April in Chiang Mai is typically hot & sunny and sometimes wet. Today’s event was just that.

Chieng Mai Gymkana Club was the venue for the meeting prior to the drive and the golfers were in full swing amidst the spray from sprinklers on the course. The clubhouse offered a pleasant setting and a convivial welcome for new members to meet the Classic Cars of Lanna group.

It was good to see Kh Kittiboon with his blue Mini and to accompany him there was a red Mini Moke and another red Mini.

Derrell’s maroon coloured Anglia looked good and back from Europe was Nico in his Land Rover. Laurent & Xavier, our new members we were pleased to see driving one of their Classic black Mercedes Benz.

The lead vehicle on this outing was in the owner’s eyes, a possible classic in the making, a Toyota Vigo and tail end Charlie was a Jeep carrying Paul and his friend, as the Alfa is being prepared for it’s journey to Bangkok to participate in the 5th Classic Car Exposition in 2 weeks time.

Setting off along the Superhighway towards Lampang, on a hot and sunny Sunday morning, the convoy was shortly joined by an additional vehicle, belonging to hopefully yet another new member Francis, who smart gold coloured Mini 1300 was a delight to see in convoy with the other Mini’s.

After a scheduled service stop we journeyed into the mountains crossing Khun Tan National Park and besides a brief interlude in progress, followed by the sight of a chunky Land Rover hurtling along through the fast curves of the mountain route, which fittingly resembled a baby elephant on an excited trundle after a brief sleep.

We arrived at the grand entrance of the Elephant Conservation Centre with sculptured replications of Elephants and a barrage of signs attracting tourist to the widely known circus, showing Elephants for amusement.

However, we took the right hand turning towards Friends of Asian Elephant Hospital and were greeted by Kh Soraida, the founder and co-director of the Non Government Organisation and the worlds 1st Elephant Hospital.

Kh Soraida demonstrated some of the work performed at the hospital with a short video, highlighting causes for suffering of these creatures and setting the tone for the next hour.

Today, we were privileged to walk near to the elephant enclosures and learn more about their circumstances. We met Motala who lost her foot by stepping on a land mine, a couple of proud mothers with their babies, having been brought to the hospital for their delivery. Sadly we met another female elephant who had given birth at her place of captivity and the baby had developed a serious condition which was not treated carefully by the owners and brought to the hospital at an advanced stage of deterioration. The baby has just died at the hospital and the mother is still lactating and missing her baby.

Another elephant we met, had a seriously deformed right hind leg. This poor thing had fallen badly and broken the leg, where her owners kept her. After 3 years they contacted the hospital and said that the elephant was not useful and kept falling due to the ill formed leg. Not surprising as the leg had healed unaided, buckling under the strain.

Rain cooled the air and the residents in the upper part of the hospital seemed very much at home getting soaked by the deluge and casually munching on their feed. We were introduced to an elephant blinded by beating, another with a chronic nail condition caused by poor diet & forced living environment and a playful youngster coming to terms with having a foot blown off whilst walking the forests of Burma with it’s mother. Now resident at the hospital, this little man will get the best attention and care. Already his 3 remaining legs are starting to buckle at odd angles but hopefully with the hospitals help, he will learn to walk using a prosthetic soon.

Before leaving we presented Kh Soraida with 1,300 baht, money kindly donated by CCL members. This amount was augmented during the visit, via the donation box sited in the information area.

Leaving FAE in sunshine once again, we headed back to Lamphun for lunch, slightly later than previously arranged but thankfully the facilities, menu and service were ideal for the group to replenish their energies & enjoy a little socialising too.