Thursday (my birthday!!) began by packing up at the Shewe Wana resort in Chiang Mai and taking a tuk tuk to the bus station. Our bus left Chiang Mai for Utaraditt at 8:30 that morning. Considering we only paid 250 baht per person for the bus trip (around $7.50 USD), it was pretty nice. The bus was air conditioned, and pretty comfy too-- and they even gave us bottled water and cookies for a snack. Not too shabby. I'm starting to think, based on this experience and our lovely flight on Thai Airways, that travelling in Thailand is far superior to the US. A bag of pretzels just doesn't cut it.
Our double decker bus
Inside the bus
Bottled water and cookies for snack time. And a blanket too.
The bus to Utaraditt was about a 4 hour ride, and we arrived around 12:30 pm. Utaraditt is the closest town to Boon Lott's Elephant Sanctuary, or BLES for short. BLES is a really special place where elephants who have been overworked and mistreated can come to live like elephants are meant to live, in the jungle with their elephant friends. When we arrived at the Utaraditt bus station, Katherine (BLES founder) and Lucy (the vet tech that works at BLES) picked us up. After a short stop to pick up one of the sanctuary dogs (a small poodle mix named Imack, not sure if that is spelled correctly at all) from the groomer, we had a quick lunch and coffee and headed back to BLES.
This is Imack, he just got groomed as you can tell by his fluffy head. Poor little guy's back legs are mostly paralyzed but he gets around pretty well using the doggy wheelchair that BLES made for him from an old stroller.
Like all other dogs, Imack also enjoys harassing cats.
Unfortunately, by the time we got to BLES, the elephants had already headed out for their afternoon walk, so there were no elephants on day 1. However, we did get to meet all of the other sanctuary animals-- a plethora of dogs and cats that have been adopted by BLES. Dogs and cats came to greet us upon our arrival and were involved in nearly every aspect of our stay there.
Welcome sign
Hugh came to greet us
Lucy also showed us to our room, a cute little house set back into the forest. There are a total of three guest houses at BLES, so they can accommodate up to 6 people at a time. Lucky for us, we were the only ones staying at the time. More elephant time for us then! After we got settled in, it was time for dinner, which they serve every night at 6 pm. All meals were delicious and homemade by the housekeepers at BLES. Everything was vegetarian as well. All in all, our first day at BLES wasn't too eventful, but we went to bed feeling rested and super excited to see the ellies in the morning!
There are a total of three guest houses at BLES that house two people each. Baan one was our home for the duration of our stay.
The walk up to our guest house
Cole standing outside our guest house
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