Activity day

Yesterday I went to ride a bike, torture an elephant and went white water rafting.

We went out into the jungle. It felt like I was in a video game again. Specifically, Crysis. The cycling was basically a gimmick to make the leaflet look better. We rode along a slightly hilly road for 4km. I realised how fit I've gotten when the other 2 guys on the tour and the guide struggled to get up the relatively small hills. I'd only just count them as hills. The highlight was seeing a baby sitting in the middle of the road just hanging out.

Then we arrived at the elephant camp. I didn't really have any interest in elephants at all. I say that I was torturing them because some do gooders at the hostel had a bit of a go at me saying I was  doing just that. So I told them my aim was to mistreat the elephants as much as possible. I told them I'd bring them back an ear each. One of the do gooders is in the bed above me and he has dengue fever. He has no problem sharing that with everyone in the hostel.

I don't know if the elephants are mistreated or not. But they seemed to be having a great time. Riding an elephant is probably the least fun thing you can do with an elephant. I'd have preferred to walk next to them. Having said that, it was still really cool. My elephant was a bit of a loose cannon. The guides control the elephants with voice commands and the elephants obey. But mine would sneak off into the bushes and ignore the guides until they got cross with her. She was also very touchy with the other elephants and us. She'd constantly be playing with the tails of other elephants and putting her trunk back to feel for us. Another group of elephants passed us in the opposite direction and she decided to grab one of their tails and follow them until the guide shouted at her. When I got off she came over to me and posed for a selfie. They have amazing eyes. They are just like people eyes.

After that we rode back to the camp on the bikes for lunch. We went off road a little bit on the way back which was fun.

The white water rafting was the main reason I booked the tour. This was the only tour that had a longer course. The water level is down as it is the dry season so it was 10km instead of 14km. The rapids were category 3 which isn't too bad at all but still fun. It was a really good way to see the jungle. We jumped out and swam in the quieter sections. We also saw some elephants taking a swim and some people washing them. That would have been way more enjoyable than riding around on one.

Today I'm going to Pai. Everyone is going to Pai at some point. Maybe everyone in the world. There is a big group of us from the hostel all getting the bus up. I don't actually know what there is to do in Pai, but many people said to go so I will. I think I'm going to hire a scooter and zoom around. I'll have to check if my travel insurance covers it. Dan's mate Dobbers came back from Pai covered in bandages from when he stacked his scooter and used his body to protect it. It's cheaper to fix himself than to fix a scooter.