What better way to distract me from my hilltribe quandry than to go for an elephant ride. There are elephant camps throughout Thailand for the purposes of training them for work, not to mention raising them and nursing them back to health. Once an elephant is retired from the workforce, they are sold to companies that give elephant rides to tourists.

Since we were a party of three, the girls got the seat, and I had to sit on the neck of our steed, which we nicknamed 'Charlie'. I was riding bareback (neck?) and spent the majority of the hour long trip with Charlie's shoulder blades grinding into my butt. It was quite hot and dry, so to cool itself, Charlie would huff loads of dust, and spray it onto its sides and back, the brunt of which I got in the face. My perch got a little daunting when the path took a steep decline and I almost fell down the 'phant's face. Luckily I had a big set of ears to grab onto in the nick of time. Just at the end of our little ride, Charlie got to cool himself off with a walk through a stream, and was a little reluctant to leave despite the trainer's beckoning. The elephant also sucked up a noseful of water, at which point I began to feel quite vulnerable. Luckily, Charlie only washed his sides off, and then left the stream, at which point the ride was done.

We also went rafting that day, first a white-water portion with the whole rubber raft and helmet setup, followed by a lazy portion on a bamboo raft. The water levels were quite low this time of year, but the white water rafting was quite fun anyway. However, since we arrived here right at the end of the day, there were not enough bamboo gondoliers to accomodate our group.... comfortably. So I ended up on a raft with six people that is meant to hold four, and spent the next hour drifting downstream with the raft submerged about a 18 inches underwater, lurching crazily from side to side. Furthermore, the sun was starting to recede, and I had actually forgotten bathing gear, opting in the spirit of "giv'er" to just go in my shorts. By the end of the trip, the sun was setting, I was soaked, and spent the trip home wrapped in a blanket I'd picked up earlier in the day.