A bucket list worthy day!
October 29, 2016
Wow wow wow! Where to start is all I have to say.
Today has been a fun filled day with non stop adventure. It started at the crack of dawn when we were picked up by our tour guide in a van filled with 7 other people. Some from Argentina others from Australia! One thing that I love about visiting Thailand is all of the other types of people that I've met from other countries. It is awesome.
So our first stop on our day tour was the Phang Nga costal research and development center. We got to see baby turtes, coral reef, nemo fish and lots of other cool sea creatures. We even saw an ALLIGATOR! Kinda freaky! We got to pick up the turtles and take pictures with them. They felt so cool. Here in Thailand, if you are caught catching them you go to jail for 5 YEARS! So don't do anything to harm them! Ever!
Today has been a fun filled day with non stop adventure. It started at the crack of dawn when we were picked up by our tour guide in a van filled with 7 other people. Some from Argentina others from Australia! One thing that I love about visiting Thailand is all of the other types of people that I've met from other countries. It is awesome.
So our first stop on our day tour was the Phang Nga costal research and development center. We got to see baby turtes, coral reef, nemo fish and lots of other cool sea creatures. We even saw an ALLIGATOR! Kinda freaky! We got to pick up the turtles and take pictures with them. They felt so cool. Here in Thailand, if you are caught catching them you go to jail for 5 YEARS! So don't do anything to harm them! Ever!
After that we headed over to the bamboo river raft. Just picture the most beautiful river in the middle of the jungle with a long bamboo raft on it. Let's just say it was too good for words.... Kinda! Let me explain. We were the first of our group to hop on the rafts, we start going down the river and it's pretty mellow and calm. Not too fast. We get to this point in the river where there are two large rocks on both sides, I'm wondering how is he going to navigate us through this? Well all of a sudden we slam into one of the giant rocks and the raft just starts going DOWN. Before I know it I am holding onto the top of the raft for dear life like in titanic when jack is holding on, but without the ice burg part. So Clint is already jumped off the raft and is on the top of the giant rock, meanwhile my sandal is starting to fall off preventing me from getting a good grip to actually get on top of the rock as well. I'm trying to navigate myself onto the rock without loosing my shoe or get dragged into the stream. Now this sounds a little bit more dramatic in writing but you get the picture. Anyways Clint grabs me and helps me up onto the rock. Our friends come flying by us in their raft just waving and laughing hahah the next tour guide on a raft ties his to a tree and helps our guide navigate the raft back upwards and past the giant rocks. We hop back on it and everything is okay. I'm just a little traumatized HA but hey we always have at least one crazy thing happen on every trip we've been on so this was bound to happen! We make it down the rest of the river safe and sound.
After that we ate a delicious Thai lunch with cashew chicken, fruit, deep fried shrimp and rice! It was very good and I'm super picky so that's saying something. We then drove to the waterfall! When we got there, a man was holding these two baby sloth monkey type looking things and my heart just melted. He let me hold them and they just wrapped their hands around your finger like a baby does and fell asleep in my arms. It was the cutest thing in the world. I would show you a picture but they wanted to make us pay so we didn't take one. But we got to play in the crystal clear waterfall for a little bit and that was a blast!
Next we started the 40 min. ride to the elephant trekking! Once we got to the camp, we immediately saw elephants everywhere. They were so majestic in all of their glory. I could stare in awe of them all day. We got out the car and walked up the hill a little bit so that we could hop on our elephant! They had enough room on their for two people to sit on the seats, so we hopped on and started the ride. It was crazy how high up we felt and we could see the whole jungle it felt like. The elephant guide was sitting on the head area of the elephant and was singing this beautiful Thai song and it just created the most perfect environment for riding an elephant in the jungle in Thailand. Does it get any better? Now all of a sudden he hops off the elephant and looks and Clint and says go down, so Clint carefully maneuvered his way down to the head. Then the tour guide asks me for my phone and he just starts taking pictures of us! It was awesome, the rest of the way he kept just snapping photos. Then Clint and I switched and I sat on the head of the elephant. I honestly thought I was going to fall off because there is nothing to hold onto but it was so cool. I felt so connected to the elephant and just kept petting her head and loving her. It was truly magical. Elephants are capable of feeling love, joy, anger, sadness, grief and happiness just like humans. They are so close to humans in so many ways and it was cool to get on such a different level with them.
Next we started the 40 min. ride to the elephant trekking! Once we got to the camp, we immediately saw elephants everywhere. They were so majestic in all of their glory. I could stare in awe of them all day. We got out the car and walked up the hill a little bit so that we could hop on our elephant! They had enough room on their for two people to sit on the seats, so we hopped on and started the ride. It was crazy how high up we felt and we could see the whole jungle it felt like. The elephant guide was sitting on the head area of the elephant and was singing this beautiful Thai song and it just created the most perfect environment for riding an elephant in the jungle in Thailand. Does it get any better? Now all of a sudden he hops off the elephant and looks and Clint and says go down, so Clint carefully maneuvered his way down to the head. Then the tour guide asks me for my phone and he just starts taking pictures of us! It was awesome, the rest of the way he kept just snapping photos. Then Clint and I switched and I sat on the head of the elephant. I honestly thought I was going to fall off because there is nothing to hold onto but it was so cool. I felt so connected to the elephant and just kept petting her head and loving her. It was truly magical. Elephants are capable of feeling love, joy, anger, sadness, grief and happiness just like humans. They are so close to humans in so many ways and it was cool to get on such a different level with them.
After we rode the elephants, we walked over to get some water and meet the cutest baby elephant. She played the harmonica for us while hula hooping with the her trunk. It was insane how good she was! She also gave everyone a short little massage with her trunk! It was so funny to watch and surprisingly pretty strong LOL Who knew elephants were so talented? We took some pictures with her and watched her get a little bath. It was such a fun time!
The last stop on our tour was to head to the monkey zoo and Buddha cave ( Phang Nga- Wat Tham Suwan). I wish we could have spent more time here because there was so much to see. As we rolled up to the cave, we got to see all of the monkeys just chilling around it. Vendors were selling bananas to feed the monkeys, so we bought a couple bags and headed over to feed them. It was so cute seeing the mommy monkeys with their baby's holding onto them. We loved feeding them and having them jump up to grab the food. It was awesome. After we had our fill with the monkeys we walked to the opening of the cave. We went inside and saw a ton of Buddha statues as well as the famous laying down one. We kept walking through the cave and it felt like it kept going on forever. It was HUGE. There were so many different openings where there were bats and cool carvings. This place is a must see if you ever visit Phuket.
Well that wraps up one of my most bucket list worthy days ever. Hold a sea turtle (check), Ride an elephant( check), Float on a bamboo raft ( check) and Feed monkeys ( check). SO if you want to check a lot of cool items off of your bucket list, I highly recommend doing this excursion. WE LOVE THAILAND. XOXO