Day 11
16 febbraio, Tailandia ⋅ 🌙 23 °C
Bamboo Rafting & Elephants
After missing the sunrise which Alfie said was definitely worth it, we woke up and enjoyed a beautiful breakfast of watermelon and jam on toast. After gathering our things, we head out of camp and get picked up by a van and head towards bamboo rafting.
Bamboo rafting was alot of fun, it was 3 per raft, so it was Sam, Alfie, and I sitting on these long shoots of bamboo with our "captain" effectively punting as along with a shoot of bamboo. We were the last to depart and whilst everyone had a relaxing time cruising along, we were hitting rapids and almost capsizing. With a soggy ass we pulled up and hopped back in the minivan to head for lunch.
Seemingly in the middle of nowhere we pull up to a little hut with tables and chairs where we were cooked a chicken Pad Thai. We had been in our groups now for over a day and we were getting to know the others quite well. Americans, Itallians, French, Polish, it was a mix of it all.
After lunch we headed back to the minivan and headed for what may have been my favourite part of the whole trip so far. We walked 10 minutes down a track and headed to this remote elephant sanctuary, where there were 3 elephants that had been saved from labour and were being bathed and fed. It was time for us to start feeding the elephants. Sugarcane in hand, we could either feed it straight to their mouthes or give it to their trunk. It was surreal seeing such massive creatures be so gentle. Their skin was dry and leathery with a small amount of hair and their trunks seemed so strange. After getting surrounded by trunks from 2 elephants on either side, it was time to wash them. The keepers lead them down into the river and we followed soon, taking small plastic pots to spread water over them, washing the sand off their backs. This was still so surreal but my face was stuck with a permanent grin.
Saying goodbye to the elephants and their keepers, instead of walking back up the dirt track, 12 of us hopped in the back of a pickup truck and precariously made our way up. My insurance almost definitely doesn't cover this...
Safely at the top, we say a deep thank you to Ron for a great experience and being such a nice dude. It was time to head back to our hostels, which was probably just over an hours drive from where we were. Passing out almost immediately I woke back in Chiang Mai and it was time to check in.
Somehow, we had scored was a holiday resort with a massive pool, a private twin room, and an awesome bathroom for what was our cheapest night yet. After a quick swim, shower and our first load of laundry yet (yuck), we headed out to the night bazaar and met up with Sam (English), Sheryl (French), Anita (Dutch), Francesco (Italian) & Pietro (Italian) where we ate and drank and talked the night away. Saying goodbye to our new friends, some to never see again, we head back to our hostel, chuck our clothes in the dryer (which did almost nothing) and went to bed.
PS alot of my photos are stuck on my GoPro for now so enjoy a limited selectionLeggi altro
Viaggiatore How cool so close to the big man. What an amazing opportunity 👏 ❤️
Viaggiatore Even better Sam really really brilliant xx