A DAY WITH THE ELEPHANTS

(By Barbara McGaffey)

Jan, the Golden Cupids Hotel office manager (and jack of all trades)

arranged a day trip for us to the Elephant Nature Park.  It's a several hundred acre

elephant sanctuary established and run by a small Thai lady named Lek

(with grants and donations from several philanthropists and groups). 

The Park rescues and provides a haven for these disappearing Asian elephants,

many of whom have been injured or abused. 

They're doctored, fed and provided lifelong, humane treatment and shelter.

Once back in this more natural habitat, many of them are able to once again

bear live little ones who are reared by mother & devoted "aunties".

This rare "white" elephant has found a home at Lek's safe haven.

Camp volunteers speak and answer questions about the Park and its giant residents as the elephants gather around the visitor platform in anticipation of lunch.

Visitors are taught to feed them from large hampers full of fruits and vegetables.

Then we enjoyed a delicious native Thai luncheon on the 2^nd floor of the building.

After lunch, the mahouts (elephant handlers) began the procession to the river—them leading the elephants, the guests parallel but apart from the animals.  Once there, the gentler giants were separated from the more boisterous youngsters, and we were able to wade in and gently scrub their backs and pour water over them, which they seemed to enjoy.  We sure did!

It was another amazing day to remember—thanks to the caring and knowledgeable staff at the Golden Cupids Hotel in Chiang Mai.  (April 2007)

Hello everyone . It is a sunny day after a refreshing rain last night. Very cool and lovely.

I owed you the Songkran festival's picture, so here you are :-

Traditionally, April 13 is known as “Maha Songkran Day” and marks the end of the old year, April 14 is “Wan Nao”, while April 15 is “Wan Thaloeng Sok” when the New Year begins.

While the festival has its roots in Buddhist heritage, the washing of Buddha images, merit making, traditional family values and the sprinkling of water in respect for  elders,  it is best known for the fun and “sanuk” everyone gains from splashing copious quantities of water on all who happen to pass by.

Songkran is celebrated with gusto by young and old, throughout the country. City communities and villages in rural Thailand forget their troubles and concentrate on the serious of business of having fun as well as cooling off, during the height of the summer’s scorching tropical temperatures. 

Probably of all the national festivals, this is the one that foreigners love to experience the most. They will come across water splashing festivities wherever they travel giving them an opportunity to share in a festival that is immensely popular, while still retaining a link to its traditional roots and values.

One of the traditional values points to the Thai family and the opportunity for family members to express their respect for their elders. Younger members of the family pour scented water on the hands of their parents, and grandparents. They may present them with gifts or tokens of their love. In return, elders wish youngsters good luck and prosperity.

In temples, elder members of the family gather to make merit, offering alms to the monks. They may help clean the temple courtyard, or perform bathing rites for Buddha images

In by-gone days, the fun of splashing water on friends or strangers had to wait until the late afternoon when the religious duties and ceremonies were over.

Today, the lines are often blurred with the younger generation making the most of the three-day opportunity to splash water on everyone in sight.

Possibly the most famous of the Songkran celebrations takes place in Chiang Mai. It attracts thousands of visitors, from all over Thailand as well as international tourists determined to share in the fun.

Often simply called the Chiang Mai Water Festival, the core of the celebrations will be held, 13 to 15 April, at the city’s main irrigation canal, with parades and cultural performances as well as arts demonstrations.  The actual opening ceremony will be held 12 April, at the Royal Flora complex when the Minister of Tourism and Sports will declare the festival open.

There are other opportunities to join in Songkran festivities regardless of where you are travelling.

On the 13th, we went for water fighting in Chiang Mai city

Our team

In Chiang Mai centre   

14th, the day for carrying sand into nearby temple. For Thai, we believe in 3 good things about this activity, which are:

1. For hamony - the family get together, help one another carrying sand from river, etc. to the temple. This give the feeling of harmoniously.

2. Monks can use those sand for building and maintaining the temple.

3. Buddhist believes that  taking out something from temple to your home is a sin, even a grain of sand, so whenever we go to temple, it must be grain of sand, stick in your shoes, and be taken away from the temple, so this activity give you a chance to return sand to the temple.

