December 13: Day 6
Emily
Joey saved my life today.
We woke up this morning to our usual breakfast of white
bread and marmalade. At 8:30, an open-back van picked us up from the hostel
and off we merrily went.
Two couples shared the van with us. An older British
couple and a younger Dutch one. What?!? Dutch?!?! People who speak Dutch?!?!
A dream come true! I was practically doing back-flips and somersaults I was
so excited to talk to them. And they were so quintessentially Dutch, too,
ohmygosh throwback. They were all really cool and nice people.
Anyway, along the way we bought three giant bags of
bananas. When we arrived we were instructed to put on these oh-so-very
flattering outfits to play with the elephants in. Suddenly, a real live
elephant came lumbering towards us, enticed by our attractive, yellow treats.
Soon, two more elephants joined in the fun of holding out their trunks to
grab a banana and fold it into their mouths.
After the snack, we were allowed to practice riding the
elephants! It was pretty difficult getting on and keeping my balance and
actually it was all pretty difficult but fun nonetheless. The elephants then
gave us “kisses” by sucking on our cheeks with their trunks.
We made and ate our own papaya salad and then it was time
for the trek. Joey and I got on the back of an elephant and embarked on the
jungle pathway. Joey sat up front, on the neck, and me on the shoulders.
However, our elephant was irritated. She kept throwing dirt on Joey and
flapping her ears against his legs. She also kept stopping and ripping out
plants to eat and scratching her back on trees and rocks, which we had to
avoid being crushed against. She also wagged her head a lot to the side while
jerking around going downhill, so we were scared we would fall off!
Eventually we got to the river, and our guide said
something in Thai and tapped the elephant on her trunk and was suddenly
lifted effortlessly from the ground onto her head! Amazing! As we were going
through the river, the elephant showed more signs of irritation. She started
making sounds with her trunk and did not want to stand still for us to climb
off onto a log, but luckily the guide held her still long enough for us to
get off, which was kind of a relief. The three elephants had tons of fun playing
with each other in the water and rolling around. We got to splash water on
them and brush them. Then we had to take a lot of photos and pose with them.
Then we learned how to make elephant laxatives. You pound
rice so the husk comes off a bit, grind it with tamarind, sugar cane paste,
and bananas and roll it into a ball and garnish it with a slice of cucumber
(?). So, now you know that. I fed mine to a very pushy elephant who insisted
I give it to her, and then she grabbed me with her trunk tying to keep me
there, but I escaped after a bit of a struggle.
Hooray, then it was time to see the baby elephant! Only 5
weeks old, she was a real beauty. She liked to hide between the legs of the
other elephants, who were chained up actually… (don’t worry, they were really
well treated it seemed, but they had to be chained at certain times so they
wouldn’t run away or have too many roaming at one time). Joey loved the baby
and pet her a lot and was smiling like a little kid the whole time.
I wanted to pet an elephant who wasn’t getting a whole lot
of attention from the group. Joey and I went over to her and were petting her
trunk and talking to her. She was feeling me a lot with her trunk and I
thought it was cute and funny… until she wrapped my head up like a boa
constrictor and started pulling me towards her face. She was about to put my
entire head in her mouth when Joey grabbed me, cried, “No, she’s MY Emily!”
and yanked me away. My hero. My head kind of hurt after that – elephants are
strong! I was told that the elephant did that because she liked my hair. Uhm.
What?
Luckily we got back to the hostel in one piece, showered,
and looked up the address of a restaurant Joey’s friend recommended. It was a
great choice. I ate foods from my childhood, like Tom Ka Gai and black sesame
paste. We walked there but took a tuk tuk back. Now I’m in my room, about to
watch a movie with you-know-who. Sleeping in tomorrow, without any strict
plans.
So, basically, today was perfect.
I hope you enjoy the pictures!
Thanks for reading. Buh bye.
Emily
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Day 6, Dec 13
Joey
Emily
and I are on a roll. If it isn’t a travel day, you can bank on us doing
something awesome. And today was no different, and may actually take the cake
so far. We spent the whole day with elephants.
Before
we begin, these elephants were beautiful. They were so big, and had so much
personality, and they loved eating everything green. So…
First
we fed them bananas. Then they gave us elephant kisses. Then we learned to
ride them. Then at some point we went for a ride to the river. The elephant
that me and Emily were on gave us a mildly scary ride. He kept throwing his
trunk up at us, and stopping suddenly to try to eat a tree. It’s also
difficult to balance on the elephants, and especially hard when they move
their heads. I thought I was going to fall once or twice. Then we bathed
them.
The
first best part was saving Emily when an elephant tried to eat her. I know
what the zoologist in all y’all is thinking, “Wait, I thought elephants were
herbivores.” (That is what everyone thought…right?) But this one was
inspecting Emily with her trunk, as they normally do. And then she tried to
wrap her up and pull Em into her mouth. I yanked Emily away. It actually
wasn’t that scary, but lets just all say that I rescued someone from a freak
carnivorous elephant attack.
The
other first best part was that we got to play with a BABY ELEPHANT. Like a
really little one. 5 weeks old. She would wander around and then come hang
with us and we could pet her and it was beautiful.
There
is a lot more to today, but I’m tired. Emily just told me she wrote 800
words, compared to my 300 and change so go read hers.
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