This last Friday Mj and I wanted to go and see some elephants, unfortunately no elephants are free on this island, I'm unsure about the whole country.. so picking a tour can be difficult , we don't want to encourage any animal cruelty but we do understand that it's because of people like us that zoo's and the likes exist.
The tour we stumbled on was a whole day riding up north for 2 hours to the national park called Khao Lak-Lam Ru.
On our way we stopped to visit an elephant family, we met and bathed PhΕ«kheΔ which means mountain in Thia. He's adorable!! He had a baby brother or sister coming in 60 days. ππ Hes trained to give kisses.. <i don't mean to brag, but i got 3>.
After we got to go on a short ride, courtesy of hes older sister. Madam is what she read called. Elles love bananas & pineapples..who knew! ππ Next we head to a beach area where they are making a huge effort to save the sea turtles. They have ones from 30 years to few weeks old. They are on the middle of building more adequate buildings. I had no idea how social tortoises are, as soon as we came close they would swim over to see us looking for treats i believe. No touching of course, they are going back into nature.
Next was a waterfall, and because we are here in rainy season it was full!
Now comes the intense and unforeseen adventures. We signed up for, what we thought was a calm ride down a river on a bamboo raft. Now has anyone ever made a raft out of huge bamboo?? it's not very flexible.. or soft. And as i said, rainy season, adding it up yet? We didn't. We go on our merry way with our tiny 90 pound thai guide... We start with me in the middle and Mj in the back..
we almost immediately hit rough water.. you could call or white water.. yep.. we shipwrecked on a rock. I don't mean a small rock, a boulder of one. Also it's a small gap so we then start a domino effect on other rafts. Mj suffers a few collisions as i help our guide push off the rock, and has also completely sank in the back end and is drenched.
We go another... say.. 10 yards and yep another rock! This time it was a doozey.
This time i have to get off the raft completely, which is not easy because the current is super strong, so i have to climb up the side of the raft to the back and try to pick it up off the rock. Technically we are stuck on 2 boulders, front and back. As I'm in the back i glance behind me only to see in slow motion Mj roll feet over head into the white water and our guide slip and hit his head on our raft.. This is a pickle people.!!
Oddly enough no boats are crashing into us. Although in anticipation of them coming my adrenalin starts pumping. After much pushing, lifting, and yelling in languages no one understands, we get the raft off both and we all hang on for dear life, because once unwedged we shoot back down the river. This takes place in about 5 to 10 minutes, but felt like an eternity.
In the end our guy lost both his shoes and possibly had a concussion, we both have open wounds and i some how have both of Mjs sandals on my arms.. π€¦πΎ♀️
whew.. I laugh even as i write this.. it was an adventure i won't easily forget.
I will let that sink in, and tomorrow will complete the day. Although i warn you, it's not as exciting. This was for sure the highlight of the trip thus far.
π