Even before arriving in Thailand we all knew we wanted to go elephant riding. Everyone on my squad had heard about how cool it was and of course wee wanted to experience it for ourselves. I was really excited to ride an elephant through the jungle, because honestly when will I ever have the opportunity to do this again.
When we arrived in Chiang Mai, Thailand we told our contact, Emmi, that we wanted to ride elephants and we asked how we could make that happen. Emmi, being the wonderful woman she is, set up for us to go ride elephants through the jungle, go bamboo rafting, and go to a waterfall all for $30. Oh yeah lunch and transportation was also included in that price. So on our first day off in Thailand we got up early and rode 1 1/2 hours in a sung tao, basically a covered pick-up truck with benches in the back, to ride elephants. At this point I'm starting to get a little nervous, because I had never ridden anything bigger than a horse, and I hadn't done that in years. Despite my nerves I was going to ride the elephant, because I couldn't pass up this once in a lifetime opportunity.
Now we have arrived at our destination and I see how large elephants really are, which you don't realize that until you strand beside one. I'm getting really nervous at this point but there was no way I was gonna chicken out. We had to ride in pairs so I decided to ride with Betty, because I knew no matter what I would enjoy my time with her. So we of coarse get the biggest elephant they have, we climb on and sat in the bench on its back and we head out on our adventure. After about 5 minutes our guide has Betty sit where he was and he jumped off the elephant and continued to walk beside us. At this point I am thinking, if this animal decides to run off there is no way of stopping it and I will have to just go along for the ride. That's was a little nerve racking. However, after about 15 minutes I realized that the elephant was very well trained and as long as we kept feeding it bananas and sugar canes it was going to go wherever we wanted it to. Then I was able to enjoy my ride through the jungles of Thailand. It was so beautiful and I of coarse loved my time with Betty as well.
Next we went off to the waterfall. First we stopped at this little village that was basically built to sell things to tourist. After that we rode to the top of this hill and climbed down about 60 steps to get to this waterfall. It was honestly one of the most gorgeous things I have ever seen. So I sat last the bottom of this waterfall and just soaked in the beauty of God's creation.
Finally, our last stop was bamboo rafting. Now I had no idea what that even meant so my expectations were set pretty low. When we arrived I realized that these rafts were just 4 pieces of 8-10 foot long pieces of bamboo tied together. So Liz, Krystyna, and I were on a raft together. We start off just floating down this river gently, then all of the sudden we started getting splashed, so we decided to splash back. This then started a free for all. People were jumping from one raft to another, and knocking each other into the water. Even our guides got into it, well more like started it, but it was still a ton of fun. We rode through some little rapids, and Liz even got to steer our raft. Overall, it was an amazing day and totally worth the $30 I paid to do it. I would highly recommend if you are ever in Thailand, specifically Chaing Mai, that you go on this adventure. You won't regret it!
