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

At the farm there are snake cages. I asked one of the young workers to get inside the cages to take some photos. 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 as it got discovered.

There was a spitting cobra in one of the cages. One of the trainers showed me a spitting mark on his hand kept as a souvenir to this day. The rest of the cages looked like snake nests. A large raccoon was locked in one of them.

Thai Horses Farm

The elephant show that was supposed to be very entertaining happens twice a day. Unfortunately I missed it (120 baht). Instead I went to a Thai horse farm. The owner of the farm insisted that the ponny-like horses are indeed Thai horses, so after a negotiation I went for a fifty minutes ride guided by a local guy (400 baht). Riding on a Thai horse is quite amusing especially when the horse starts running in small steps. This experience is recommended for everyone who likes riding horses.

Night train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok

The night train to Bangkok was special. I’ve never seen anything like it before. It leaves at 5:50 PM. Around 9:00 PM the benches open and turn into 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 in the disco car, 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, Far East 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.