Elephant indulgence

We slipped up to Chiang Mai, Thailand for a visit and find that we really like it here.  We've been visiting the local wats, there are many, and enjoying beautiful Thai food.  Some photos of wats and a post on food are planned, but this post is really for our own indulgence.  We stayed out of town for a week and next to our resort was a waterfall.  Everyday a group of Mahouts would bring their elephants to this place.  We aren't sure if they are affiliated with a tour group or an elephant sanctuary or something else.  These elephants weren't chained and they didn't have the riding platforms, but we could go and spend time with them and give them treats.  One day, our last day, we were able to sit on the large male elephant.

As part of our resort package we went on a day tour to one of the touristy elephant parks where we could ride elephants and watch an elephant show (they kick balls, paint and perform a few tricks), plus we floated on a raft down the river.  Since that tour we have learned about some of the abusive techniques used in training wild elephants, but we are not sure about how the elephants that are born in captivity are trained.  We hope they are not abused, and we don't wish to contribute to any elephant abuse, so no more elephant shows for us.  For now, just enjoy the photos of elephants in the jungle clearing.

When we visit, we always bring bananas, cucumbers, apples and or carrots.  I thought all the elephants would rush over and try to get the treats when they smelled them, but they are apparently trained not to approach the visitors and only came towards us with their mahout.  Except for the baby...he was just naughty and liked to try and knock us over.

 Photo bomb by an elephant trunk.

 

Can we take him home??

The face of naughty.

Elephant hugs.

A few stops through peninsular Malaysia

One last day up in the Cameroon Highlands and we took another hike in the hills.  We hiked 3 or 4 hours, enjoying the cooler temperatures in this area.  Towards the end of the trail, the conditions (of the trail) deteriorated so we took a short cut out through a farm.  As good as the economics of the agricultural expansion is, we were sad to see the destruction of the natural beauty of the area and all the erosion clogging up the dams and rivers.  They really need to do something about the erosion.

 

Everything on my computer is in Thai at the moment.  Once I fix that little problem I will fix up this post...sorry.

 

We departed Tanah Rata (the highlands) by minivan and were driven for a couple of hours. We stopped to purchase our Park permits and have lunch.  Following our lunch we boarded the river boats to take us into the Taman Negara National Park.  This is the oldest rainforest in the world, so thankfully the Malays are making an effort to preserve it, however there are pine plantations all the way there, and the muddy river attests to the lack of erosion control.  About 14 years ago Chris went this way...there was a lot more jungle, the river clearer and there was far less destruction of the river banks.

We can sail across the oceans without a life jacket on, but we had to wear them along the river.  They didn't have one to fit me. 

Below is just one of the pine plantations.

 

One of the highlights, for us, in the Taman Negara Park was the canopy walk.  It is really high!  At times we were over 120 ft (40 m) up in the trees on the swinging, jiggling platforms. 

 

Finally back down on terra firma.  Good walk, great views.  We hiked around the park a little bit, but not far enough away from the touristy areas to see much in the way of wildlife.  We saw plenty of birds, butterflies and other insects...no tigers.

We spent only 2 nights at Taman Negara, then it was back in a minibus for an hour and a half.  What a ride...3 times the back door opened up and spilled people's luggage out into the road and into the way of oncoming traffic.  Need to be a little more selective about our transportation...I think the local bus would have been better in this instance.  Eventually we made it to Jerantut, where there is a train station and we got our tickets down to Johor Bahru, then walked into town to get some snacks for the trip and lunch.  It is Ramadan, so lunch was a little harder to find than usual.

Comfy seats with plenty of space, we were content for the next 8 or so hours.

Once in Johor we visited the Danga Bay Marina, which will close at the end of August, so it was sad to see the nearly empty place.  We visited with Terrence who said there is a new marina on the other side of the causeway, plus the developers plan to put in a new marina at this location some time in the future.  Sad to see the end of Danga Bay Marina.

Johor Bahru has it's own little Leggoland too...we met our friend Jane and she took us out to see where it is. 

Not far from our hotel was this Indian temple.  Johor isn't a major tourist destination, but we enjoy it and there is always a great diversity of foods to try at great prices.

 

Next up we head to Chiang Mai, northern Thailand.



A few days in the Cameroon Highands

We travelled through the Highlands with Jane in December.  This time we visited because the weather is cool.  Having seen a few of the sights last time, we returned to our favorites...the BOH Tea plantation and a strawberry farm.

The plantation is beautiful.  Acres and acres of tea plants neatly tended set amidst the steep and picturesque hills.  It was Sunday, so no tea was being picked, or "plucked" as they say here, but we enjoyed the views and a cup of tea.

 Above is a photo of the manager's house, where he could keep an eye on the workers with a telescope.  The tea is cut every 3 weeks or so, more often in the wet season (December, January).

 

 Next we stopped at a strawberry farm where they grow the berries in green houses year round.

 Let me introduce myself, I'm Al, the little Alpaca.  I'm helping Buster out with some of the blog entries now, he's a little worn out, likes staying on the boat with all the duty free wine and beer in Langkawi, and he is weary of being mobbed by crazy fans when we're out.

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Mainly we stopped at the strawberry farm so Phil and Chris could enjoy the delicious strawberry snacks.

 

Speaking of eating, that is the other thing Chris and Phil like doing best.  There are plenty of Indian restaurants here in Tanah Rata.  We had dinner last night and even Phil got involved in making Naan bread.

There is Phil with the uncooked Naan.  The dough is formed and placed on a damp cloth covered shape and then placed in the Tandoori oven.

 There is the bread baking on the wall of the oven.

As the bread is taken out of the oven a batch of marinated chicken pieces is placed inside to cook for about 25 minutes.

There is Phil messing around with the cleaver.

Chris's meal was served on a banana leaf. 

 

 Delish!!

 

In December, we were here with our friend Jane. I managed to find Buster's photos from that trip but noticed that Buster never posted any of them.  We did a day tour and enjoyed the BOH tea plantation.

 

 

We also visited a vegetable and strawberry farm.  Here are rows and rows of lettuce plants.  The whole farm is sloping so the angle of the photo isn't really due to bad photography. 

Most of our visits culminated in the tasting areas and here we all are enjoying some of the strawberry treats.

 

 

Back to our present visit (July 2014)...we decided to hike some of the many trails in the area.  We started the day with large Indian breakfast of roti and curries.

Now to hit the trails.

We are really enjoying this cooler weather...great for our hiking.

Some of the pretty flowers along the way...

The trail ended at a forestry center and we continued along next to a golf course.

We'd hoped to stop at the local famous place "Ye Old Smokehouse" but once we got there we didn't find the casual English pub that we expected, but rather a really up market establishment that we weren't dressed for.  We managed to hitch the last 5 km in an ancient land rover like this one (left over from the British in the '60's.