Elephant Day

OK, so not every tour company is as organized as some others. We had a fun day including some real laughs about what some Thai tour companies think tourists are looking for.
First we picked up the other 10 people in our group and piled into a song-they ( remember the pickup with facing seats in the back??). Cozy
When we got to the elephant camp they were short some elephants so we had to ride 2 to a seat and one on the elephant's neck. Not enough volunteers, so this poor Korean girl traveling alone got conscripted to ride ours. The path the elephants took was REALLY steep and she was scared so the mahout finally allowed her to fit in with us. Riding an elephant is fun cause you are quite high up. It's fun even when the elephant stands at the edge of a drop off and tries to reach for some tasty leaves.
Afterwards, We had lunch of fried rice and fresh pineapple and began our jungle hike. This time the jungle was dry, so even though it was steep, it wasn't slippery. Our guide was very knowledgeable about the flora and stopped frequently to show us different plants and explain how they are used for cooking and medicine. We tasted all of them- mostly very bitter.
Then came the RAFT RIDE. In the states, if you go white water rafting you have to sign all sorts of disclaimers and the river drivers are all about protecting you and protecting the raft from damage. Well, it was a bit different here. We launched the raft directly into white water and off we went! We got stuck on rocks, twirled around , went through rapids sideways and backwards, Wheee!
Towards the end we reached shallow quiet waters. We got out of the river rafts and they brought over these rafts made of about eight large bamboo stems held together with wire. It submerged under the cold water when we got on. We shot up onto our knees on the thing which was tipping and twisting all over the place but it couldn't hold the weight of the 6 people on our raft. Two people got back into the rubber raft and the rest of us floated down the now quiet waters kneeling on these "rafts" submerged up to our waist in water. No photos because we could not protect the camera from the water.
Then it was back in the truck for the ride home. All part of the adventure!