won was taken from my back pack.