Chiang Rai Week Two (Voyaging Village)
Hitting the local attractions (like the hospital)
In our second week in Chiang Rai, we plan to settle into a pattern. I work through the night, take a nap, and wake up in time to catch the end of our hotel’s glorious breakfast buffet. Then more napping and relaxing at the pool while Mama Bear and Baby Bear do their work. Then we have some adventures (mostly eating) during the day before tucking in early.
One of our adventures involves a hospital. After a late night of calls, I notice that my eyes have gotten really irritated and puffy. And it gets worse and worse. We go to a pharmacy because pharmacies in Thailand are awesome. They all have an English-speaking pharmacist who is extremely helpful and can give you what would be prescription medicine in the US immediately. That’s why we were a bit alarmed when the pharmacist takes one look at me and says, “Oh, you should go to the hospital.”
She shows us the nearest hospital with walk-in care on the map, and we hop a Grab, getting there in just 10 minutes. We go to a giant DMV-esque hall and take a number. But the wait is trivial, and soon I’m being processed at the desk (passport info, medical history, weight, blood pressure) and then given a wristband with a barcode.
Next I go see a doctor in a small room adjoining the giant hall. He’s fluent in English, quick and efficient, and after a few minutes I’ve been diagnosed with conjunctivitis and given prescriptions to an oral antibiotic, eyedrops, an eyelid cream, and an anti-inflammatory. These are coded to my wristband, so I just go pick them up across the hall. Then I go to get my eyes flushed. Two nurses hold me down on a table as they slowly dribble an entire bag of saline water on each of my eyeballs. It takes an eternity, but I really don’t want my face to appear like I’ve been in a car accident, so I quietly comply.
All in all, it took about an hour or two, and this little bit of “medical tourism” cost less than $80. I think the actual doctor visit part was like $5 as most of the cost was for the medicines. This was so much easier, faster, and possibly even cheaper than if this had happened in the US. Universal health care would be awesome, but lacking that, it seems that cheap un-insured health care is a pretty good alternative.
We did some fun things as well during the week. One day we went to have lunch at Powra Farm. It’s an amazing little oasis of a cafe in the middle of the city, walled off from the streets. A gorgeous miniature waterfall cascades into a koi pond with dozens of enormous and colorful koi fish. They sell fish feed, and the fish here are HUNGRY. We’ve never seen such friendly fish. We put our hands out towards their gaping mouths, and they “kiss” our hands, softly suctioning our palms.
There are also some baby bunnies and baby turtles for display. I think they look delicious, but everyone insists that they are not for eating, so I put them down.
We also visit the night market a few times where we each acquire elephant pants. These are the super comfy, lightweight baggy pants with elephant prints that tourists all over Thailand wear. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen any local people wearing elephant pants, but we love them and each get a pair.
Many people at the night market do hot pot. It’s an amazing deal. They bring a coal fire to your table, put on a clay pot of broth and serve us more than enough vegetables and meat for all of us, all for less than $10. An ice cream sundae costs more. It tastes good, but unfortunately it’s a hot night, and we are sweating. We did not find a table in the open, so the coal fire on the table (and the fires on everyone else’s table) makes it stiflingly hot. I do NOT recommend hot pot in hot places.
Luckily on the way back home we grab some thai tea soft serve for like 30 cents. Ah, so amazing.
While I’m working at night on the weekdays, these little adventures are lots of fun. Friday arrives and my eye infection is mostly gone, so it’s time to venture out. At breakfast, our friends mention that they are going on a full day excursion and might drop by the elephant park. We hadn’t planned on doing elephants on this trip as it sounded like there was only elephant bathing (not riding). However we had a free afternoon, and we found out we could do an an elephant experience at Elephant Peace Project just 20 minutes away, so why not?
An old lady shows up at our hotel in a pickup truck. We hop in the back (local style), and off we go. The need for a pick up truck becomes obvious as we very quickly end up on dirt roads winding through some gorgeous scenery. The ride ends on a Universal Studio-esque plunge through a running stream and we immediately spot an elephant coming up behind the vehicle like a T-Rex in pursuit.
Elephant Peace Project just seems like a few rustic buildings in the middle of barely-cultivated land. There’s no one else there except a few elephant trainers and three elephants. It’s amazing. The elephants are extremely friendly and engaging. We chop banana tree stems up with machetes and feed the elephants. Then we learn some Elephant commands.
Here they don’t “ride” elephants, they “drive” them. No uncomfortable chairs strapped onto the elephant. These are traditionally trained elephants, and we’re able to ride them barebacked (really more on their neck/head) just like their trainers. It’s a more intimate experience and not at all tiring for the elephants. They lift up their leg and help boost us up onto their necks where we perch.
Our favorite command is “Kip Kip Ma” which instructs them to pick up something on the ground with their trunk and hand it to us. Since we get up barefoot, in this case, they pick up our sandals for us! We don’t really do much ‘riding’ as that’s not really the point. It’s really just to be close and connected to the elephants!
Getting of the elephant is a new adventure. Instead of sliding of the side, we try the advanced technique. With a command, the elephant will dip it’s head allowing the rider to slide down the front of the head and onto the ground, just like an elephant slide on a kids playground!
Finally it’s time to bath the elephant. It’s not our favorite experience as the river is muddy and the elephants are constantly pooping in the water, but we get to scrub the elephants a bit and have more time with them.
They’ve prepared us some food for an early dinner, but just then, our friends arrive. They had been touring all day and drop by the elephant park. Small world. They do some elephant feeding and then continue their day of adventures.
Tomorrow is the weekend, so we’ll go on a trip up to the Golden Triangle with our Portuguese friends. Stay tuned!