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Published: January 18th 2007
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Keely wakes me at 7am to announce I’ve got thirty minutes before we go ashore to ride elephants. Elephants at 8am - yessiree!!!! Jay skips this one - I guess the happy shakes got the best of him last nite. Karl, Scott, Keely, Ray and I..once again..dingy ashore (yes- we are becoming pro-dingiers)…. And we walk about a block inland to the travel agency who arranged the elephant trek for us. The “Lanta Safari Company” pickup arrives - we all jump in the back and they shuttle us about 5 miles up into the jungle to their basecamp where we see..yes…elephants!!! Oh my God - are we really doing this at 8am ?? Shoot yea!
There’s a rickety platform perched on the side of the hill next to us. Apparently that’s where we board the elephants. Since our group is small, they decide we can each have our own elephant. (oh shit!!!). Each of us has our own elephant and guide- of course no one tells us that neither the elephant nor the guides speak much English - so we pretty much wing it on hand signals with both! The guides sit perched up on the elephants neck with their
feet tucked behind their ears and there’s a basket type seat perched precariously on the elephants “hump”. The basket sits on a stack of blankets for padding and ropes tied under the elephants neck and tail hold the basket in place. Scott boards his elephant first and down the trail they go. The next elephant up looks old, big and sturdy and I decide since he’s more mature he must be more gentle- I climb aboard next. Karl is next and Keely follows up the rear.
Off we go down the trail - Scott is nowhere in site. His pakiderm takes off like a bullet while my “mature/gentle” beast scoots along more like a turtle. Yes - I’ve chosen the slow one and I’m very happy about that. The elephants follow a muddy trail through the jungle and up along the side of a very steep hill. One step and these lumbering animals are going to go crashing down the hillside…but these guys are pro’s right??? You couldn’t convince me by the way they grunt at the animals to talk to them. My guide and Karl’s guide are having a full on Thai conversation while the animal’s slowly stroll
up the hill. I pretend they’re discussing last nights football game…but in reality I’m sure they’re saying “oh shit - I hope my elephant doesn’t dump this lady down the hill”. About twenty minutes up the hill and we find Scott, his elephant and guide waiting for us in the jungle. Just when I think we’re going to keep going - we basically turn around and go back down the same way. Hmmm..someone at the safari office might want to rethink the jungle routing. Thirty minutes, white knuckles (from holding onto the basket back down the steep hill) and about 100 grey hairs later we are back at basecamp and off the elephants. Goodbye elephant - it was fun - we’ll do it again!!!! Maybe not.
One massage for Karl and an hour later - we’re back on the boat and ready to sail to Ko Mook. It’s a good 3 hour sail - so I go down for the count. Time to sleep off my happy shake!
I’m awakened by Ray declaring we’ve got 5 minutes to don our swimsuits as we’re about to jump into the water - swim through a dark “hong” which is a
sea cave - which leads to a cool beach secluded inside a small island. Oh boy - Ray doesn’t know me very well - I’m going to need more than 5 minutes to get my brain ready for this! Oh well - 5 minutes and I’m in the dingy with everyone else - snorkels, mask and all. I’m getting very good at doing the old “flip backward” off he dingy in my snorkel fins…. My father would never believe me in 1000 years if he were alive to see it himself.
Ray enters the cave first… with the rest of us behind. About 40 meters in and we’re in pitch black. The two flashlights we have offer very little in the way of light in this dark of a cave. I don’t even want to think of whats swimming underneath me. I just paddle and paddle until - ahhhh - yesss…daylight. We emerge from the black hole into what looks like the bottom of a volcano - just straight cliffs all the way up. There’s a little sandy beach and some foliage around the bottoms of the cliffs - but that’s it - nothing else. It’s already 5pm so the afternoon sun is almost gone and we’re in complete shade…but its still really beautiful. A National Park sign tells us that pirates used to bury their goods here many years ago - so of course we all have this dream of stumbling across a big chest of pirate’s booty - but alas - its time to swim back through the cave to the boat. The swim back seems quicker than the way in and we run across some stupid German tourists trying to enter the cave in their dingy - what idiots. Of course they have no flashlights either… people amaze me.
Back on the boat and a quick 20 minute sail we’re on the beach at Ko Mook… another sleepy island paradise where we’ll have dinner. Ko Mook is far less “hippy-ish” than Ko Lanta - but the main restaurant has an outdoor grill that, when we pass by I see, has corn on the cob and baked potatoes grilling!!! WE ARE EATING HERE….as we are craving American food by now after 15+ days on the trip. The service is dismal, they run out of corn (whaaaaaaaaa!) and all in all it’s a pretty uneventful night. Back on the boat - 10pm and we all crash - its been a long day…elephants and sea caves included!!!
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