The Bucket list: #12 - COMPLETED

I did it!!...what I blogged about some weeks ago, I managed to cross off my list in Thailand.

Going in October was definitely a plus point as that is their rainy season, [I never got wet once], was very quiet. The hotels and tourist spots weren't overcrowded and being near the equator I don't think I had a day where it was under 30 degrees. Needless to say I came back 3-4 shades darker, without being exposed to the sun that much and made sure I was never in the midday sun. I'm sure the cold of the English weather will diminish my lovely South East Asian tan though with a quickness...it always does.

I have no idea what my elephant's name was. I didn't even know if it was a male or a female. For some reason I'm going to take a wild guess and say it was female.

Now my elephant [let's just call it Nelly] was small in comparison to the other elephants I saw, but when I was on it, it was high up enough for me.

The chillin' chicken

I had to climb up in this tree house type of a structure where a chicken was chilling and a dog too, and climb onto the elephant. I was strapped in with a safety belt. Why on earth would I need a seat belt like contraption on an elephant?? I had visions of this elephant rising up on it's hind legs and throwing me off. That's when I got all Western and Hyacinth Bucket [that woman is so like my mother] and gripped on for dear life, trying to make sure the guide as well as the elephant didn't catch on that I was having a WTF moment and really wanted to say "screw the bucket list and everything on it. I want to go back and catch up on some sleep". But I didn't.

My goodness was Nelly slow. When it decided it wanted to chill and eat some leaves the guide got annoyed and started mumbling in Thai, kissing his teeth and commanding the elephant. When Nelly didn't respond he had some kind of hook on a stick and would drag the elephant along by the ear in the direction of where it wanted to go. That bit I honestly didn't like. I began to feel sorry for the elephant. Intelligent animals as they are to be able to understand and follow commands in any language, meant they probably understood a lot more too. I got the sense my elephant was quite sad, it really seemed that it was, and probably didn't like cavorting around tourists like me on a daily basis.

Nelly wandered through the thick bush of the Thai rainforest and proceeded to take huge football sized dumps as it went. Elephant dump after dump was littered along the pathways, but it didn't smell as bad as you would have expected.

You call that a dropping???

I got bitten about 5 times going through this forest and those bites itched like a mutha for the next 3 or so days. Luckily I had my Click It device that you zap a tiny electric shock to the bite causing it to stop itching. It worked as best as it could, but the way I was going needed a flippin 150,000 volt taser.

I am not even making this up, there were creatures in those bushes, behind trees, you name it they were there. If I saw a snake, or a monkey decided to drop out of the sky on my head it would have been all over. I got all Hyacinth Bucket again and fixed my face like she and my mother would, holding my backpack close to me and praying if anything jumped out, that Nelly wouldn't wild out throwing me off and leaving me in a pile of dung [how dramatic am I?] It didn't happen though..thank God! Whatever was in the bushes stayed in the bushes.

After my elephant ride was done, Nelly moved her trunk toward me, like it wanted to play. I can't and won't lie I was petrified. I don't like snakes or anything snake like and her trunk looked like one so I wasn't going to go there. Nelly actually looked quite sad that I didn't want to pet him/her. And I in turn actually felt quite bad.

This is a video I shot of 'Nelly' after the trek.