When in Thailand, you ride an elephant.
The unspoken traveller's code
The last leg of my Thailand Spring Break was in Thailand's northern capital, Chiang Mai. A laid-back version of Bangkok surrounded by mountains, Chiang Mai is where backpackers go to chill and have adventures.
And I had adventures. In just one day, I took a bamboo raft down a river, rode on a cart driven by some interesting Asian oxen, and went zip-lining. But the highlight of that day, hands down, was riding an elephant for the first time.
My first view of an elephant!!!!!
On the elephant!!
Agnes and Kay having quite the adventure on their elephant.
Elvin and I had our own adventure. As we were going along, a guy on the elephant ahead of us dropped one of his flip-flops so the mahout (the elephant trainer/driver) had to disembark the elephant to retrieve. I turned to Elvin and warned him to be careful with his flip flops and not drop them. And what happens? Almost immediately, one of Elvin's flip flops fell to the ground. So our mahout jumped down and fetched Elvin's flip flop. Annoying, but no big deal, right?
The elephant had other ideas. The elephant continued on without its mahout and with us still on its back. And it was moving. And I was having a heart-attack. Because I kind of have a history of animals running away while I'm riding them and I was sure that this was another one of those moments.
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| A picture of us as our elephant started to run away from the Mahout, courtesy of Agnes Mystek |
At last, the mahout caught up with the elephant and everything was good. The elephant even sprayed me with water! Adorable!
On our way back to the elephant camp, the mahout let me sit in the front. It was so exciting!
Scared much?
YEE-HAW!!!
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