Off we all go, Me, Julie, Rachel, Tobias and Mark for a magical adventure into the hills to see and ride some elephants. Met two lovely girlies Carrie and Kerri!!! :D both radiographers who had some interesting stories about cement found in unusual places! AHEM! We had a brief encounter with some orchids where Tobie made an interesting documented video.
We arrived for the start of our trek around 1pm and was given our lunch. fried lice on bamboo leaf! not actually lice! LOL! We made a really fun group, lots of laughs, photos and videos to look back on along with a bloody steep uphill walk which seemed to last forever. hah! What had we gotten ourselves into, eh?
But I tell you something, seeing those elephants for the first time, out in the wild (kind of) was..AMAZING!! and definitely worth the 2 and a half hour hike! was it that long? bleugh!
We had arrived at Jumbo Camp!
-our raised bamboo shelter/shack to the right. Jumbo Camp with uber cool nellyphants!
After our sweaty trek- we all plummeted into the 'swimming pool' to cool off!
NOW it was time to ride the elephants! YAAAYE!! best thing ever- what a cool experience!especially enjoying it with some really good friends :D
Carrie and Kerri at the rear, Tobias and Rachel in front! mind the elbow- i cant crop
After our ride- we fed the elephants bananas. naaw! And then we waited patiently to be fed ourselves! haha! A few Changs and a very tasty dinner later, we found ourselves listening to Julies ipod whilst gathered around the fire and taking it all in. Everyone went to bed early, at which Julie thought was truely outragious! haha! Well it was 9pm!! We went to our shack on the hill where we all slept on thin mattresses under mosquito nets- pretty cool! Me and Julie caused a little trouble- mainly Julie! hahahahahaha!! 'bloody Kiwis' Ok I did go on for a while making shadow puppets on the mozzie net using my torch (thanks liz)-it def came in useful!
We finally settled- after a lot of giggling!!!! It was rather chilly- so Julie stole extra mattresses and bedcovers so we had a very comfortable little den!! 8/1/11
To wake up to ..firstly the sound of cockerels at probably 4am- and then ELEPHANTS trumpeting at 6am! MY GOD! That was so crazy! Me and Julie's bed was right at the front of the shack and it was just a bamboo rail seperating us from the view! AND WOW! It was quite something to wake up to!
Today we fed the elephants some more- and bathed them too! So cute! Rachel had another little ride as well! :)
We then went rafting! the normal kind- and also on a bamboo made one! Dunno what they're called :s awesome fun! a nice end to a fun adventure with the elephants. we saw a few baby ones on the side of the river too.
After all these activites I was ready for one hell of a nap!! We got back to Chiang Mai around 5 maybe! We then planned to meet back up to go the Saturday Night Market!