Our tuk tuks were set to leave at 9:30. Our drive out was interrupted briefly when we saw a jaguar cub in front of a furniture store. Not normal, but being a group of photographers, everyone jumped out to take some pictures.
Most of the time when we've gone on excursions on vacation we have spent the first half an hour getting directions, safety talks, etc. not here. Love it. Within minutes Josh and I were sitting on the back of an elephant. I'm fairly certain that when Josh got on the guys said "here's a big one". Our driver/guide claimed to not speak English, but as soon as I said something about the elephant eating, he said "don't worry, I get him".
We rode around on a seat on the elephant a bit. We were the first in line so when he asked if we wanted to ride on his head, we had to ask a few times to make sure we weren't having a language problem. We weren't. Josh climbed down and on we went with him riding on an elephant's head. We switched a ways through and continued on.
While riding an elephant like that was cool, nothing compares to riding an elephant rodeo style in a river. Elephant #1 was having none of this blowing what on me crap. I was on a full on rodeo trying to stay on this gigantic animal while she went forwards, backwards, up, down. Just when I was about exhausted they had me climb on the other elephant where I proceeded to get blasted in the face with water. Over and over over. I kept telling my guy I was done. After I told him tge fourth time, and he didn't understand, he declares Rodeo! No, no rodeo! The elephant swings her head side to side and I swiftly fall off. My leg muscles were gone.
I tried my best to get Josh out there in the river but it was to no avail. He was happy taking pictures. There are some of those experiences you just can't believe you get to be a part of. This was one of those. I've touched elephants. But never experienced up close.
We had a super quick lunch back at VN Guesthouse and all the girls figured out what to wear that would cover their shoulders and knees for the Tiger Temple. It's run by monks. I wasn't sure what to expect when we got to the Tiger Temple. Heck, what IS a tiger temple. Bobby stayed back so Hank led us to the Tiger Canyon. There were basically two options. Option 1 hand your camera to a volunteer and be handheld around to visit the tigers while volunteer takes a photo. For free. Option 2 was to pay $30 for a group to do the same thing and one person to take a pictur with a tiger lying his head in your lap. We went the free route. Being led around in this maze of lines with tigers that could easily kill us at any time was a rather odd feeling. They are beautiful and docile creatures up close.
After we finished that part the temple was closing. Each day 20 tickets are sold to stay and watch the tigers get exercised. Apparently no one knew other than is and one couple. After everyone else cleared we filed into a "cage" about 4 feet high. Lets be honest. If a 300 lb cat wants to kill me I don't think 4 feet is going to stop him. We spent half an hour watching, very up close I might add, as these large cats played, jumped and rolled. One said cat appeared to want me for dinner and kept locking in on me. We almost had a national geographic moment when a temple deer tried to come down into the canyon. Not a smart deer. And one tiger decided to make a run for it and climbed the waterfall. The very brave tiger handlers addressed the issue by whipping out a camera and slingshot. Again, if the tiger really wanted to escape?
When we got back to our tuk tuks we found one of them with hood propped up and the driver hunched over it. Not the view you want. Thirteen of us managed to cram into one tuk tuk and we became even better friends.
Another night on the porch chilling, editing and just plain enjoying Thailand.
Jenny playing in the water ON an elephant and Josh petting a tiger...amazing pictures.
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