Chiang Mai in Thailand in the wonderful golden triangle district is a nice place to visit.

It is that Chiang Mai on the edge of Laos and Burma in the Golden Triangle. To come here visitors had bobbed on a mechanical trench from side to side every cliché in pastoral Thailand – paddy fields, hornbills, triangle-hated fishermen – earlier than the location exposed itself, apparently wicker into the extremely fabric of the forest. Some were ostensibly camping except the fixed wooden construction was a world away as of the A-frames of youth – large enough to house an elephant and decorated out in royally splendor, with a free-standing copper bath, a writing counter and an jumbo bed.

The serious tarp walls could be rolled back to let the tropical jungle stream in. The shower was open to the essentials and there was a personal balcony wherever you might take a drink from the flattering mini-bar and observe Thailand, Burma and Laos collide.

This stage of extravagance doesn’t come economical, but the fault of wealth was reassured when you realized the disparity your cash was making to the lives of the young elephants that split the site. The creatures are rescued from a life of shortage in the cities – the life of a streetwalking Nellie isn’t a happy one – and here they were treated as regally as the two-legged visitors, with private pools, a limitless bamboo buffet and a never-ending stream of tourists all too glad to bathe, tickle and admire them.