The bus only took 2 hours from Chiang Mai so was a short trip for us! Lampang is a very quiet town and not very touristy which was nice but also there wasnt much to do as everything is spread out far. Our guest house was a nice old school teak wooden house where every movement is heard but had a picturesque setting with beautiful flowers and overlooking the river.

On Friday we went on a tour to go to the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre. After being picked up very early, we got there to go via an elephant bus to watch the elephants bathe in the river. One of the trainee mahouts got thrown into the water by the elephant..was soo funny! Its the only place in Thailand that does proper mahout training so most of the elephants had a trainee on them. We saw an elephant show, where they played games, curtsied, moved logs, played instruments and painted pictures which were actually good pictures!!! It was amazing!!

The conservation centre also has a nursey and a hospital for the elephants. The hospital was a bit depressing as one had an obvious broken leg but it was good that they were in hospital getting the right treatment! The nursery was class! There was a 2 month old elephant there which was sooo cute!! It was being looked after by its stepmum as its real mum died at elephantbirth. Because of that it drinks human milk formula which is probably expensive as it drinnks 8 litres a day!! There were two other elephants in the nursery which were a bit older but still cute!! and when they were given a banana they would peel it and only eat the fruit inside and throw away the skin!!!

After the elephants we went to a market where they sold really gross things such as bugs, insects, there was even a whole calf (skinned) but it even had teeth init!

We then went to a temple - Wat Pra That Lampang Luang. This used to hold the emerald Buddha (now in Bangkok) and the previous king of Thailand used to hold his army there before wars and fights. It was a very old temple in Lanna style architechture. There was a chedi made of copper and bronze to give it a gold look. There was also a shed which apparently had Buddhas footprint in it but women are not allowed init. Also in the shed was a reflection of the chedi but the women complained that they could not see it (as they wernt allowed in it) so a reflection through the wall of the temple was created for them.

Great day, very glad we came to Lampang as it was mainly to see the elephants and they certainly lived up to our expectations and more!!