From Siam Culture to Elephant Adventure in 13 hours

Jessica.persson Persson
Feb 6, 2017
2 min read

After about 7 hours on an overnight bus, and four hours bumping along on a winding mountain road through the jungle, we have now arrived in Uhmpang for our elephant week. The overnight bus was above all our expectations! The standard was equivalent to flying business class, except the seats here had built-in massage chairs. It was not difficult to get to sleep on this bus, I tell ya!

But to compensate the comfy overnight bus, ee then got onto the back of the same type truck that's been driving us around here in Thailand all week. After a quick stop at 7-eleven we set off towards the jungle and the mountain road, which would take us to Uhmpang. The whole ride was incredibly bumpy, and most of it was incredibky cold and windy! Luckily we all got blankets to keep us warm. When we got stopped at some sort of customs to have our passports checked, it was still dark outside and we all agreed that it made us feel a little bit like we were being smuggled, due to the blankets, hoods up, and the fact that we were sitting on the back of a truck, haha. But it was good fun despite my back being on agony the whole way! It's a miracle that I actually slept on the truck! I put my bag next to me on the bench and my neck pillow on top of it and leaned against that – it was surprisingly comfy!this is how we were sitting, by the way:

We arrived at 10 am at Uhmpang Guesthouse, where we had breakfast before we were shown to our rooms, which are so nice!

Then everyone (and I mean everyone!) went for a nap. But since I got quite a good sleep, I wasn't tired at all, so I decided to go exploring instead. Turns out Uhmpang is a very cute little village, and it has much more to it then I thought. It has just enough to have something to do: a couple restaurants, some grocery shops and other stores, a bank. I really like it!