Lesson 3 - when booking tours, book the ones that the hotel has to offer to avoid being taken for a ride.
Our guide was a pretty lady called Chanya (managed to give a tract to her) who took us to 2 places: the CM orchid and butterfly farm and the Maesa Elephant Camp.
If you are into orchids, you can buy pretty real orchids that have been preserved and made into brooches and necklaces.
Whilst the orchid and butterfly farm was nothing to shout about, the Maesa Camp was simply fascinating. There are many camps in CM but each elephant camp will specialize in different things. This camp specializes in elephant drawings! Yes, elephants who can draw beautiful pictures with their trunks!
Firstly we were taken to the elephant feeding enclosure. We took photos with some elephants and then went for the elephant ride (the price we paid is all in). We sat in a sedan chair atop an elephant. Up and down a small hillock the elephant and the mahoot took us. Even with my braces, I found the ride very comfortable and enjoyable.
The highlight was the elephant show. Elephants paraded, played football, threw darts, gave massages to their trainers and finally a few selected elephants drew beautiful pictures with their trunks. The pictures were sold at about 2k to 3k bt per painting. One painting stood out. A young elephant had painted a baby elephant and a mother elephant and drawn the words "Mum"! Wow!
At the shop we saw the biggest elephant painting done by a group of elephants that were entered into the Guiness book of records. It was so beautiful. Elephants can draw better than me!
After this trip, we took the hotel van to Ninmanhaemin road (something like Bukit Bintang in KL). We had red tomyam and pineapple fried rice at a small restaurant.
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| Amazon cafe is somewhere inside here. Best green tea latte.... |
While T explored the rest of the street, I decided to rest at the Amazon cafe (this seems to be a chain of cafes in CM that is quite popular). I simply love the green tea latte.
At night we went to Ratchadomnoen, a market that was only set up on Sunday night. Surprise, surprise, God heard my prayer, the lady who sold the wallet I wanted was there too! So I did manage to buy my wallet after all.
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| Edible insects like crickets and grasshoppers |
The Thais are very friendly and hospitable. I could not walk the whole length of this 1 km plus market and decided to rest in a cafe. I only ordered a blueberry soda but the owners let me sit down for over 2 hours. They even allowed us to buy noodles from outside the cafe to eat inside the cafe. This restaurant is smack in the middle of the night market. Remember this place - Ratchadamnoen cafe somewhere in the middle of the Ratchadamnoen night market. Food and drinks are reasonable, owners are hospitable!
Lesson 4 - while at the night market, if you find something you like buy it as you may not have a chance to go back there again!
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