We also bath Buddha images with perfume water:-

The last and most important activity is pouring scented water into elderly hands, to give respect and apologize if in the past year children had upset the elderly.

Peppe, and her mother, our Granny

 Good evening everyone. It's nearly Songkran (water festival). Andy bought us several colourful shirts to wear at this coming fun festival. We are looking forward to these days because it is so hot. Well, suppose we going to have a very good time. I will take some pictures to show you here.

Today, with a great help from our old guest, who now turn to be our very good friend, Barbara McGaffey. Kindly suggested and send some information about Loy Krathong festival, which I found very useful for us and for readers who interested in joining us in this wonderful festival. Thank you again Barbarra . Let's come and read :-

LOI KRATHONG is CELEBRATED MAGNIFICENTLY

in CHIANG MAI at the GOLDEN CUPIDS  HOTEL

A visit to Thailand is not complete until you've celebrated the Loi Krathong holiday in Chiang Mai with Golden Cupids Hotel Hostess Peppe Stokes and her Staff.  

The official 2008 celebration begins the night of the full moon on Wednesday, 12 November 2008.  However, this year's stunning Buddhist ceremonial close to nearby Mae Jo University will occur on Saturday, 8 November.  This is the famous Chiang Mai event attended by thousands, which ends with the famous release of thousands of traditional hot-air balloons.  The following Loy Krathong weekend abounds in beautiful parades, hot-air balloon releases and fireworks, with the famous Chiang Mai good will, fun and happiness overflowing.

Thailand for Visitors.com says,

"The nearly week-long Loi Krathong celebrations held in Chiang Mai are by far the most interesting.  Several streets in the Old City are closed at night for a huge market featuring several stage shows.  On the night of Loy Krathong, there's a parade of giant krathongs along with contestants for the title Miss Nopomas.  The procession starts at the Tapae Gate and ends at the riverside, where giant krathongs are floated.

Loy Krathong in Chiang Mai has the added feature of a parallel festival called Yi Peng.  Yi Peng is celebrated by launching hot-air balloons made of rice paper into the night sky.  The night sky is literally filled with thousands of these bright lights

shining like a moving river of stars.  It's a truly magical sight that can't really be captured in a picture."

At Chiang Mai's Golden Cupids Hotel, guests are treated to the works by the fun and efficient staff.  Arrangements are made for Cupids guests to participate in all the holiday's celebration events, from the Yi Peng ceremony at a nearby University to many downtown events and parades.

Don't miss the Loy Krathong week at the Golden Cupids Hotel in Chiang Mai. 

November 8 – 16, 2008

It will be a week you'll never forget!

Make reservations early—both hotel and transportation!

Emaill to contact@goldencupids.com

With time off, planes and hotels fill up early with tourists and Thais going home for the holiday.

(To read good native descriptions and see more photos of the Loy Krathong celebration,

 see http://www.thaiworldview.com/feast/kratong.htm.)

Golden Cupids Guests Share Some of Their Loy Krathong Experiences

Those interested can learn how to make krathongs. Moon, La, Took & Beam patiently taught us how to create lovely krathongs, the candle-lit discs of flowers that are floated on rivers, lakes and pools on this National Holiday.

In November 2007, rooms were full, as usual, for this holiday period.  Cupids' lovely hostess, Peppe Stokes, and her fun staff provided transportation and accompanied all the guests to the Yi Peng ceremony at a nearby university.  The hot-air balloon release after the ceremony was truly spectacular!

Cupids staff even hosted a mini-balloon release one evening after dinner at the Hotel so the younger guests could enjoy this special treat first-hand.

This was the hardest part, cleaned filtered gravel which was about 2 metres deep.

Finally finished! Look at those happy fish.

Put water lilly into this corner as well.

Also have our cupids re-painted

Put deep water - water lillies in for experiment, they love sunshine, but this area has little bit sun in the afternoon, so will see if this going to work, but as far as we can see, they looked quite happy.

Two flowers are coming up!!

Orchids are blooming.

Yesterday Tuung and Mr. Sri trimmed Grandpa's lovers tree...

Peppe taught cooking lesson to Ally & Karen

Sun Beam, Calum and Angus at the pool.

Hope you have a nice day also, I'm off to help Moon preparing breakfast.

Bye for now.