TECC

Today Harmony and I made our way to Lampang, which is about 80 km from Chiang Mai.  We were planning on taking a bus to Lampang-- which would have required getting up really early, a cab to the station, a two hour bus ride, another cab to the camp... and then a few hour wait on the way home.  However, yesterday afternoon, after spending the day with a nice cab driver Mr. Mee, he offered to drive us round trip to Lampang for 1200 baht ($40).  This changed our full-day trip into a half day trip.

This included waiting for us for a few hours at the camp and bringing us cold water after the show--- well worth the cost!  

Mr. Mee said that during the low season (which it is currently) it is harder to find work and he is willing to do things like our trip.  Yesterday he drove us to the temple and then on several shopping adventures and charged us 900 baht ($30) after being with us from 11:30-5:30.

The Thai Elephant Conservation Center is the only federal government run elephant camp in Thailand.  

When we first arrived, we saw the elephants bathing.

Then, we attended the elephant show.  The elephants did some tricks, pulled some logs and painted a few pieces of art.

Finally, we went for an hour long elephant ride!!!