( Overview
/ 50 somethings SE Asia travels
Our room at the Chi Lai lodge
Day 7 - 1/2/18
We’re travelling to Mae Wang today which is approx 50k West of Chiang Mai, staying at the Chai Lai Eco Lodge which runs a charity called the Daughters Rising and is located next to an Elephant lodge. This is a charity that is helping to develop opportunities for girls who have fled from Burma or who have been possibly involved in human trafficking in Thailand. There’s also an Elephant conservation place right next door.
We arrived about lunchtime and took a stroll around, introduced ourselves to the elephants and watched them taking a bath. Our room is a lovely, although we have to share a bathroom. The first night it was really chilly so the puffa jacket came out, along with all my other clothes!
Bed early as only one restaurant / bar on site and that closed at 8. We’re due to stay here for 3 nights so we decided to book a trip which involved a trek in the jungle the next day, along with an overnight ‘homestay’ with a Karen tribe family.
Day 8 - 2/2/18 Chai Lai Eco Lodge, Mae Wing
Had breakfast at the lodge and then went and met our guide, Champoo and then we picked up a couple of Ozy girls who were going to do the trek with, one was also called Lara and the other Sophie. Both from Brisbane and very nice.
We set off and had to pick up a few provisions from the local market as we were staying at a home stay and they were going to prepare food for us. Our driver dropped us off and our guide led us on the trek. It was a good couple of hours to the lovely waterfall, where we sat and ate our packed lunch (egg fried rice wrapped in banana leaf), delicious. No swimming unfortunately so after lunch and admiring the view we were heading for a strawberry and passion fruit farm...this took a couple of hours to reach, but the fruit when we got there was amazing. We were also given fresh sugar cane to try which was delicious. Of course we had to purchase some to takeaway, met our driver who took us back to the home stay. Took a cold shower outside in the shower block - certainly not a long leisurely shower, as fresh river water! Our room was in a beautiful spot right by another waterfall. It was a pretty cold, chilly night again but a great excuse to light a camp fire. They cooked up some great veggie curries for us; curried aubergine, curried butternut squash with egg and potato and tofu curry, all delicious. After chatting by the fire, we retired to bed - fully clothed! Fortunately we had my iPad so we huddled around it and watched the final few episodes of Mad Men. Spent most of the night awake listening to the waterfall, but a beautiful, peaceful starry night. Feeling very fortunate to be able to experience this.
Day 9 - 3/2/18
Great breakfast of fresh strawberries, watermelon and passion fruit (my new favourite). Today we are leaving the home-stay and heading back to trek with the elephants and bathe them, followed by a dip ourselves on a bamboo raft.
On the way we stopped at a small mountain village where they weave the most amazing scarves and sarongs, lots of generations all living under the same roof along with all manner of wildlife.
We got back to the elephant lodge, had lunch (Pad Thai) and then went for a trek with five large female elephants and their mahouts (guides) and one baby. It was a lovely experience walking along with them, they can certainly eat. We got covered in ely gunk and then took the baby down to the river to wash ourselves and the baby off. After we’d cleaned ourselves up it was time to head up stream and jump on our bamboo rafts for a bimble downstream. It was fab, but being a Saturday and a fab sunny afternoon, was a little crowded with Thai or Chinese people who had the same idea, although their rafts were loaded with beers that they were only too happy to give away, so it was a fun ride, although I got totally soaked towards the end of the trip by one of the other over-enthusiastic rafters... he would not stop, despite J having a word.
We got dropped right at the lodge and hit the showers straight away and then said goodbyes to Lara and Sophie.
After that J and I started planning our next adventure as we leave Chai Lai tomorrow for Mandalay, Myanmar.
We’re travelling to Mae Wang today which is approx 50k West of Chiang Mai, staying at the Chai Lai Eco Lodge which runs a charity called the Daughters Rising and is located next to an Elephant lodge. This is a charity that is helping to develop opportunities for girls who have fled from Burma or who have been possibly involved in human trafficking in Thailand. There’s also an Elephant conservation place right next door.
We arrived about lunchtime and took a stroll around, introduced ourselves to the elephants and watched them taking a bath. Our room is a lovely, although we have to share a bathroom. The first night it was really chilly so the puffa jacket came out, along with all my other clothes!
Bed early as only one restaurant / bar on site and that closed at 8. We’re due to stay here for 3 nights so we decided to book a trip which involved a trek in the jungle the next day, along with an overnight ‘homestay’ with a Karen tribe family.
Day 8 - 2/2/18 Chai Lai Eco Lodge, Mae Wing
Had breakfast at the lodge and then went and met our guide, Champoo and then we picked up a couple of Ozy girls who were going to do the trek with, one was also called Lara and the other Sophie. Both from Brisbane and very nice.
We set off and had to pick up a few provisions from the local market as we were staying at a home stay and they were going to prepare food for us. Our driver dropped us off and our guide led us on the trek. It was a good couple of hours to the lovely waterfall, where we sat and ate our packed lunch (egg fried rice wrapped in banana leaf), delicious. No swimming unfortunately so after lunch and admiring the view we were heading for a strawberry and passion fruit farm...this took a couple of hours to reach, but the fruit when we got there was amazing. We were also given fresh sugar cane to try which was delicious. Of course we had to purchase some to takeaway, met our driver who took us back to the home stay. Took a cold shower outside in the shower block - certainly not a long leisurely shower, as fresh river water! Our room was in a beautiful spot right by another waterfall. It was a pretty cold, chilly night again but a great excuse to light a camp fire. They cooked up some great veggie curries for us; curried aubergine, curried butternut squash with egg and potato and tofu curry, all delicious. After chatting by the fire, we retired to bed - fully clothed! Fortunately we had my iPad so we huddled around it and watched the final few episodes of Mad Men. Spent most of the night awake listening to the waterfall, but a beautiful, peaceful starry night. Feeling very fortunate to be able to experience this.
Day 9 - 3/2/18
Great breakfast of fresh strawberries, watermelon and passion fruit (my new favourite). Today we are leaving the home-stay and heading back to trek with the elephants and bathe them, followed by a dip ourselves on a bamboo raft.
On the way we stopped at a small mountain village where they weave the most amazing scarves and sarongs, lots of generations all living under the same roof along with all manner of wildlife.
We got back to the elephant lodge, had lunch (Pad Thai) and then went for a trek with five large female elephants and their mahouts (guides) and one baby. It was a lovely experience walking along with them, they can certainly eat. We got covered in ely gunk and then took the baby down to the river to wash ourselves and the baby off. After we’d cleaned ourselves up it was time to head up stream and jump on our bamboo rafts for a bimble downstream. It was fab, but being a Saturday and a fab sunny afternoon, was a little crowded with Thai or Chinese people who had the same idea, although their rafts were loaded with beers that they were only too happy to give away, so it was a fun ride, although I got totally soaked towards the end of the trip by one of the other over-enthusiastic rafters... he would not stop, despite J having a word.
We got dropped right at the lodge and hit the showers straight away and then said goodbyes to Lara and Sophie.
After that J and I started planning our next adventure as we leave Chai Lai tomorrow for Mandalay, Myanmar.
Jungle trek
J looking very ‘Indie’
J with Champoo our guide
Our overnight love shack, shame we had to sleep fully clothed
Visiting a local hill village
The other ‘Lara’ & Sophie from Brisbane
The joy of being a baby elephant...
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Getting covered in Ely gunk
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