Our Elephant Peter

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We're nearing the end of our stay here in Koh Pha Ngan. It's been VERY nice and relaxing. Our place is amazing... we're staying in a resort named Sarikantang. The weather has been great.. although a storm is just on the horizon right now. It started pouring last night randomly harder than we've ever seen! But only lasted 5 minutes!! And it's still close to 90 degrees, so it's great! You got to love the island life!

Yesterday, we booked a half-day safari trip through the place that we're staying. They took us up to Chaloklum to go elephant riding, over to a Chinese temple with an incredible view, then off to the jungle for some hiking and swimming in the waterfall! They drove us pretty muich all around the island, which was an adventure in itslef as none of the roads around here are paved so you have to hang on to the back of this truck for dear life! We started off our adventure riding our elephant - his name was Peter. I absolutely loved it! I was waiting to ride an elephant the entire trip so I was very excited... Marcos on the other hand I think was a bit leery as our elephant swayed back and forth up the straight vertical incline! It didn't occur to me that it'd be very high up... we got to feed some bananas after the ride which was definitely a treat. Our hike through the jungle was pretty cool, wasn't very long though... and the waterfall we were hoping to see wasn't much as we hadn't had much rain on the islands yet... so it was sort of just a small stream. All in all, definitely recommended adventure! Lots of fun!

It's our last afternoon here... heading back on another overnight train tonight back to Bangkok for our last 2 nights of our vacation. We have a dinner cruise booked when we get back and some last minute missions to do in Bangkok before we leave. At least we'll get some last good nights of rest as we're staying the Westin - ah, the heavenly beds - that's definitely one thing the Thais do NOT have... SOFT MATTRESSES! they've all been rock hard... guess that gives me a good excuse for trying out all the different spa treatments... it's a necessity!

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Photos

Feeding Champion
Don't take my hand with it!