After a few days in Chiang Mai, it was time to head south and then west, and our group of friends were all headed in different directions so I was on my own again, which was fine.
I decided to visit the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre, as they did do rides and short show, but their main focus is conservation, and they have a hospital and care for injured and mistreated elephants.
This place was near Lampang, an hour from Chiang Mai, and I took a local bus. Met some dutch people from the city I’m originally from.
After a short show where they showed the capabilities of the elephants (and their mahouts who take care of them/train them), I did a 15min elephant ride and wandered around the ‘park’ and had a look at the hospital.
There were a few signs in english, but the place mainly catered to thai visitors and westerners doing a one or multiple day mahout course. I didn’t check if there were just short tours in english. But then I’d had an enjoyable and informative enough visit so made my way back to the road to wait for a bus to continue to Lampang. It’s not an official stop, but you just wave down the bus, apparently a green one. Took an hour.
After a while I was joined by four young men in suits, I’d also seen them in the centre. I asked what they were/were doing, and was surprised when they said missionaries! They were from all over the US, and they stay in Thailand for 2 years (but move every six months), teaching their religion (latter day saints something maybe?) and occasionally some english.
ERGGHH!!! I do not believe in missionaries at all, and on top of that am not even religious at all (closest thing I identify with is buddhism). One of the guys handed me a magazine from their church, with lots of old white dudes who he said were representatives of god. I handed it back pretty quickly, though he said I was welcome to keep it…
I was recommended to stay at Riverside Guest House in Lampang, and I glad I followed that advice. Lampang is mostly ‘just another city’, but the guesthouse made my one night stay worthwhile!
The city isn’t used to many tourists (especially female ones traveling alone), so I was greeted in the street several times, and a policeman stopped some traffic for me, haha.
To get to and from the busstation, you take a sorngtaau, like in Chiang Mai and most other cities. It’s a covered ute with two benches along the sides in the back. You can charters a sorngtaau, or take a shared one that is going in your direction. A shared one should cost about 20baht in a city.
In Indonesia there was a similar system, but there I found it hard to find one for my direction, and the drivers usually wanted me to pay more, especially if there was no other passengers, which there often weren’t in the afternoon. I found it all quite difficult in Indonesia (too hard basket). But here in Thailand it’s easy, and I’ve had no problems finding shared sorngtaau and just paying the 20baht. Yay!
