An Elephant Never Forgets

The roosters in this hill tribe village were not quite as vocal as my previous overnight village experience, and I was very thankful for that! We all had to get up pretty early though to make our raft's 7am departure. Breakfast was waiting for us when we boarded. Maybe raft food is like camping food-even though it may be simple, it always tastes so good. After breakfast, I journalled for a bit, and then I decided to take another dip in the Kok. It was so much fun! I think I spent half of our trip that morning in the water. The rest of it, I spent drying in the sun. I probably should have been a little smarter and worn sunscreen though because my legs were a little crisp by the end of the trip. We made it to our destination at about noon: the elephant sanctuary! I was so excited to see all the elephants playing in the river when we came around the bend! Once we docked, we took a quick look at the snake farm. The five of the ACU interns decided to take a picture with a giant boa constrictor. I got the head, which kind of freaked me out because he kept turning around and hissing in my face.

After the snake excitement subsided, we grabbed a quick lunch before boarding our elephants. I rode on one with Melanie, and I couldn't really understand our guide because either he was named Tye or the elephant was. I found out that whenever an elephant is born, they recruit teenage boys to train them so they kind of both grow up together. Our ride was quite an adventure! It was so much fun though! Our elephant was quite the trail blazer and passed the other elephants like they were standing still! We rode for a little over an hour and then hopped off to catch a taxi to the waterfall. This waterfall was amazing! It was such a cool place for all of us to hang out at. I tried swimming through the waterfall to chill out behind it but that task proved more difficult than I had anticipated. I sure was glad when Kelly grabbed me and pulled me out of the pounding water. It was fun to sit behind the waterfall for a while. Even though there were thirty other people swimming ten feet in front of me, I felt so secluded from the world. When I came out, I saw John jump off this rock about 20 feet up, so I thought I would give it a go as well. It definitely was higher than I had estimated, but I managed to survive. We had to leave pretty quick after that because the Aggies had to get to their next village. We were to go our separate ways here. Before we left though, we sang "The Lord Bless You and Keep You"-the typical ACU goodbye song. I was really sad to see them go, but we should see them again one last time before they head back to the states. After the Aggies left, the Payap crowd jumped on our own taxi and headed for the bus station. We bought our bus tickets back to Chiang Mai and then grabbed some dinner from the Pizza Company. The bus ride was so nice! It was great to have a chance to relax for a while. I felt like I had been going nonstop for the past week. When we got in, we said a quick hi to everyone at the zone and then went straight to bed.