Northern Thailand Trip. Day 4-5: Chiang Mai - Kuala Lumpur

On the Saturday morning, Mr. Mouthien's wife, Mrs. Nhai, picked us up at 9.00 am for a full-day tour to Mae Taeng district, about 60 km from the city center.

This is unsurprising, as visiting elephants is the top tourist activity in Chiang Mai and most of our time in Thailand. Other than sitting on an elephant, ox cart riding and bamboo rafting were unique activities that we experienced all in one place.

We spent almost 4 hours at Mae Taeng Elephant Park, where a halal lunch buffet was included with the package. Instead of a buffet, our lunch was served, as we were the only Muslim family that day. Mrs. Nhai informed us that most of the elephant camps were experiencing deterioration in visitors, especially the Chinese tourists. Some of the small park may need to close shops.

Hey! What's wrong with my tummy??

Let's feed the elephant

Later after the show, Nu'man and I take the chance to ride them

The elephant parade marked the beginning of the show.

The show ended, and Nu'man and I rode the ox cart to the long-neck hill tribe's village. We were told that the tribes were not allowed to trespass on their land. Their men were only allowed to work at the nearby orchard as well as the elephant park. The family received a salary as a worker at the hilltribe living museum. We were shocked and laughed when Mrs. Nhia said that they do online shopping via Lazada and Shopee... :)

R&R stop for the oxen

She has the longest neck among the tribes

Scarfs weaving was one of the source of income.

At first she was reluctant to take picture with us

Passed noontime, we return to the elephant park for the bamboo rafting.

Yet another awesome experience, bamboo rafting along the Mae Taeng river

There were no visitors that ride the bamboo craft

Nu'man was given a chance to control the raft

After lunch, we chose to visit the Tiger Kingdom and Crocodile Farm, as Mrs. Nhai gave us several options to stop on the way back to the city. Other interesting stops were the cobra farm and the butterfly farm.

You may try real encounter with your chosen small or big cats

Nu'man reluctant to take pictures with the cubs

For a fee, you can take picture with this 'tame' white tiger

Then, we visited the crocodile farm.

The final show would be him letting his head inside one of the crocodile's mouths.

The feeding time!!!

On the way back to the hotel (actually we decided to be dropped off at the night market), we stopped at another two places, Thai Silk Village and Umbrella Making Center.

Cocoons of silk thread were dried out

then steeped in hot water before the threads were pull out

Traditional silk weaving

The silkworm life cycle (Translated from French)

This is not the usual umbrella...

but it was a bamboo umbrella. Here we called it Chinese Umbrella

Mrs. Nhai dropped us at Hilal Town so that we could have our Zhuhr and Asr prayers at Masjid Hidayatul Islam. We dined at Fueng Fah for northern Thailand's famous noodles, khao soi.

Our third comeback to this area

As the Covid-19 pandemic was on the rise, we had taken several precaution measures as recommended by the authority. We had daily body temperature checking and will be on self-quarantine when we return back home the next day. We were still allowed to get on the inbound flight at 3.10 pm. We just stayed low in the morning and only transferred to the airport at noontime by Mr. Mouthien and his wife. So guys, till our next adventure, la gòn kráb, la gòn ká!