At the Maesa Elephant Camp near Chiang Mai.

Walking along a nicely planted walkway to the bridge.

Happy New Year 2014.

Elephant greeting at the camp.

You can buy bananas here to feed to the elephants.

We got right on our elephants as soon as we got there. No time to chicken out.

My official elephant-riding photo. I am on the left. Sandy is on the right. 1200 baht for both of us (about $36.00 U.S.).

Dave and Joyce in front of us. They are elephant-riding veterans. This is their third elephant ride and they said it was the best of the three.

Is Dave laughing at what must be panicked expressions on us?

Going up to the trail.

Onward.

Our mahout--the keeper and driver of our elephant.

The elephant in front of us, which looks pregnant, stopped in its tracks. Our mahout had to encourage it to get going. See Movies, Asia, Thailand, page 5, "How to Get an Elephant to Move."

Going up the trail. The elephants were moving very slowly. See See Movies, Asia, Thailand, page 5, "On the Jungle Trail." The elephant in the middle seems to want to go in the wrong direction.

Actually, it stopped to eat some grass.

Farther along.

Going up a hill. When I pictured this elephant ride, my picture was that we would be riding on flat ground. I was very wrong.

Farther along.

Looking backward.

Looking forward and at the drop off the trail.

The jungle we were seeing from the trail. About here, our mahout stopped the elephant and he got off to take photos of Sandy and me with our own cameras.

One of the photos that he took.

Another one.

And one more.

We are moving again.

Another view of the jungle.

We are going downhill and then will be going up again.

We were below where the other elephants already were so I could take this photo looking up at them

And this one.

Also, this one.

Going uphill.

We were on the trail above some of the other elephants so I could take this photo.

Another one.

Another one.

Another one.

One more.

The elephant's no., name, and age are on the back of the seats. The elephant in front of us was No. 92, its name was Pooboon Peng, and its age was 34.

I think we were quite behind the rest of our group.

Still looking down.

We finally made it down the hill.

The elephant caravan in front of us.

The elephants, with us on them, cooled down after their trek by drinking water in the stream. See Movies, Asia, Thailand, page 5, "Elephants Crossing a Stream."

Elephants going into the stream.

We are almost there. I think we were on the last elephant.

The elephant in front of us.

Our turn.

Walking out of the stream.

Back to where we started, about 1 hour later.

This woman is going into the stream to pick up elephant dung that they make paper from.

View of the stream and the bridge.

Elephants were brought into the stream.

It was the elephants' bath time. See Movies, Asia, Thailand, page 6, "Elephants Having a Bath."

An elephant enjoying the water.

Another elephant joining the first one.

Walking through the water.

An elephant close-up.

Sign at the souvenir stand: "We are elephant keeper. Elephant is my heart."

After watching the elephants having their baths, we went to an elephant show. These elephants were kicking soccer balls. See Movies, Asia, Thailand, page 6, "Elephants Playing Soccer."

We also watched elephants painting pictures on paper made from elephant dung. See Movies, Asia, Thailand, page 6, "Elephants Painting."

A finished painting with the elephant artist on the side of it. The elephant's name is Wiangping, male, born 2004. I know this as I bought this painting.

Other paintings the elephants painted during the show, including the one I bought.

This one was done by one of the smaller elephants--out of my elephant-painting price range.

I really like this one, also too expensive.

Part of the show was seeing elephants carry logs, which is something that they are used for.

End of show: "Thank You & Have a Nice Day."