Thailand
Hot springs and an enounter to remember
Day 1 in Pai and we visited the Sai Ngam hot springs and Thom's Pai Elephant Camp.
Taking a dip in the Sai Ngam hot springs
A 10 minute walk takes you from the parking to the top of the hill, where the hottest pools are located. It's not recommended to take a dip in those but to bathe in 32 to 36 degrees pools. The kids loved it, we spend way more time here than initially planned. The pools are surrounded by lush greenery, which makes it all the more enjoyable.
An encounter to remember
After doing research on how we could offer our kids an encounter with elephants but let them interact with them responsibly, we ended up booking a 2-hour visit to Thom’s Pai Elephant Camp. After feeding the elephants mangoes and bananas and getting to know them, they took a walk in the mountains and we had the honour of joining them. Next, they were taken to the river to bathe. Our guide told us the elephants sleep in the mountains and return to the camp at dawn. The elephants can pretty much decide what they want to do and then you can join them for whatever that might be. In our case, they had way too much fun in the river and didn't want te come out. So we left them there with their mahout (trainer) and headed back to Pai. This sure was an afternoon to remember. As it was raining all day long, we were taken to base camp by car and could bathe in the on-site tubs. The water is piped in directly from the nearby natural hot springs of Pai. Nice!
