Day Ten.

There's no such thing as too much elephant.

Today we were bound for the mountains outside of Phang Na for a day of river rafting.

The journey began at 8:00am and took almost 2 hours to complete, winding out of the city and out into the lush countryside. Rubber tree and pineapple plantations hugged the base of sheer tree topped monoliths, the land locked cousins of the same cliffs we canoed around the day before yesterday.

Sharon was keen for the day to be over as she felt that broken bones or acquired brain injury might dampen the spirit of the holiday. Nevertheless, we drove upward through ever narrowing streets toward adventure base-camp.

Our guide was a really warm guy named Tick (Tik? Tick? Tich? Tique?) who was full of great information about elephants, rubber plantations and Thailand in general. He was pretty funny.

Before we arrived, our van drew up alongside a mountain bridge and we piled outside. A stream flowed about the rocks underneath and as we walked down the red earth incline to the river bed we were overtaken by two baby elephants who walked into the stream and began to play. They were great; holding each other under until their trunks broke the surface for air and using their legs to pin the other down. We were enchanted.

Beside the bridge.

Young Elephants playing

An older elephant walked the banks toward us and we patted its head and trunk and you could tell it enjoyed it as much as we did.

Tick showed us some delicate fern fronds near the ground which, when stroked, closed to protect themselves. He picked another variety of fern, placed it on Sharon's arm and slapped it gently. When he removed the frond, it had left an image of itself on her arm in a white powder. “Tattoo!” He exclaimed. We all had a go.

Onto base camp where we kitted up in life jackets and helmets for the rapids. I found a helmet that would allow me to wear my waterproof GoPro which made me happy.

Sharon was chosen to help the instructors demonstrate the safety requirements of the journey and before long we were pushing our inflatable blue raft into the fast flowing waters. After sitting in the humidity with all that padding on,  the chilled water was welcome relief. The river guaranteed good rafting action as it was fed by water released each day from a dam upstream.

We were off! Great fun. Hoots and hollers and splashes as 50 or so rafts, each with 4 or 5 occupants twisted and slid and plunged down river. We lost our oarsman who re-joined us later further downstream and we marveled at the jungle as it rushed by. Chris and Ash did the paddling while Sharon Brad and I hung on as boulders swung past. It was a fairly low grade ride with no great prospect of injury and we all really enjoyed ourselves, even Sharon who had changed her mind on the trip.


Back to base camp for lunch. Chicken curry with steamed rice, seafood tom yum soup and tempura vegetables, finished naturally with fresh pineapple, watermelon and coffee.

Beautiful gardens are everywhere.

Tick took us a short distance to a rubber plantation where we saw the sap being collected and how it was processed into rubber sheets for sale. Chris helped the two guys there crank the machine to squeeze the water and acid mixture from the rubber, leaving it in thin white sheets.

Chris cranking the handle of the rubber press.

Next was a short drive further up the mountain, past the river dams to the Tonpariwat waterfall. The water was freezing and it took time to slowly ease ourselves in. People were diving in to the pool from the rocks above which looked fairly unsafe though Brad and Ash both wanted to try it.  Ashley, Sharon and I fought against the current and moss slicked rocks and plunged our heads into the heavily falling torrent of the waterfall and emerged feeling refreshed and quite energised.

An iguana on the way to the waterfalls.

We thought that was it for the day but Tick told us that next was the baby elephant show (yay!).

We drove down to the show via base camp where we collected our things and saw a show performed by two young elephants. Whilst we feel that these things tread a blurry line between play and servitude, the elephants seemed to be enjoying themselves the way dogs do when they are working with a trainer.

They stood on two legs, one played a harmonica while the other span hula-hoops on its trunk. But by far the highlight came at the end where we each took turns at lying on the ground while the elephants gave us a massage. One pressed on our backs with his foot while the other thumped us with its trunk. Sharon and Chris got more than they bargained for and I won't go into detail but the those elephant trunks are quite nimble. :) No one laughed harder than Bradley.

Sharon getting 'the treatment'.

To finish, one of the pair gave each audience member a kiss, placing its soft trunk on our cheeks, sucking in and releasing with a gentle pop. So gentle and wonderful.

Hoops and harmonica.

Here is a video showing the whole day..




Finally home again, two hours back tracking, stopping at a 7-11 where drinks for everyone and custard cakes cost the princely sum of $3.00. Tick explained why the Thai love their royals so much and it all fell into line with our understanding of this wonderful people. We will be sad to leave. (If only there weren't so many objectionable tourists here :))

Dinner on the terrace watching the nightly fireworks and a cruise ship depart. Sneaky cat, a cute local keeps his eyes on us, appearing stealthily from behind pot plants and keeping the boys amused.

The phones and internet have been out for 3 days here and we had a power outage for a few hours tonight which meant I lost a bunch of what I was uploading. On to our last day...

~Glenn