Nick - Elephants and Rambo

After yesterday's cooking class I walked around a bit and found out that there is a famous weekend market here. The whole city turns into a giant market and the streets are filled with musicians. I had some gift shopping to do so I ventured further into the bowls of the city. Anything you could imagine was for sell here and CHEAP! One of my most memorable moments in this market happened while I was walking down a particularly packed street when over the cities PA system they asked everyone to please rise for the Thai national anthem and as the music started EVERYONE stopped moving and talking at once. It was like out of a thriller movie with zombies, aside from the music you could hear a pin drop anywhere in the city! And as it finished everyone started to move again as if nothing happened. I finished shopping (man-o-man funds are low...) and returned to my hotel for a quiet evening.

This morning I woke up early to catch my shuttle. It arrived and I was informed that I would be the only customer all day. I was a little bummed but at least I would get to see some elephants. We arrived at the elephant camp and to my surprise there were hundreds of elephants! Babies to full grown adults. It had a very Jurassic Park feel to it as the gates and aisle-ways were super tall. The rioting must have hit this region pretty hard because I only counted 5 other tourists. The elephant I was to ride was ironically called "Dumbo" and the driver "Cookie". We set off through the jungle and a slow pace, I can't describe well enough the sheer awesomeness of seeing herds of elephants roaming around freely. These are (excuse the pun) mammoth-size creatures that shake the ground as they walk. I took more photos with my disposable (God I hope they turn out) and since I was the only tourist on the trek the driver let me drive for a little while; which involved kicking the side of my elephant's head and shouting mean sounding Thai words at him. But I made it up to him by buying bananas and sugarcane at every stand. Dumbo and I got to be great friends. The mountain biking was lame but then we jumped into a safari truck and drove about an hour straight into the heart of the jungle where we met the rafting camp. Again because I was he only one they gave me and extra hour (which means we went to the head of the river) and we had to use a canoe (inflatable rapid canoe). My captain was a psycho looking Thai man with a hint of we're-going-down-in-a-blaze-of-glory about him. We set off with my guide shouting some funny comment like "try not to lose this one ok!?". The scenery was heart-stopping (picture scenes from Rambo, Anaconda I) my ears were riddled with jungle noises: monkeys, birds, elephants, and it smelled thick with life. All of a sudden a tropical down pour hit us which drown out the jungle banter and....Let's just say it was THEE most spectacular spectacle I have ever witnessed (Matt I am going to kill you for leaving early!). Drifting calmly down the river I asked if there were any alligators or crocodiles to which my guide said "no, anacondas yes". Then came the rapids...

We had been practicing Thai commands: left "say", Right "Khwa", get down "Lng", when he said "here come first rapid". It was pure chaos (in a fun/terrifying way), water was coming from all directions someone was shouting Thai and someone else was wishing they spoke it. What a RUSH! Occasionally he wold tell me "careful." which I quickly learned meant "after we go careening down this next waterfall there will be a rock in the middle that you will smash into so please do take the necessary preparations." It only took two times before I learned that "careful" = bend knees, brace for impact, broken toe will hurt no matter what. But we made it through relatively unscathed. Limping up the trail (the river wasn't so high yet so i received a few unexpected rock bumps in a few unexpected places) my captain (named Boots) told me I was a natural and should consider a job there. Ya right!

Tomorrow I play with baby and full grown tigers so in case anything should happen I love you all and please play "Eye of the Tiger" at my funeral. :)