Elephants, Tigars and River Rafting

We took a day out to visit an Elephant park, where we got to go jungle trekking on the back of an elephant, some river rafting and then went on an authentic ox cart ride.
Although we had fun, we later found out from an American couple, who were staying at our hotel, that the elephants don't receive the best treatment. Our advice would be to any other travellers, not to visit the Elephant Park, but instead visit The Elephant Sanctuary. That way you are funding to help the elephants and not supporting the cruelty, which unfortunately through ignorance we did.
We then went to a Tiger Centre, where you can pat the Tiger Cubs. Again, we're not sure how the Tigers are treated, although they all seemed in good health.

Check out our gondelier in one of the photos!
He looks very dodgy and almost crashed us into the river bank!!! Only joking.... Nick was very good and perhaps we found him a 2nd vocation?!

Chiang Mai: The Temples...

Guess what??!
We did a Temple walk around Chiang Mai, taking in: Wat Chiang Man, Wat Phan Tao, Wat Chedi Singh and Wat Phra Singh.
Please enjoy the photos.........

Chiang Mai: Fern Paradise

We caught a cheap flight up to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand and had booked ourselves into a place called "Fern Paradise", a family run retreat just outside of the city.
We stayed in stilted huts in the forest, with numerous ferns. Underneath our huts were lounge areas including swings, as you can see from Nick in the photo. "I'm so pretty, I'm so pretty, I'm so pretty and witty and gay!" we could hear him sing, as he swung in his swing.
We had to catch cabs into town and we would wait at the bus stop you see in the last photo.

Lost and Found in Bangkok

Now it's time for a little story........
Andrew and Nick decided to go out for a drink one night in Kao San Road. As you can see from the 2 photos; they had a date with some Chang beer.
After a night of merriment Andrew came home, but Nick didn't.
The next day, still no sign of Nick, so we went and searched for him, but still no sign.
It got to 6pm, still no word, so we reported him missing to the police and headed back to the hotel. When we arrived at the hotel, he was there!
He had been driving around in a tuk tuk for almost half a day looking for the hotel, before giving up and if it hadn't been for the kind help of a stranger, he would never have found it.
We were just pleased to have Nick back in 1 piece and relieved that we didn't have to take a trip to The British Consulate!

The Reclining Buddha

We also visited a Temple called "Wat Pho"; home to the largest reclining Buddha, measuring over 46m long and 15m high. The Buddha was so big that we couldn't get it into 1 photo, so we had to break the pictures into parts. The Buddha's feet are inlayed with 108 different auspicious characteristics of a Buddha, all in Mother-of-pearl.
There were also a number of tiled stupas at the Temple; each of them commemorating a deceased member of royalty.
Wat Pho is also the national headquarters for the teaching of traditional Thai medicine, including Thai massage. You can see the original teaching boards in our photo.

Part 3

Even more pics........

Part 2

More pics......
Check out the one of Nick dabbing the lotus flower in the holy water, then touching his head with it. Tradition has it that you make a wish, as you do it. We're not sure what Nick wished for, but we think it was to find a nice lady!!