A migraine and a long van ride sure will help me get a good night's sleep. I must have slept a good 10 hours and woke up ready to ride some elephants. Of course I ordered the banana pancakes I had heard so much about. Super fluffy with banana pieces throughout. Yum. Josh was happy to finally have some ham/bacon.

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.

Twelve hours in a van. 12 has stops. It may have been longer. We were supposed to take a train to Kanchanabri but there had been some sort of dangerous incident recently. Instead we took an overnight van ride. I actually did sleep most the way. We only had 5 people per van so it wasn't horrible with spacing. The worst part was two hours in when we stopped for gas and our drivers woke me up to make me get out. I kept saying no but they made me. I probably misunderstood but I'm not a happy person when you wake me up. We arrived at our next spot about 11:30 the next day and other than a few spurts, I slept most of the way.

My body was obviously completely confused because immediately upon walking onto the restaurant porch my migraine aura started. Luckily Josh grabbed my injection quickly and I was able to catch it early enough that it didn't ruin the whole day. We only had gotten three rooms so far. I'm sure the group thought I was nuts when I just crashed on the first bed I saw. They ended up giving me that room after all.

After a nap I thought my body needed some food balance. I hadn't seen where we were at all. While I was sleeping I thought I was imagining swaying. When I got up I realized our room was on a floating dock. Bobby best described it. Kind of like floating trailers. It sounds yucky but thy are pretty cool. Great breezes and tons of wildlife sounds. Über peaceful.

The restaurant is up the hill a tad and has a porch looking out over the water. The space closest to the water is filled with low tables and mats to lounge on. All the food is made here by the staff. It's good homecooked food. I told the staff my stomach hurt so they me a rice and broth soup not on the menu. A little salty and exactly what I needed. That's why I love places like this.

Normally the group doesn't arrive until 5 so we had the rest of the day to ourselves. Josh wanted a massage so we ventured up the road towards town. It is nothing like the past places we came from. Other than a handful of people our group were the only tourists I saw. There were several little inns along the river like ours. My guess is that everyone staying around here is doing so for the excursions like us.

The heat was pretty intense. It probably wasn't the smartest idea for me to be walking in it with my fever. We saw some interesting stuff. A roadside bar to get drunk for 10 baht (30 cents), a dreadlock repair man, a pretty rad rice shop and a used bookstore with the new book on my list - selling for new price, smart business woman.

There were massage parlors everywhere. How would we decide. Rap rap rap! Linda and Brie were sitting right inside the massage studio we were walking by and saw us. They knew we had been wanting to do one so they grabbed us. Linda has been having at least one massage a day so if she says it is a good place I will take her word for it.

After a wee bit of confusion over what we wanted they led us to the back room here four mattresses, the thickness of cheap cribs, were on the floor in a row. They put a waterproof cover over each one and then a sheet and then ordered we undress. I explained I only wanted my upper body and kept my shorts on. Josh did the same and hen they drew some curtains back in front me so no one could see us. It was surprisingly cool and breezy back there.

I'm not a massage expert but I've had quite a few. These ladies were the strongest masseuses I've ever experienced. They spoke no English so josh and I had to get creative with how to tell them when it hurt. (We looked it up with Bobby later). They climbed all over us. Dug their elbows into us. The best part was the head massage part. I may be sore but there can't possibly be any of that migraine tension left. $7. That's how much our best ever, albeit strong and terrifying, cost us. Next we are trying a foot massage.

We came back to the hotel relaxed and vegged out on the porch. This seemed to be what everyone did. We ate early. Watched an amazing sunset right over the river (the trees make it look like Africa to me) and just socialized. Everyone was exhausted and we called it a super early night. Tomorrow is elephants and tigers!

The morning seemed to start out well. We were all to meet for breakfast at 8:30. Josh and I had apparently gone home a lot earlier than some and there were questions about who would make it up for breakfast. Eventually, everyone was accounted for except Lucas. He had apparently never made it home last night. People had expected to find him asleep in front of the hotel or on th beach. No signs. Seemed strange but no one was overly worried. He is a big guy and had left the bar last night to go see the moy tai fights in Patong. He probably got a cheap room there.

There are surprisingly few restaurants open for breakfast at this time. We went down the street a but and found a place that was open and had pictures of eggs. This should work. We had just ordered when Michael joined us and started talking quietly to Bobby. Bobby swiftly excused himself and we were all left looking at Michael. The hotel had just told him Lucas was in the hospital.

