Thursday, May 21, 2009

Thailand: The Favorite Parts


Not only did we do the whole tourist-y elephant riding thing (to be experienced in another post- this won't exactly be chronological...), but we got in some free bare-back riding in as well...

We were driving through northern Thailand when we saw a guy walking his two elephants down the road. Naturally we stopped to take pictures, pet the elephants and talk to the guy. He offered to let us ride them, so of course we all took turns riding the elephants around. Then he mentioned he was taking them to this nearby lake for a bath and asked if we wanted to bathe an elephant, too. Of course Derek jumped at the chance (in all honesty, I would have as well, but I knew this was right up his alley) and so rode an elephant into a lake. He helped scrub it down, got sprayed by it and in all likelihood, got peed on.




At the end of our trip we went to Kanchanaburi to experience the Tiger Temple. This place was a-MAZ-ing. We got to walk with the tigers, cuddle up with them and pet them and everything. It was unreal. There is literally nowhere else in the world you can get this close to tigers and people plan entire vacations around this place. We found out too late that you can actually go early in the morning and help feed and exercise the cubs. That's right. You get to rough house with tiger cubs. I am SO in next time we're in Thailand!





My other favorite part of this trip was the miracle of the Thai massage. These little girls literally throw you around and use their whole bodies to give you a really deep massage. I got 2 foot massages, 3 aloe vera massages (thanks to the sunburn I got on my way TO the island...)


and 1 official Thai massage. So how did I afford 6 massages in one vacation? Well, here's the kicker---

$10 per hour.

3 comments:

Amy Jenks said...

Lucky! Looks like a blast.

Michelle Hepworth said...

That is awesome! I bet you guys had a great time!

Elsie said...

Those tigers are amazing! But how was it safe? I mean were you afraid of it biting your face off?