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Published: April 11th 2010
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Sadly id didnt get much of a lie-in on my birthday but the early rise was well worth it. At 8:30 we were being picked up in a mini bus to travel to the mountains to do some Bamboo rafting, Elephant trekking and waterfallingness, what a day! So we had a decent breakfast before we headed out and Alicia started everybody off singing happy birthday, cheers Lis!
The drive there was pretty windy and i think everyone was feeling pretty green by the time we got there. So we got dropped off right by the river and we had to get into groups of 4. So naturally in our group was Alicia, Mum, Tony and me. We were all assigned a raft and a guide/driver for our bamboo rafts. We were given a cheeky little chap who was about 10 years old, he was splashing us all was his oar and kept guiding us into rocks on the way down. There was a few occasions when we had to get out and push as we were perched on a rock. We all had a go at rowing the raft but not quite as effortless looking our young guide. So after a
few repairs to the raft we got to the end all thoroughly soaked and with huge grins on our face!
Next stop was supposed to be the Elephant trekking but we were a bit late so we had to have an early lunch at around 11:30 then hopefully they could fit us in afterwards. All the food and drinks were included in the cost of the trip and the food was beautiful. He said it was all pretty simple stuff, soups, fried rice, fried pork, egg, fried vegetables and lots of chillies!
So we went back to the elephants and a group had just gone out so we had to wait just under an hour till they got back. Three elephants were left behind from the tour, a mother and a baby who was only 10 days old and a teenager elephant who was pretty mischievious knocking everyone with his trunk and he almost knocked a young girl over but that was mostly her fault for getting too close for a photo. So we bought a big bag of bananas to feed them as we waited for the herd to get back.
Me and Alicia were given a big elephant
that had a baby and the baby followed us closely all the way on the trip, mum and Tony had a bigger one again. Basically you sit in a metal chair thats strapped to the elephants back and its so wobbley and almost feels like your going to fall out, but you get used to it. We also took it in turns to ride up the front, with no saddle, just behind the elephants head. This was great but it felt like you were going to be thrown off on every step. Especially going down or up hill. So for an hour we went into the jungle on these beasts ploding along and it was great fun. Ours kept munching on leaves and trees and then blowing all the ants at us! We also had another bag of bananas to feed her along the way but the cheeky elephant behind kept reaching up with his trunk and pinching them Alicias hand. The last stop on the elephants was the river and we were really worried ours was going to lie down in the water like her baby, lucky she didnt. The baby was rolling around cooling off and i actually
felt pretty jealous as we were all covered in sweat by this point. Then as the youngster got out he would roll around in the dust and spray himself all over. The elephant in front of us was absolutely soaking the girls riding it, sucking water in its trunk then spraying them all. An hour just flew by and before we knew it, we were back at the start again and we had to say goodbye to the elephants.
The next stop was a local hilltribe which were selling handmade goods which were all the nice but i didnt really want to buy anything. Alicia and a girl called Camilla in our group wanted to steal one of the baby pigs they had there before it ended up on someones plate.
About a 30 minute walk down the road was a really stunning waterfall which was a great way to finish the day and cool off. It was about 10 metres high but you couldnt really get close to it as it was too powerfull and just kept pushing you back, the water was beautifully cold though.
When we got back to the guest house i opened up all the
cards mum had bought from back home. Thanks very much to everyone for the cards and money, im very lucky! Next minute mum brings out a cake that she made at home and brought all the way here covered in candles and everyone starting singing happy birthday again.
We were going to go to a little music festival that night but after such a hectic day we were all pretty beat so we just had a few drinks and played some in the evening. All in all, an amazing birthday and thanks again for all the cards and birthday messages!!
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