Elephants!!!

Michelle and I decided to do this tour of an elephant camp on our last free day in Thailand! So we loaded in a van, with this older couple who live in Delhi and another couple with their 13 year old daughter. The van ride there took about an hour. We got there and immediately were greeted by elephants. One bowed and I got to sit on it's knee and pose for picture! (see to the right) Then we went to watch all the elephants take a bath in the river, then the elephant show! They brought out a "welcome" sign, then played ball, the trainers did different things on them, they bowed, then they brought in easels and the elephants painted pictures. There were probably 6 that painted! They used their trunks and you could tell there was lots of concentration going on!! And the muscles tensing in the trunks was amazing!! They stacked logs, and I don't remember what else. It started raining at this point. After the show the elephants came out to pose, I got to have one pick me up on it's trunk!! Then it laid down on the ground and I crawled up it and it stood up!! I rode bareback on an elephant!! haha. After that we took an ox cart to this village where I did more shopping! I bought a jade elephant necklace, elephants painted on a fan, and a beautiful elephant blanket. Then we loaded on an elephant in this nice seat thing and went for a ride. Michelle and I were on Sombit, who was 35yrs old! We went up and down hills, through the jungle, forded a river, crossed it, through more jungle.... they had a guy posted to take pictures with his own camera so they could make you buy it (total disney style haha), so after that I asked the guide on the elephant with us if that guy posted could use my camera to get a pic, no but he'd get one later. umm ok. So later our guide jumps off, well ok he got the elephant to put his trunk up, got on it, and lowered to the ground, amazing I know! So he gets on the ground, gets my camera, takes our photo, meanwhile elephant is still walking, and our guide is on the ground. We stayed that way for quite some time!!! It was cracking Michelle and me up! So then we keep thinking "he's about to get back on" and he runs into this hut to "take care of some business" haha!! Then he came back on and loaded up. Throughout the ride they had stations where we could purchase bananas to feed our elephant, is that some marketing or what? They took lessons from Sea World for this one... ohh get the tourists to pay for the food. That was one of the most uncomfortable rides!! The ox cart made me so thankful to ole Henry Ford, and the elephant ride was something I'll never have to do again!! haha! It was fun while it lasted, but I've done it. There was a bar across the seat on the elephant and were it not for that, poor Michelle would have been a goner a few times! Especially going downhill!!
Next we had lunch which was a buffet of traditional Thai food. It started raining again at this point. Well we were supposed to do this bamboo river raft float thing, but I was ready to back out... all the adults did, but Michelle said, "Ohh come on! This experience isn't complete without it!" so Michelle and I with the other teenager load up. So we're going, now mind you I have on khaki shorts and a white tank top, yes I said WHITE! and rain... can we say wet tshirt contest!! No umbrella, of course! The front guy on the raft offered me his poncho, but I didn't want to deprive him, however he never put it on so hindsight I wish I had gotten it!! The beginning of the river raft I was freezing, wet and miserable! But finally the rain stopped and the sun came out so I could enjoy the "rain forest/ jungle" around me!! It was beautiful! Then the front guy invited me to come "row" which was basically using a long stick of sugar cane to push the river bed and make us go. So I got my pic doing that, then the other 2 girls took turns.
After this we loaded up in the car, and headed back to the hotel. We stopped at an orchid and butterfly farm which was kinda cool, but the next part was the highlight. That morning our guide had asked if we wanted to stop by the Tiger Adventure on the way home. It was $10, but you get to pet a tiger! We were all for it! So sure enough, we go and paid our $10 equivalent of the local currency, and got to go in this cage to play with tiger cubs for 20 minutes!! there were 2 cages with 2 tigers in each so our group split up. the only downer was that by this time both mine and Michelle's camera had died! so the other people had to get pictures for us! (and I still don't have pictures, sorry) but when we got there the tigers were out, sleeping like a log!! so the worker there was trying to wake them up, she picked one up and put it in my lap since I was sitting on the floor legs crossed. so I was just petting this baby tiger!! I was playing with it, tickling her paw pads trying to provoke her to wake up!! She would look at me, growl a little bit, then that head would fall back and she was out again. So I'd tickle again, she'd kinda wake up, this process kept on, and I was steadily petting her! finally she woke up a little more and I was playing around her mouth so she was biting/chewing my finger, you know like you do with puppies... only puppies don't have this sharp of teeth! them jokers hurt!! so there was an empty water bottle there that was their chew toy so we started playing with that and boy she came alive!! it was soooo amazing!! she was pawing at it, just downright adorable. still laying in my lap, belly up just like a baby!! eventually she moved around some, her back legs and booty fell out of my lap, then she crawled back up all by herself!!! no coaxing!! haha!!! I was playing with the bottle with my left hand and steadily petting with my right!! the 20 minutes took a long time to pass, but alas we had to go! we got to walk over to the other cage to see the mom and dad... the dad was HUGE! and the mom was mean, kept growling, and even showed me her teeth!!!

Click here to see pictures of the elephants.

Pictures with the tigers will come later!