Advertisement
Published: December 30th 2012
Saturday was our day of exercise. On the agenda was: butterfly/orchid farm, elephant riding, lunch, bamboo rafting OR white water rafting, then trekking to a village and waterfall. Up after 5 hours of sleep but I wasn't feeling bad at all! Zach on the other hand slept until the very last second the guy came to pick us up. Saw Jana and Manfried at breakfast time, wished them luck on their two day trek, and we were off. We had a group of: 5 Chinese (the one girl was the absolute postcard of a princess--she wore a coat over her head the whole time to avoid the sun), 2 Italians (who were not friendly), 2 Parisians (not French, Parisians, and they were great!), 2 Hollanders (lovely), and us. We were all crammed in the back of a songtaew, minus the Chinese girl who sat in the front. We were all the stereotypes of our countries, and I do say this in the best way possible, because it was great! The Chinese all had their top of the line electronics, which they were on most of the time. The 4 Chinese boys were fearless and absolutely hilarious. Two of them rode standing
on the back of the songthaew (truck) and one kept poking spider holes to get them to come out. The Parisians were lovely and nice. The one was a very very tall man who would make fun of his height. They were younger but a little reserved. They opened up as we went on, cracking more jokes and smoking lots of cigarettes. The two Hollanders smelled like Zach did: a bar--- a bar full of hard liquor. They were so sweet and gorgeous. The girl looked like a young Natalie Portman. The Italians didn't hardly speak to any of us; they were an older couple and what little Italian I remember, they were not talking fondly about any of us. "Americans" was said a lot with very pointed looks at us. We of course were trying not to be ugly Americans and getting obnoxious, but I'm sure we weren't good at it :D
Our first stop was the butterly/orchid farm. Over the top touristed. I saw one butterfly; it was brown. The Holland couple saw three, and one was dead. The orchids were beautiful of course, but I was done after 5 minutes. Then we went on our bamboo
rafting. This is where Zach and the Holland couple were not happy, as they wanted white water rafting. Of course, the river is very tame and only during rainy season are there any rapids. We still enjoyed it. Saw lots of elephant turds and a little snake. While were were floating down the river, a woman comes walking up stream in the water with a floating cooler trying to sell us drinks. Zach says: oh my god, we can't escape them even on the water!! It is true. There is always touts trying to sell, sell, sell.
On to the elephant camp. Oh, this was fun! We did ride on baskets, which isn't my favorite thing. I do feel bad about that. We were at CM Elephant Camp, and they looked to be well taken care of. They had a little 8 month old baby, and he was a stinker. The Holland man almost got muay thai'ed by it in the leg. After eating, we all got in our elephants and trekked through a river for an hour. Our mahout, elephant trainer, was sitting on the head and kept looking back nervously. He said, oh, you will be fine
for one hour. No more though. I thought to myself: this is the way I die; falling off an elephant. The mahout also would ask us for American names of the different farm equipment they had: backhoe, bulldozer. We were confused though at first. The one was a backhoe of the brand Komatsu. The guy asked what it was called in English so we said Komatsu. Now, the poor guy probably thinks the backhoe is actually called a Komatsu. He kept saying the word over and over trying to memorize it.
After the elephant camp, we went on to our trek. No one else was there; it was just our group. Technically, we trekked on a dirt road, but the views were amazing. The real treks are overnighters, but after a very very very steep hill, I was glad were did one day. We went to a village and saw cute little kids and animals (puppies, piglets, cats, chickens). I'm from Wisconsin and farm animals are everywhere, but you would have thought I was born in New York City. I kept taking pictures of the little pigs, even though I have been around them my whole life. One very
old woman was wondering around with no top on, so Zach was very excited--- I say this in jest, as she was probably in her 90s.
We went to the waterfall nearby, but it was so flipping cold that no one wanted to get in. It was beautiful though. Zach asked if we were getting a tuktuk to take us back, but alas, we had to walk it. Exhausted, we headed home. Everyone was passed out. We were all squeezed together, and everyone had their heads on everyone else's shoulders.
The plan was to go to Muay Thai fight at 9:00 that night. We got back 6:00 and I was starting to doubt it was going to happen. I was so tired. Showered then went out to a very nice dinner at Prego's. We got all dressed up... and decided Muay Thai was just not possible. A massage though? Yes please! Banyan Tree is our go to place, and we had the best foot massage of our lives. I was promptly out cold by 10:30. Muay Thai after the Sunday Walking Market though!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.077s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 5; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0492s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Tricia
non-member comment
Loving the posts!
If I had a lot of money to spare, I would pay for you and Zach to travel the world and report back on what it's "really" like. I love the matter of fact reporting and find myself laughing out loud more times than I care to admit! :)