Journey to the World

February 6, 2007

The days in Chiang Mai passed slowly. I woke up late every day and didn’t do much. Half day motorcycle trips and lots of shopping. This is the right city to do shopping in although you get really good prices only after bargaining.

I woke up late this day as well. I was delayed in the bank and postponed my plans to go to the most touristic area in the Chiang Mai area, near Mae Rim. An Orchid farm, butterflies farm, snakes farm, monkey school and an elephant village. All of those places are located very close to each other on the same road only forty minutes drive from Chiang Mai.

The road to Mae Rim

The time was already after 12:00 PM and I had to get back for the night train to Bangkok which leaves at 5:50 PM. I got into the butterflies farm which looked pretty lousy. Entrance fee of 200 baht signaled me about the time and I went on to the next place. I’ve seen enough flowers at Doi Tung and other places and so passed also the orchids farm. At a monkey school I visited in Kanchanaburi and didn’t feel I should see another one here so I skipped it.

Snakes farm

There’s a snake show which includes poisonous snakes including a spitting cobra, a very dangerous snake which can spit poison up to a one and half meters distance. There also a huge python, and another one that enters a pool while his trainer jumps into the water in order to catch it. During the show, the snakes are being provoked in order to make them attach. One of the poisonous snakes was put down to sleep with a mysterious hand signal, after which it was passed to the hands of the audience. I got a photo with a python and another photo with a cobra and the show was over.

At the farm there are cages with more snakes inside. I asked one of the young workers to get inside the cages to take photos of the snake. After many warnings he agreed to let me in into two caves which looked like a pythons nest. Later on his supervisor shouted at him when he discovered this.

In one of the cages there was a spitting cobra. One of the trainers showed me a spitting marking of his hand that left a sign until that day. The rest of the caves looked like snake nests and in one of them was a large raccoon caught around that area.

Thai Horses Farm

The elephant show which was supposed to be very entertaining occurs twice a day and unfortunately I missed it (120 baht). Instead I went to a Thai horses farm that looked like ponies. The owner of the farm insisted that they are indeed Thai horses and after a negotiation I went for a fifty minutes ride escorted by a local who showed me the way (400 baht). The ride on a Thai horse is quite amusing especially when they start to run in small steps. This experience is recommended for everyone who like to ride on horses.

Night train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok

The night train to Bangkok was very special. I’ve never seen anything like it before. It leaves at 5:50 PM. Around 9:00 PM the benches are opening and turning to beds. The lower bunk is comfortable almost like a regular bed. The upper bunk is narrow and you don’t even get a window. After they open the beds you get blankets and pillows, and until all that happens you can sit on the disco cart and order some alcohol while listening to some music with disco balls on the ceiling.

The train arrived as planned in Bangkok at 7:00 AM.

 

This article was originally written in Hebrew and translated to English at a later time.

This article was published at 6-02-2007 Time: 13:50 and belongs to categories Motorcycle, Travel Journal 2007, Snakes, Horses, Chiang Mai, North Thailand, Night Train, Thailand. You can follow comments to this article using the feed RSS 2.0. You can post a comment, or trackback from your website.