Okay, someone really needs to come over here and pinch me!!
It's been my dream forever to go to the jungle of Thailand and ride an elephant! Elephants are such beautiful creatures with such personalities. This whole trip to Thailand was inspired by my bucket list dream of riding one in their natural habitat.
We are staying in Bangkok. I wanted to stay in the city since there is so much to do! So traveling to the elephants is about two hours or more. We found a tour that would take us from Bangkok to a little town full of jungle.
We started off our day by getting picked up by this little thai guy that didn't know a lick of english. He struggled to say my name. It's so funny here, they know english but when they speak it I can't even make out the word. I have to think really hard, I figure out what sounds close to it and then I understand what they are saying. Colten keeps saying he feels so awkward because he wants to speak with them. We revert back to spanish when we feel awkward.
Waitress: "you want drink?"
Colten: "si por favor!"
haha ugh wrong language dear!
We drove a good two hours and were just in awe of the driving here. It seriously is the coolest thing to watch. They have this smooth motion in their chaos. I've never felt more safe in a car before. And if you know me.. you know I'm the WORST back seat driver. I hate driving! I am so nervous when I'm in other peoples cars. I'd rather ride a bike than drive. So you would think I would be freaking out here right? They don't use their radios. They don't talk on their cell phones. The only time they somewhat relax is when they are at a red right. They put their car into park and then take a drink of water, call someone on the phone really quickly, or read the newspaper. As soon as it gets close to green light, they put their focus back onto the road. It's incredible. People mostly drive mopeds here. They start their kids young too. I see women with infant babies on the front of their mopeds as they ride. They are that confident in their driving!!
After a long drive we went to this WWII cemetery. I will have to write about that later, because to be honest I could not understand a word our tour guide was saying! I just smiled and shook my head up and down because our guide was making a huge effort in explaining where we were. Colten and I just exchanged looks and laughed because it was just foreign words coming out.
We then drove to the elephant camp. Oh.my.goodness. it was heaven you guys! The elephants just roam the land. In fact, the way we found the camp was seeing an elephant walking down the road. I squealed when I saw how big they were. We walked to this little hut that was really tall. Thai children were running around everywhere. They were so cute. One little boy kept grabbing the bananas his mom was trying to sell and would run to the elephants and feed it. The elephant would nod it's head up and down and squeal his trunk as a thank you! I about died right there:)
We jumped onto our elephant, Meh. Meh's owner rode with us. He was hilarious. He knew english pretty well. We asked him a few questions on the walk:
C: "this is awesome! you must love living here!?"
T: "no. it get boring. same thing every day."
A: "is that your home?" (point to a little hut)
T: "yes, it's beautiful huh? I'm a single man."
A: "well than we need to find you a woman!"
T: "yes yes! I still can't find a woman for me. I go crazy."
He started to sing a thai song.
C:"you sing really well!"
T: "no if I sing well, then I wouldn't be here riding elephants!"
We laughed and talked our whole ride. Colten jumped onto Meh's neck and rode her. She kept nodding her head down and he kept looking like he was going to fall off. She would just carry on and look for her bananas.
A: "how old is Meh?"
T: "She is 20 years old."
A: "what does she like to eat?"
T: "she eats everything! Bananas, pineapple, grass...but not this grass (points to flowers) she is picky. She loves to eat and eat. And now she is pregnant. ooooohhhh brother. There will be no food now."
The land was beautiful! Full of leafy greens. We were also by the river. We were going to bathe the elephants but we ran out of time. Elephants are so playful, so it would have been a blast to play in the water with them.
After the Elephants we went and ate at this authentic thai restaurant. No words can describe the food. It was that good! So full of flavor in every bite! Our dessert was pineapple, and it was the best piece of fruit I have had in a LONG time.
I had to go to the bathroom so bad. We were out in the jungle so the toilet I used didn't have water. It had a tub full of water next to it with a bucket. So I went to the bathroom and then poured the bucket of water into the toilet to "flush". They luckily had a sink to wash my hands.
Once we ate we were off to the Tiger Temple. Colten was so giddy about this place. He is such an animal lover. The Tiger Temple is run by monks. They bring tigers in from the wild and tame them. They have all sorts of animals. Deer, hogs, bears, buffalo, eagles, and goats. There is a story that they let one of the hogs back into the wild, the next day the same hog came back with 10 other hogs! The animals love it there. We were in awe from the moment we stepped foot on the grounds.
We learned from the monks how to touch and get a picture with the full grown tigers. Our jaws just kept dropping seeing them interact with one another. Don't let my face fool you in some of the pictures. I would get nervous getting close to the big tigers. They were so solid, and their paws... wow!
We then went and played with the cubs. They were only months old and so adorable. If only you could of seen Colten's face in person... his face made my whole trip:) The cubs would just run to you and jump and play. They would sit and fight with each other too. Their growls were so deep for how little they were! They would bite you, but it was just a little nibble. You would have to hit their nose to teach them not to bite. We would just pick them up like babies and they would just paw at you. They were such little rascals!
We were in Heaven all day!
D A Y T W O in Thailand was defiantly one for the books!
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