It absolutely tipped down with rain at about 5am this morning, sounded great on the tent roof but we were a bit worried about the little river along the footpath. By the time we got up it was much better, and the sandals we'd left outside were still there.
Breakfast was lovely - omelettes on request, fruit, cereal, toast, yum. Our first trip was to the elephants. We had a 10 minute drive to the elephant park where we and the Swedish couple - Urs and Heidi - met the elephants. Heidi decided not to ride as she has a sore shouder. We had to go up a wooden staircase into a wooden hut so that we were the right height. Then we stood on the elephants back, sat on the seat, and scooted along until we were both on. Each elephant had a mahout who was the "driver".
After leaving the boarding gate we went past the mahouts' huts where they live with their elephants underneath. We saw all the elephants having a break. We found out pretty quickly that they move slowly and treat the walk as an excuse to snack. They seemed to be eating constantly! There's not really a lot you can do to stop the elephant doing that, but we plodded along with many many snack stops, and the mahout worked very hard to make our elephant go in the right direction. It did rain a bit, but each elephant comes with a brolly to keep you dry. The jungle was very green and leafy, but we didn't see many animals, although there was a fleeting glimpse of a monkey. We did see some coffee growing!
We trekked for about one and a half hours, then returned to the base, where Justin accidently gave our mahout a rather large tip. Then we fed fruit to the elephants - they take it from your hand with the end of their trunk, curling the trunk around the fruit. It's a bit like you holding something between your fingers and your inner arm, but more flexible. The male elephant ate about twice as quickly as the female elephant - typical.
Back to camp for a nice lunch where Alice learned that anything with the word "cury"in it is HOT. Although the Thais seem to like it much hotter! We forgot to mention that everything in our tent is elephant themed - light switches, shades, hooks, wooden panels on the bathroom wall, and there are little wooden elephants along the front of all the tents too. The communal area also has elephant coffee tables around the fire, and lots of elephant items.
At about 3:15pm we set off in an inflatable canoe with a guide. At about 3:16pm the sky decided to fall on us in liquid form. We were soaked. Our guide sheltered under a rock for a little while, then gave up and just carried on. All through the trip it would suddenly pour, then stop , then just as you were drying out it'd pour again. Gore-tex jackets helped a lot, and are much less sweaty than the plastic ponchos they sell here.
We heard monkeys, and saw snakes, kingfishers, dragon flies, lime trees, people fishing, rain, and a big frog. It was a nice, green peaceful trip even if we were soaking wet by the end of it. Back to the camp for fruit )more water melon) and a shower. We learned that our German friends had a monkey peeking into their tent when they looked out in the morning! We have also learned that in Thailand you don't wear life jackets - you sit on them! |
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