The most amazing hing was walking into the elephant camp. WOW!! I felt like a chld in a candy store. I was sooooo excited. I can't decide if the elephant riding or talking to the monks amist the amazing senary at Angkor what is my favorite ting about this trip.
We arrived at the elephan camp and were really hungy since we had a long trek. The elephant trainers had prepared us a traditional Thai lunch and we ate while the elephants walked next to us and gave us kissed of mud. One elephant came up to me raised its trunk and got me all muddy! After lunch I got to climb in the river with an elephant and give it a bath (and myself as well getting all wet) I think that was probably one of the coolest things I have ever done. Sure it was taking a few buckets and rubbing mud off an elephant but the closes I had ever got to one was at the zoo with my zoom lens camera.
Max and I after lunch climbed on one of the elephants and went for a ride that took over an hour to reach the destinaton One thing I can say is that elephants have great balance! They trekked on the hill we had done and i kept looking down from their feet and noticing an inch the wrong was and we would be literally walking off the side of the mountain and falling. Our elephant loved to stop and eat all the time. Max noticed the elephant eating meghans hand sanitizer that she had droped but there was nothing we could do to sto it. I do believe that elephant now has the cleanest belly around!!! It was amazing and scary at times as the elephant would walk down an 80 degree slope. Mr. Elephan was ooo cool and I had one of the greatest times aop that awesome animal. WOW what a ride and to be able to share that with my new friends was nice as well!
After over an our we arrived at anoher village and max and I carefully deboarded the elephan. I go a good laugh watching Jennifer and Meghan get off their as Jennifer is a true california girl. That evening we all went down to the river for a swim and a bth. As I hadn't bathed since leaving Chain Mai we all needed a bath badly. covered in mud we all bathed in the muddy brown river together and had some good laughs as the current was so strong we were all geting swept away. I was glad though to be muddily clean!
That night we at the most amazing banana spring rolls ever dipped in sweat and sour sauce. An interesting mix but oh sooo good! Till late at nigh or early in the morning depending n how you look at it was all sat around a table lite by candles and having the funniest conversations and playing the most interesting games. I think i'll leave that story for my new friends.
After our late night of talks we all bunkered down in a ne room bnglow on mats once again. It was good times and good friendships were formed on this adventure.
the following morning we all woke up about 4am to the rosters chating up a storm under our floorboards. that is ne way I was woken up several times in thailand and someting i do not miss. But it is the life here and part of the culture just as waking up to honking horns at all hours of the night is the way in Vietnam. It is noisy and loud in Asia.
After breakfast sarah, max, alexander and I got on a bamboo raft for a 4 hour trip down the maetong rver. Bamboo rafting is a lo of work and at one point I had to take the reigns at the top and my arms were very tired from the work. We had to stop at one point to add some bamboo to keep us all from sinking. It is really cool how they use twine to hold the bamboo together and twist it rather than tie it. Every trip they make new rafts as thse would be too wet and too hard to take back up the river because ofthe strong current.
Sailing on a bamboo raft is very cool and once again an amazing opportunity that I will not forget. And what is more special is sharing it with friends. While I could not take ou my camera t every turn bcause of the strong rapids at times we witnessed buffallo bathing a few feet away and nne too happy abou the intrusion of our raft.
Finally we arrived down the river and stopped for lunch which once again was prepared for us by the locals at a village. Once we stoped and ate we loaded in the back of a truck all crammed in for a 2 hour ride back. What an adventure!!!
Getting back to the hotel around 4pm the first thing we did was Sarah and I hopped a taxi to take us to the night market to buy clothes as all our clothes were full of mud and disgusting. I bough a pair of pants and a shirt for $6 and then went back to the hotel and literally tossed all my clothes in the laundry and took a much needed shower after days of trekking and only a muddy bath in the river I was sooooo disgustingly dirty. The shower was a drip shower but it was warm and that is a rarity in Asia.
Claire, Sarah and I got dressed for a much needed night out on the own while Alexander watched us girls get ready and laughing at us. That night we went for a good steak buffet dinner togeher and had some drinks and god laughs. We were all sad because many would be leaving us in a few days and the rest of us were joinng differnt roups but would be seeing each other along the way throughout our travels.
After dinner we went to the coolest bar which was about 5 stories up and had a bamboo floor. Everyone sat on pillows and the tables were about a foot off the ground. We sat anddrank and talked about the awesome adventure we had all just partook in. it was a good time and by the end after most left I had claire, alexander and max up dancing with me to some interesting music and a moving bamboo floor not meant for dancing. It was a lot of fun. Aparntly though at some point max had knocked me over and I hit my head. I woke up with a huge knot on the back of my head which hurt for 3 days. We had a good laugh about it later though and I was fine, it was all in good times.
We were all sad to head back to bangkok the next day and took the over night train from Chaing Mai. We all squished together on the bunks and had fun remembering our trip. The train master came and made the beds bt we all crammed inogether and talked some more until we finally all went to sleep and wok up in bangkok. After droping the luggage in storage, claire, max and I skiped a much needed shower for hit Koi San road for breakfast. We got into an intereesting andeducational discussion about religions of asia and christianity and then we went to discover the Wat Pho by taking a ferry across the river. After seeing so many temples they are all begnning to run together. We went and say the reclining Buddha and had some good lauhs barganing inthe MBK market. I bought a beautiful painting there for my new home which I can only hope survives my travels
The three of us then went for a good lunch of Thai food as we would be leaving Thailand the next day and max that night. We walked around a bit more and then clare left max and I to go meet her next group. Max and I walked and shopped and talked some more until he got on the bus for the airport and I to my new hotel and new group It was very sad to see everyone go as I will miss my new friends but plan to see them in the near future again soon. experiancing things together has bonddd us all together as we have all came seperatly without knowing anyone but were brought together as friends in the end.
It was a sweet but sad ending to a wonderful trip in Thailand.
