Lampang

Lampang was the first city on our trip to the north, and to be honest was picked for only one reason:  Elephants. Today was agreed to be one of the best days of trip, because in our book, any day when you get to play with baby elephants is awesome.  We left our hostel in Chiang Mai early, picked up the bike from Tony's, and headed out.  About 80 km into the trip (another 30 or so to Lampang), we pulled off the road to our first stop.  The FAE (Friends of Asian Elephants) Hospital is the world's first elephant hospital, and is currently caring for 13 patients.  The first patient to enter the hospital, a lovely, expressive female named Motola, was in a landmine accident and had to have part of her leg amputated.  In 1998, she famously became the first Elephant to wear a prosthetic leg.  Apparently accidents such have occurred more than a few times in the jungle (there was an adorable 6 year old there also missing a foot), and due to the dwindling population of Asian elephants, the work done at the FAE Hospital is pretty crucial and amazing.  The hospital isn't a tourist attraction, and is somewhat off the beaten path, so the volunteers and mahouts (elephant caretaker and trainer)  allowed us to wander the grounds and meet the patients, as we were the only visitors there.

All packed

The road to Lampang

Motola

Wearing her prosthetic leg

Patients' charts

A very mischievous little elephant who kept trying to get out of her pen

After spending the rest of the morning at the hospital, we got back on the bike and headed around the corner.  Our next stop was the TECC (Thai Elephant Conservation Center).  Although unaffiliated with the FAE hospital, the TECC does a lot of similar work in rehabilitating the elephant population, but more through education.  It was definitely more a place for visitors (and field trips- so many kids!) and was laid out as a large park, with a nursery, an infirmary, bathing area, and the "elephant show" (where mahouts showed how elephants were used in logging prior to its ban in Thailand in 1989, a big reason why so many elephants in captivity were suddenly a burden).  It was fun to see what mahouts now did with the elephants on a day to day basis-- walks through the beautiful mountains, baths, painting, and a memory that will always stay with us of a very happy adolescent elephant clanging on a xylophone.  It was a magical experience, and a wonderful day spending time around such a magnificent animal.

Oh, hi.  The nursery.

I didn't want to startle the younger elephant so I approached cautiously 

but he clearly just wanted to hang out (I mean, look at his face)

Bath time

Big hug

Hand in hand

Arts & crafts

End result

We spent the rest of the evening finding a hotel (a fun backpackers hostel with plenty of motorcycles and adorable dogs lying around) and grabbing a bite to eat at a road side spot.  We poked around the town a bit, but decided to turn in pretty early.

Pretty average chicken for dinner

Pretty entertaining chicken at dinner

Next--- Phayao.