Riding an Elephant & Exploring Villages in Chang Mia, Thailand

Lindsay and I only had about 3 or 4 days to experience the incredible city/area of Chiang Mia, Thailand. To maximize our time we decided to take one full day and to have a local trekking outfit take us around the mountains/villages that surround the area. It was a beautiful sunny morning when we meet our awesome guide “Jay” outside of our hotel in Chiang Mia. We quickly loaded up in his little grey van and were off to explore the mountains, villages and jungles of Thailand. The first thing on our list was to take a trek through the jungle on the back of an Elephant. Later during our travels we learned that many of the outfits that offer these Elephant tours do not treat the animals humanely but we feel the family/group we worked with was quite good. Anyway, after about an hour of driving through beautiful green jungles we pulled off the road and there was a small family with a HUGE elephant just sitting there waiting for us. The elephant had what almost looked like a park bench chained to its back and the family quickly smiled and guided us on how to get up on the animal (via some wooden scaffolding). Before we knew it we were riding on top of an elephant through the jungles of Thailand…what an adventure. The Elephants Mahout (owner/trainer) was a tiny Thai man that spoke zero English. He would just smile at us and did his best to keep the elephant on the trial and not eating the numerous leaves/plants off to the side. Lindsay and I were so giddy when we first got on the elephant that we could not stop laughing. We just couldn’t believe that we were riding an elephant. It was hilarious because every 50 yards or so the Elephant would step of the trial and rip of a huge branch from a tree and start eating it. All the while the Mahout would be yelling and trying to get the Elephant back on the trial. Every time this happened Lindsay and I would just bust up laughing. We also had one of our most favorite travel quotes why riding this Elephant. I was curious what its name was so I asked the Mahout and he quickly responded with Mae (pronounced May-a). I then tried to say it back and for some reason what came out of my mouth was “Maaaayyyyy…blah.” We were actually taking a video when this happened so we have this flop out on film. To this day Lindsay will still laugh at me about how I could not pronounce this simple name. :) After about a half hour on the elephant the jungle opened up into some incredible farmlands. The locals had cultivated the step hills surrounding the jungle and you could see red dirt and trees for miles. Each little farm had a neat hut built out of the local material and the back drop was step green mountains off in the distance. It truly was spectacular and looked like something out of an old Vietnam War movie or something. While riding pass the farms the trial got very steep and Lindsay and I were sure that the elephant would not be able to make it. However, we were very wrong as our elephant just trucked right on up. It was such a weird feeling to be riding an elephant as they climb a step trial…you almost feel like you are going to slide right off. After a couple of hours we made it to a beautiful old Thai village and said our goodbyes to the Elephant and his owner. We then meet back up with our guide “Jay” to tour the villages. Although the villages were beautiful and the locals amazing looking (think of the women with cold rings on their necks from National Geographic) the villages had sort of an awkward/touristy vibe. You almost felt like the locals HAD to be there for you to take pictures and it was just a bit awkward. However, we eventually came to one village that seemed a lot more authentic and came across a small hut with a monkey tied out front (as a pet). We of course stopped and played with this monkey for about a half hour. He would run and jump towards us and his little leash would pull him back. We would stick out our hands and he would reach out and grab fingers, try and bite, etc. It was so funny to think that these locals living in the jungles of Thailand had Monkeys as pets. In that same village Lindsay became a small time hero for trying this very spicy sauce as all the locals (mostly kids) looked on in amusement. Jay just cut a small mango from a tree and had Lindsay dip it into the sauce. She actually liked it a lot and all the locals were very impressed. Eventually we made our way out of the villages and continued on our tour with Jay. We hit up a cool Buddhist temple that had been built in a cave (our guide Jay kept telling us “you can take picture” so we would even though the pictures would never turn out because it was so dark in the cave) and also rode a bamboo raft down the river. All in all it was an absolutely incredible day and we will never forget touring around the jungles and villages of Thailand with our trustee guide Jay and our elephant “Mae.”