This morning was an early start 7am, Sangeet went to the Gurdwara to celebrate Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s birthday. We both went to the Gurdwara where I paid my respects and went to the gym. Sangeet stayed at the Gurdwara.
Normally there are two Muay Thai classes a day 7am until 9am and 16:00 until 18:00. Today I learnt about clinching and had a clinching session with another guy. Afterwards both of necks were very stiff! I also did some pad work and sparring. The class finished at 11am. Another amazing class, I was so exhausted but can feel it doing my body some good. I really want to comeback and train here for at least a month.
Later, I headed back to the hotel. Sangeet got back around 1pm. She could tell I was thrilled with the Muay Thai, by the way I was telling her about it!
Apologies for the lack of updates, Thailand has not really inspired me like the other countries. I will start updating the blog over the next couple of days.
Arrived at the station and waited for the train. The train was pretty dirty and could be kept in a much better state. Sangeet the hardened traveller just got on with it, she sat down and was looking forward to the journey.
On the train they serve you drinks and meal (already included in the ticket price) unfortunately it was chicken. To be honest I was scared of using the toilet so did not eat!
The views were pretty Impressive you pass through small villages and the beautiful countryside. (Sangeet told me this, as was busy watching Sherlock Holmes!!)
At Bangkok train station
We arrived in Bangkok and took a taxi to the Hilton hotel
The Indian visas should be ready today, as I was not able to check the website (it was down) we decided to go to the office.
I went to the Gurdwara to ask the Gianiji if he knew the best place to hire a scooter. He said no, but offered to give me a lift to the scooter rental. We found one not that far from the hotel the cost was 200 Thai baht, they usually take your passport but as I did not have mine they took 5,000 Thai baht deposit.
It is amazing how confident we have become on the scooter!
We went to the Indian consulate to pick up the visas, she asked us to take a seat. 15 minutes had passed when we got up to ask why is it taking so long. The receptionist said the day we handed in our applications the price had gone up and we had to pay an extra 2250 Thai baht! I was furious, Sangeet told me to keep calm but it was impossible for me to do so! In my view Indians are just people who want to make extra money by hook or crook…….we had already booked our flights so would have been more costly to change, also I wanted to see my good friend Kapil Seth, the only Indian I trust.
I was tempted to say you can take my visa and put it where the sun does not shine! As you can see I was a bit angry!
Sangeet kept me calm and said it is no use we will have to pay the money. We paid and sat back down. I was still fuming. It took a further thirty minutes for her to pick up our passports from her tray which was in arms length to her and pass them to us!
Afterwards we ate at Taiwan restaurant. Then headed to Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep is a Theravada Buddhist temple in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand. The temple is often referred to as “Doi Suthep” although this is actually the name of the mountain it is located on. The temple is located 15 km from the city of Chiang Mai and is a sacred site to many Thai people. From the temple, impressive views of Chiang Mai can be seen and it remains a popular destination for tourists.
Orange material around the tree means it would be sacrilegious to cut down
Taking the cable car to the temple
The original founding of the temple remains a legend and there are a few varied versions. The temple is said to have been founded in 1383 when the first chedi was built. Over time, the temple has expanded, and been made to look more extravagant with many more holy shrines added. A road to the temple was first built in 1935.
We came back, popped into the railway station to buy one way travel to Bangkok. The journey takes 13 hours and costs around 600 Thai baht per person. A very straight forward procedure here are two windows one is information and the other where you can buy the tickets. The staff are very helpful. The train only has second class seats…not looking forward to this!
On the way back we gave the scooter to the hire company and wandered to GIVA for drinks and food.
We had a hot chocolate at U Chiang Mae hotel, which was vey tasty.
U Chiang Mai
70 Ratchadamnoen Road, Sri-Poom
Muang District,
Chiang Mai 50200
Thailand
T: +66 53 327 000
F: +66 53 327 096
We had arranged to spend the day at the Elephant Nature Park, the coach picked us up from our hotel at 830am. The drive to the park takes an hour. It is quite far from the city, in a rural area north west of Chiang Mai, near Chang Mae Ping Village.
Elephant Nature Park is an Asian elephant rescue and rehabilitation center in Northern Thailand where you can volunteer and visit to help. They have been involved in dozens of rescues to create their thriving elephant herd. They use a philosophy of positive reinforcement and elephants are never punished. The park provides a natural environment for abused, injured and retired working elephants and other animals (they have 350 dogs wandering about the park!) under their care. Volunteers and visitors contribute to the healing while learning about their lives past and present. The park was set up by a lady called Lek who is well known because of the amazing work she has done in this field and she has won many awards.
On the way
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaygoat/8399665913/
This is an amazing experience and one should not miss. This park does not let you ride the elephants, it does not train them to do tricks. Which in our opinion is great and is one of the reasons we chose this park over others. We want to see elephants in their natural state. They actually let the elephants roam free and the visitors are only allowed in designated areas.
Elephant Nature Park
City Office
1 Ratmakka Road, Muang district
Chiang Mai 50100
Thailand
W: www.elephantnaturepark.org
We fed a number of the elephants and bathed them. The centre provides you with an amazing vegetarian buffet (a couple of the items contain egg). Our group of ten ate together. There was a couple from Nottingham, one from Germany, another couple from Quebec and one from Amsterdam, a nice group. We all chatted over lunch and got to know each other.
We also saw a 10 week old baby elephant and a naughty teenager, Hope, who keeps everyone at the Park on their toes. he was born at the park. We had fun watching him bath in the river.
The park also shows you a documentary about Elephants and their mistreatment in South East Asia including details of the pajaan, a cruel ceremony used to break the spirit if wild elephants. As we were watching this rather serious documentary, one of the park dogs came in and jumped at the screen as it seemed to recognise one of the dogs in the documentary. We were all in stitches! Apparently, the dog does this every day at exactly the same time, maybe he thinks one of these days it will actually work and he will get in to the screen!! The days ends around 16:30 you are then coached back to your hotels.
Every time the dog in the picture see a dog on the screen is jumps at it!
Hi, thanks for visiting my blog, feel free and have a look around.Here is a bit about me, as you may or may not have guessed my name is Mandeep,I work to travel as opposed to work to pay bills and die!Every trip for me is an adventure, I have been very fortunate to stumble across amazing places and meet awesome people along the way.
Why gaygoat? When I first started this blog I was a vegetarian, so gaygoat – happy goat! Also you have to admit it is catchy and a URL you will not forget!
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