Arrival, Tour & Dinner at Anantara Resort
Trip Start
Oct 31, 2009
1
9
18
Trip End
Nov 08, 2009
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Chiang Saen, Thailand
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
We got checked in, and I loved my room. To me, the whole place was decorated in a British Colonial style with a Thai twist. Just gorgeous.
We met back at the lobby for a tour of the hotel. Mainly we saw a nice suite. Unfortunately, when we were walking down one of the stairways I saw the biggest spider I had ever seen in my life. Considering I have arachniphobia, that was not a good thing. It had to have been at least 10 inches in diameter. I was somewhat freaked out.
Lobby Lounge Fireplace
After that we had dinner on the patio with the guy in charge of the elephant camp. They have a wonderful program at Anantara where they rescue not only the elephants off the streets (yes, streets), but also their mahouts and their families. The mahouts continue to work with their elephants, the wives learn silk weaving, and the children attend school.
Our dining table was out on a patio overlooking the jungle, and since I had had an encounter with spiderasaurus, I wasn't too enthralled about being seated at the forest end of the table. It was also very dark out there. And with little light at the table, I never quite knew what I was eating. In fact, I ate something out of the soup that was slimy and fishy, and had I not been on my best behavior, I would have spit it out immediately. I shudder to think what it could have been.
But other than that, the dinner was great. Our host was very interesting and did a good job talking about the area and the elephant program. It got us all very excited for our time with the elephants the next day.
After that we were all ready for a good night's sleep. That bed was soooooo comfy!
