Phuket Day 1: Jungle trekking

June 22nd Day 1 in Phuket

Ti-Nuan was our elephants name. I had to write it down before I forgot it. She was a pretty little thing with lots of pink on her face that was fond of snacking and very nice to let me sit on her head.

I asked what our Mahouts name was and he told me, but it was impossible to pronounce let alone remember. The minute we got on I was giggling like a child. Garrett I think got more entertainment from my lack of self command than the elephant trek. We went through a river, and it has rained that day so the banks were wet and muddy.

Ti-Nuan slipped down the muddy slope and I was very frightened, because the Mukout actually got off the elephant for that part and we were alone. Later when she was breaking up a palm leaf she whacked me in the face with it. I think they secretly have an attitude for being made to work. I love it. The place we went only has the elephants work for 2 hours a day, and uses only positive reinforcement for training, thus the occasional disobedience.

Thailand is cracking down on elephant abuse, and I feel like the ones we were with were healthy and treated very well.  

   We visited a monkey temple where a few of them climbed up my shirt to get my bananas.

I screamed with fright and everyone stared at me.

  One of my unexpectedly favorite parts of the tour was lunch with our group. We ended up with a spectacular smattering of couples from around the world. The Australians were very talkative and silly, the couple from Worchestershire England were quieter, and the two from South Africa had some neat stories to tell too. We had a great time comparing our countries and culture, especially because those are places you hear very little detail about. The England friends tried to teach me how to say Worchestershire the correct way- something more like "Wistah", and we all laughed at each others accents and the stereotypes we've all seen and heard about each other. It was great fun. The food was tasty too. 

   The canoe trip surprised me in a good way.

I thought it would be a lazy river type slow cruise, but right from the get go we were on small rapids. It was quite a long time, and we saw snakes in trees, and all sorts of cool jungle vines and plants. It was a fabulous way to see the jungle.

   The ride home was pretty long. I fell asleep, and then in the evening we swam in our porch pool and walked up the street and had some Thai food at a little restaurant. It was a huge success of a day.