Phitsanulok: 14th June to 16th June

We decided to do a slight detour on our way to Ayutthaya and we picked Phitsanulok, the main reason for this is we never got to see the elephants in Chiang Mai and this place that ranked number 1 on tripadvisor as a hotel/elephant Retreat.

So we got the bus which took around 2hrs then onto a taxi for 45 minutes as the place was on the outskirts, the taxi was pretty reasonable at 600 baht so we didn’t mind so much at all.

We arrived into the grounds which were huge, 5 minutes further along we were at reception, the hotel looked really grand however the service was not quite as good, check in was very difficult as non of the staff spoke any English, not a huge problem we are in Thailand but we wanted to get information on the elephants. We jumped in the jeep expecting to find a pack in our room, unfortunately we didn’t.

The room was pretty nice and looked pretty clean so all in all we were happy and decided to get ready for the pool, but go and grab some lunch first.

On route to lunch we decided to try reception again to ask/confirm a couple of questions:

• Were is the shop? On all the reviews is stated their was a small shop in the grounds for water etc, as
• There is no shop 😩

• Can we hire a scooter? Again one review said this was a service
• No😩

• What about a push bike as there are several in front of the hotel?
• No😩

• Can we find out more about the elephant tours?
• Yes hallelujah😃 we booked onto a half day the next morning

So we headed to the restaurant and sat down, we were shown a menu which thankfully was in English, we were praying the food would be nice as there was absolutely no where else we could go. It wasn’t!

We headed down to the pool and saw a family there which was good as this is the first other people we had seen, the pool area could have been nice but all the beds weren’t out and it didn’t look like the pool had been cleaned in a while. Bugger perhaps three days wasn’t the best idea. We done our best to have a dip and a bit of a sunbathe, however after my 7th bite we decided to head in doors.

Back at the room I decided to have a bath, asking Warrick to check the room for me just to make sure. Warrick came out and got straight in the phone to reception (I new it must be bad as everywhere else he had just dealt with it!) after what I will describe as an expressive phone call, some people came to our room. We left them to it as they sprayed and banged their slippers against the ants, after they left Warrick said let me go and double check, I am so glad he did, as they must of disturbed a nest, the room was covered, this photo is the start and it’s the only one I can bare to post.

Back on he phone to reception we were moved room. The new room was fine so we settled in for the night as there was hardly anyone else there we thought we would just order room service. We phoned up and tried to place our order in the end the young guy came to our room directly, then 10 minutes later the door bell rang again to say they didn’t have something, we felt so bad for this guy he was so sweet. The food arrived (we’d wished it hadn’t) and we headed to bed.

The next day we were up early for the elephants

We were picked up on time by our Mahout who spoke great English, we were thankful, we filled out a form and both put down vegetarian as lunch was included – hedging our bets. We headed just to the front of the hotel where we were able to feed the elephants, this was amazing and slightly scary at first as they are so big.

It was fascinating watching them all sway in time, you won’t quite see that from the photos but trust me.

We then went on to ride the elephants, I lasted about 10 minutes but Warrick was a pro!

After this we took them to feed, and then to swim!

Our Mahout then shared the elephant song with us with actions

ช้าง ช้าง ช้าง ช้าง ช้าง (chang chang chang chang chang) elephant (5 times)
น้องเคยเห็นช้างหรือเปล่า (nong koi hen chang reu plow) have you ever seen an elephant?
ช้างมันตัวโตไม่เบา (chang man dtua dto mai bao) the elephant it is quite big
จมูกยาวๆ เรียกว่างวง (jamook yao yao riak warng wong) with a long nose called a trunk
มีเขี้ยวใต้งวงเรียกว่างา (mee kiaow dtai nguang riak wa ngar) it has fangs beneath the trunk called tusks
มีหูมีตาหางยาว (mee hoo mee dtar harng yao) it has ears, eyes, and a long tail

Then back for our lunch, which included meat and no vegetables haha, but was very tasty, served tradition bamboo style.

We decided we couldn’t face another night, so the next morning we decided to cut our loses and head to Ayutthaya. I am really glad we did this part of the trip as seeing the elephants was great, but the hotel was so remote that it made it very difficult especially as the food was so bad-first world problems eh.