Elephant riding

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Geo: 12.8, 99.9667

While we were at breakfast this morning Mr. Long, the travel agent came up to us and asked if we wanted to change our tour time from 2pm to 11am so if we wanted we could see the elephant show, we agreed and went back to eating our breaky. We then went for a swim as we still had 2 hours before we were due down at the travel agents which is only just down the road.

We got there and found out that we were being driven by Noi a lady who I don't believe Nana and Pa had ever seen before. She drove us straight to the Elephant show in Hua Hin (26km down the road) where we got out and were greeted by 2 very good English speaking people in their 20's. We were guided over to the sign with the packages and chose the ones we wanted. An elephant ride and tickets to the elephant show. I was then given a really cute monkey wearing a nappy to hold. It was adorable! They then took a photo of me with it but they put it in a really ugly clock so I didn't want it.

We were then taken over to the platform that you get onto the elephant from. It was so cute. While on the ride we found out some things - did you know elephants live to 100? Or that they have hairs? Or that they are retired from working at age 80? Or that their poos are the size of my head and make a massive noise as they hit the ground? Or that it takes them literally 2 minutes to do a wee? You probably didn't need to know the last 2 but it was fascinating. (see photo) Our elephant was called Boong Chong and was a 29 year old female. Our ride went for around 40 minutes but it felt like a lot longer. I was incredibly scared at first but then I got used to it; kinda. We went right next to the workers huts and went through water although our elephant didn't like that too much. At one point there was water on the track and she went right around to avoid it but going through the lakes she had no choice. At one stage the instructor jumped off with my camera and took photos of us on the elephant and then made me get down onto the neck of it much to my disgust. I was so scared! He led it round a bit then got back on. I was practically screaming and gave him no choice but to get back on because I was scared we'd fall down the hole. When he got back on he stopped the elephant and took out these ugly bracelets and necklaces, he made us choose one each as if they were a gift and left them on us, until a little while later he said 'Do you want to buy? 500 baht.' That's like $16 for an ugly bracelet. We got off the elephant and went straight over to the Elephant show as it was about to start. The elephant show used only baby elephants and they did tricks. 2 elephants played darts with balloons and spiky things. 3 elephants played soccer with massive balls. 3 elephants played basketball. 2 elephants painted but the instructor was holding the trunks up and moving them which I thought was cheating but anyway. 1 rode a specially made bike. 2 gave people 'Thai massages' and one man came back looking like he'd wet himself because the elephants trunk was wet and all the elephants did little things like sitting a funny way or something and in-between every trick the elephants came and got bananas from the audience oh and one managed to get mum's pineapple she'd been given to eat, but in doing so it stood on my foot so I had to walk round with one black and one white sock for the rest of the day.

From the Elephant Show, which is the places actual name we went to the Hua Hin Market but turns out that's actually a shopping centre sorta like MBK. It had some shops and the rest were just markets. Nana and Pa had never been here before so they were happy to spend time there, even if they normally aren't as keen as Mum and I to shop. We went to get lunch but nothing really struck our fancy so we had ice-cream instead, not that I was disappointed with that. Nana and Pa wanted sticky rice and mango but couldn't find it so went without, then we found it and bought some for them. I bought a dress there for AUD6.

We then went to the Hua Hin train station to see the Royal Box. The train station itself was very old and crummy looking but the Royal Box was newish and beautiful. It's gold and red and it was used for the King and was where he sat as he waited for the train but it's not used anymore because he's sick and stay in the palace most of the time.

The palace - we went to the Summer Palace before we went to the Elephant Show but we couldn't get to the 2nd floor until 4.30pm so we came back at 4.20ish. Noi stopped the car outside the gate and I put my t-shirt on under my dress because you had to have your shoulders covered and I didn't want to wear one of their tops. So we got out and walked to the gate to be told 'Sorry, no room to even go in.' I'm not sure about everyone else but I sure thought we were guaranteed a spot in at 4.30.

Once we got back we had a pretty lazy time, we went swimming then Mum and I went out for dinner. I'm not too sure what Nana and Pa did. We also found a baby bird on our balcony. A pigeon was always sitting on the balcony but we had no idea why until we found the baby bird, whom we named Lucy.

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Comments

[joan 34]

Glad that you found out so much about elephantsShould we retire Pa now he's 80?

[Rick]

sound like your having fun apart from the screaming on the elefart.

[Lisa Brain]

Hope you guys are having a ball I got your postcard and read yous got to ride elephants and mel got to sit actually on it that would have been awesome. I will see you when you get back .Take care love Lisa and Barb