Elephant trek

A highlight of the holiday was definitely the elephant trek along a pretty narrow and sometimes steep track. We loved it, the two of us perched on top of an Asian elephant, overnight bags stowed under the seat, and Pan sat on the elephant's neck just in front of us, the handler walking behind. Mind you, we had to get used to the odd motion, sometimes left to right, and sometimes front to back when ascending or descending.

On the way the elephant couldn't resist whole banana plants, just wrenched from the ground with its powerful trunk!

Yes, the elephant did walk up this stream!

Safely deposited at our destination, our taxi waited for more bananas as a thank you...

...before heading off back down the track, no doubt snacking off more banana plants on its way!

Santikhiri (Mae Salong)

Up into the hills: next destination Santikhiri, formerly known as Mae Salong, and once the centre of the opium trade in northern Thailand. Anti-communist Chinese forces made their home in Santikhiri and later fought for Thailand. For this they were granted Thai citizenship and the town has since continued to keep its Chinese influences (merci Wikipedia).

Nowadays Santikhiri is a tourist attraction with its feel of China, and many Chinese products for sale.

Dried bamboo maggots for lunch, anybody?

Dried mushrooms...

...or fresh?

Tine caves in and buys a shoulder-bag!

Google disputes it, but the sign says 895 km from Bangkok

More caving in on Tine's part to these Acha girls and their hand-made woven bracelets...

Who could resist?

Just out of town we stopped to look at a tea plantation...

...the government encouraging farmers to cultivate tea, coffee and fruits to replace the opium poppy crops.

Wat Tha Ton

Next morning after a wonderful banana pancake breakfast Pan & Andy took us to the temple in the hills overlooking Tha Ton.  With a clear blue sky and the sun warming us after a surprisingly cool night we loved the beautiful views over the region and the more modern design of this temple.

Dragons are very much in evidence in and around the temple...

...in fact you spiral upwards through a dragon's body, as if on the journey from life to death.

Inside here were the relics of an old monk...

...and thanks given to those who donated towards the cost of building this temple.

Back down to explore the surroundings...

Look carefully and you will see lots of black areas on this Buddha: 

some crafty bees had built their nests there and nobody dare climb on the Buddha to retrieve the wild honey!

Pick your favourite Buddha!

Tha Ton

We spent the night at Tha Ton (sometimes Thaton) in a very quiet cabin complex hidden in a lychee plantation by the river. The temperature dropped surprisingly overnight, evidence that we were somewhat higher in altitude. It didn't stop us walking into the small town for yet another wonderful meal, this time with Pan & Andy who helped us wash down a few bottles of Chang!

Our little chez nous...

...complete with ratan ceiling.

Not lychees but this was just outside our door!

Wandering down to the river we saw them preparing for the next festival..,

...and I made a curious friend!

Later we drove up into the hills (see next post) where we could look down onto where we stayed 

That's our cabin roof centre photo

Wat Tham Chiang Dao & the trek

A short journey from the elephant centre was Wat Tham where there is a cave system which is said to stretch 14 km into the mountainside. Some of the the temple buildings are outside in beautiful settings, but there are many shrines actually inside the caves. We only ventured a short distance!

After a leisurely and quite copious lunch we motored on to the beginning of our trek. I must admit I was rather worried about this as it was extremely hot and hilly, but I survived. Tine of course did her usual mountain-goat act!

Phew, a very welcome sit down with Andy waiting for us...

...and yet another beautiful orchid.