The mood turned somber. Some girls started crying. Some people started guessing what had happened. I figured it couldn't have been too horrible if he was coherent enough to tell them where he was staying and with whom. I'm pretty sure that sober and uninsured Josh couldn't have done that. Turns out he was on his way home and was the passenger on a scooter. He thankfully had a helmet on but there was a crash. He doesn't remember what happened but he came to on the side of h road and then later in the hospital. He was quite lucky with a black eye and scrapes.

So that's a depressing start to the day! We at least know he's okay now. Our group gatherers and beads over to the Phuket Cobra Show. I'm not thrilled about being anywhere near these things. Before the show we get to take a snake farm tour. See some pregnant boa constrictors and lord know what other kinds. I just want to get through this as quickly as possible.

I somehow ended up in the back of the group and by the time I turned the corner to the show stands the whole group was seated on the front row. Everyone except Josh that is. I joined him up higher. I figured if the King Cobra got out of the ring it would attack all the people down low first. The music soon started thumping and the Announcer welcomed us. Lots of jokes about ladyboys and missing fingers were made. I'm not entirely sure what wasa joke and what wasn't.

For Round 1, Jim (who was missing a finger and I'm pretty sure was drunk) risked his life and I'm sure mine by taunting three cobras. Although it felt rather constrained, I was still scared out of my mind. For some reason Josh decided to get up and walk over by the open cages to take pictures from the bak of the ring. That is a horrible idea for someone who can't understand broken English spoken with a Thai accent. I finally told him to sit is butt back down and stop moving. The memory that will stick in my head is when the handler brought one of the snakes around for people to see the fangs up close. Josh and Josh scurried up those bleachers so fast you would think there was a fire. I wish I had taped it.

Round 2 was three mangrove snakes. Much smaller but quicker. This was the round where audience participation was welcomed. What? Of course only people from our group were crazy enough to partake in this. Luckily we didn't have any more trips to the hospital that day.

Round 3 was a king cobra. They are the largest venomous snake at up to 18 feet. My stomach was completely ready to hurl by this point. I made it through the final round and was happy to return to the van. I'm not sure I'd say I enjoyed it but I survived.

Now that I was hungry, kidding, we headed back to Elephant for lunch. We had some creative service where half of the drinks came after the first half of our table had already eaten. Of course I got the late drinks. I continued my creative ordering with a noodle soup. Super yummy.

After lunch we caught a van down to Patong Beach where we were catching our long tails. It was amazing how less crazy that beach street was when the cruise ship was gone. The tourist folks were still there but they weren't jumping on us like before. We boarded two long tails and headed out to Freedom Beach, an island about 20 minutes out.

Hank had been talking up this mad volleyball playing all trip so we had to stop and get a rock hard ball on the way to Patong. Just in case. The beach was beautiful. Perfect sand. Tall palm trees and tons of umbrellas in the shade. Apparently this was the first year you had to pay $3 (or $4 depending on the minute you asked) for chairs. Oh well. I was petrified to get in the water be ause I saw several little jellyfish on the beach. Instead we explored the black boulders along the shore and climbed the stairs up the side of the hill to get a view of the beach from up top. Finally, my extreme heat exhaustion gave way to my fear and we got. It was pure peace. The rest of the afternoon was spent with me under an umbrella and josh on a volleyball court.

Somehow Bobby, like always, managed to work it out so that we were the very last two boats to leave the island. We watched a spectacular sunset and were very entertained by the couple doing their own x-rated photo shoot. If only they knew who we all were. I don't think our boats were supposed to wait so late to come in to get us. The surf was pretty high and I was convinced a few times the boat would tumble. Half our group had to change boats out in the water, with camera gear, because one captain went home early. There were huge swells in our little rickety wooden boat but we did make it back. The lady in charge yelled at Bobby for our late return for a while but changed her tune when she realized what happened.

Dinner in Patong was the least appetizing and most expensive. Pizza and $8 Haagen Daaz. I was craving it so I didn't care. At 8:30 we were all wiped out and headed back to the hotel to shower, pack and load the vans. After a few people managed to convince the hotel to sell them pillows, we were on the road in three vans for an overnight 12 hour ride. Yep. You read that right. Thank goodness I brought that camping pillow and Ambien.