I have left Thailand. Yes, I'm now in Malaysia, having arrived yesterday.
After new year, I spent a few days in Phrae. It's well off the beaten track and is a lovely town to while away time. I had some of the best food I've had so far there too.
The big excitement though was my elephant/mahout course. It was the most incredible 3 days. I was partnered with an elephant called Look Khang, her mahout is called Thiit. They were both wonderful. Look Khang is a 14-year-old female and a really beautiful, docile elephant. The days were spent fetching the elephants from the forest where they spend the night, bathing and feeding them, watching their show and spending time with the mahouts. The mahouts taught us a lot of the commands to control the animals, and to do some of the tricks. On the last day, we then got to actually be in the elephant show and demonstrate the various ways of getting on and off them and getting them to pick up things for you while you're sat behind their ears. Look Khang does a trick in the show of putting her mahout's hat on his head for him. She did it to me too. Oh, and by the way, bathing the elephants means getting a bath yourself. Thiit has the knack of standing on her back so barely gets wet, but Look Khang enjoys completely submerging herself in the water, and so I got soaked every time sat as I was behind her ears.
It was just brilliant. There were 6 others doing the course at the same time and they were all wonderful. We had a really fun time together.
One more month in SE Asia. Kuala Lumpur has to be the most westernised place I've been since leaving Scotland. I don't like it much, so I'm figuring out which direction to head next and will probably leave tomorrow.
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