Where to begin? Each day seems to get busier and busier! Today we went on a day trip to go ride elephants, bamboo raft, go on a hike literally in the jungle and swim at a waterfall, then visit a hill tribe and lastly another huge waterfall.

The day began at 8:30am and ended at 8 pm. An exhausting day! So we started at the elephant ride. Two people per elephant and of course the trainer. It was roughly an hour, and so worth it. Our elephant seemed to be the most disobedient, the trainer was always yelling at her to get back on the trail. We also bought bags of bamboo and bananas to feed to them along the way and I am pretty sure ours was the greediest! We named her Alfie; even though we found out she was a girl. The seat on the elephant was very hard to hang on to, which is why some of the videos and pictures I took were blurry cause I was trying to hold on for my life, but also document it! It was only after we were almost done did we realize there was a rope to strap us in, oh well more of a workout I suppose. So at one point our trainer just slide off the elephant, they do that to take pictures for the riders. It was great cause he took wonderful pictures but the only problem was that he didn’t get back on!! So we were alone on a disobedient and hungry elephant roaming the jungle! The other trainers got back on their elephants right away but ours ended up walking behind or on the side of us for quite some time before it was time for us to get off.  At this point the elephant decided to walk me into a tree branch, I think it was a subtle reminder that although we may be riding on top of her, she was in total control. Even with this minor tantrum I loved her personality, it is true that each one is completely different. Ours kept swinging her trunk up to us to be fed, and then when we didn’t feed her fast enough she would blow, and sometimes spit, on us with her trunk to get attention. Gross but awesome! We wandered around for a bit and even got to see the baby elephants before leaving. Definitely worth it!

Then we went right to the bamboo rafting. Which literally was about 8 or so long sticks of bamboo roped together and the driver was using another stick of bamboo as the oar. I had heard about it and thought oh like sure it sounds fun I guess, but I had no idea how fun it was. There were four to a raft and our driver was so much fun. He kept saying ‘no wet, no fun’ and splashing us and rocking the raft. He would take the bamboo pole and smack it on the water and sometimes say oh snake, oh crocodile, or like oh spider. Which fun fact, we asked if there were crocodiles in the water, they said yes and then didn’t go into any detail like oh they like these or those areas. I almost forgot that there were harmful things around us, like banana spiders; which are so poisonous they eat birds. But anyway we had a great time. I even got to steer the raft, which was quite an ordeal. The guy offered the pole to me so I was like heck yea I will give it a try! We switched places and I was standing and digging the pole into the water, everything was going fine for a bit, until the guy decided to tip us! He totally set me up for failure! I was in the front so I couldn’t see that the guy was in the back rocking the raft, I was thinking oh my god why I am so horrible at balancing this thing, and then as we went around the corner it started to tip over and I was like oh crap I can’t save us and it’s all my fault! Fully tipped over raft, soaking wet! But I guess the wetter you get the more fun it was. Except of course I land on the rocks and scrapped my leg; my legs and feet are not doing so well in Thailand. But after tipping and then re-flipping the raft over again we enjoyed a little break of just floating down the river. I wish I could have brought my camera because there were some really beautiful picture opportunities, but it is a good thing I didn’t!

After that we definitely earned lunch and a break in the car. So another drive we went to the national park and met with a gorgeous Thai tour guide from the local hill tribe village; his nick name was Clay. He brought us on the hike, I thought it would just be a small trail along the rode but no it was a 2 hour hike through dense jungle up and down a mountain. I was glad I wore sneakers, the first time I got to wear the darn things too. Along the way we stopped at one waterfall and got to go swimming! We saw rice fields and wildflowers, local fruits, and of course local insects all buzzing around. It was incredible, such an experience and it felt like something out of a National Geographic Magazine it was so incredible. I can’t even imagine that these people get to have these views as their back yards! We stopped at a small coffee place for the village which was a long bamboo table and a campfire to heat the pot. I even got to use the coffee grinder and grind fresh coffee beans. It was the strongest coffee! Our tour guide also had some ‘strong water’. Local moonshine or a type of vodka, which he drank from the coolest shot glass. I guess they put that in their coffee sometimes. But he was just drinking it straight; we would not have known that it wasn’t water if he hadn’t told us. He even shared some with me, which I don’t know how people would put that in coffee!  But after that of course we had enough energy to finish the hike. After that we visited the last waterfall, no as interactive as the other ones cause it was a little bigger so probably more dangerous. But it was of course just as beautiful as the other ones.

Last waterfall of the day: