Gentle Giants

Did you know that elephants only sweat through their toes?

(If you didn't, you do now)

Thailand is known for its accessibility to ride elephants

and as many people would assume most are mistreated.

This is not the case at the Patara Elephant farm, the farm aims to

rehabilitate elephants who have the potential to breed. 40 years ago

there was 6000 elephants in Thailand, today their is only 3205. The farm

not only educates tourists but also gives them the opportunity to 

bond with their elephants during a one on one session.

We began the day by meeting their new baby calf which was

40 days old. It goes to show that the work they

are doing their is seriously making a differnce as last

 year they bought 5 new baby elephants into the world.

(Which are seriously so cute)

 We then moved onto the main part of the experience.

We were each given an elephant to 'make friends with', Robyn's

was called Punchan, Megan's Menoey, and Erin's Menoi.

(that's probably not how you spell their names)

We were taught how to feed and brush them, turns out

elephants don't stop eating ALL day (which just goes to

 show they aren’t that different to Robyn and Megan)

 It was bath time next.

(que the rubber ducks)

We made our way down to the waterfall where we

all clambered onto the back of our new found friends and 

gave them a good scrub down.

 Which they seemed to thoroughly enjoy as they

flapped their ears and wagged their tails.

 (Apparently they seemed to think we needed a scrub down too)

 Finally, we ended our trip on a road side stroll down the mountain.

You know at home when you see a horse

trotting down the road and you wouldn’t think twice about it,

here it is EXACTLY the same just replace the horse with an

elephant.

 Today has been so surreal and we couldn't be

happier that we've experienced a once in a lifetime opportunity to

learn and ride these beautiful animals.

lots of love

Megan, Robyn and Erin

xx

P.S do you like my new gear?

 

Paradise

Everyone has their idea of paradise, ours

was always something you saw in a holiday brochure, or

on the TV however, you never believe these places are really as

good as they look. That all changed when we came to Krabi.

(dun dun duuuuuuuun, that sounds all so dramatic aha)

It took a taxi, plane, bus, a walk through the sea, a boat, a walk out

of the sea, to get to this beautiful place, but once you're here it's SO worth it.

It's the type of place that you have to walk through palm trees to get to breakfast.
 Once you're at breakfast you're greeted by an all you can
 eat buffet with every food imaginable, (the pancakes and the
 garlic bread being a top favourite) your entertainment for the morning is monkeys swinging through the trees above your head. The view is something else, white sand, blue sea, hot sun beaming down on you, it's all a bit overwhelming that a place so perfect and so beautiful exists when you're used to St Ives, a small town where it often rains.

We spent most of our time by the pool or on the beach,

(being the white girls we are, we all burnt on the first day)

we even braved a hike one day, which can only be described as a sweaty

experience (ew, I know). The evenings were warm, and every night the most

romantic sunset lit up the beach which people would sit on mats and watch the sun go down. This life is something we could get used to.

We even found a 'chocolate milk' alternative, fresh fruit ice smoothies,

which on a hot day went down a treat. (However, now that we are on

our way to Chiang Mai we are looking forward to having those 27 Baht

chocolate milk's back in our lives)

Hope everyone is well back home.

Lots of love,

Megan, Robyn and Erin

Day 1 of 170

How would you describe Bangkok?

Personally I'd describe it as a bee hive. Everyone has somewhere 

to be and everyone has something to do and in all honesty the most

accurate word is 'crazy'. There is constantly so much going on around you

and you never know quite where to look (I literally saw people selling teeth

which was by far the creepiest thing and in fact I'd quite like to 'un-see' it)

So all of us have been waiting and dreaming of travelling from a young age, 

however, nothing could prepare you for walking out into a foreign

city with absolutely no clue of what or where you are supposed to be going. 

Luckily the Thai community are all very friendly and before 

we knew it we were thrown into a tuk tuk and being driven around Bangkok. Now, let me tell you, England would have more than a few health and safety rules if they could see the way these Tuk Tuk's are driven

 (I feared for our life's on several occasions). 

After being taken around some of the local temples we made our way to the floating market which was truly relaxing as we sailed along the Chao Phraya river. However, as soon as we came across another tourist boat, our driver thought it was a brilliant idea to have a race, which we can say first hand, is not the most pleasant experience as you receive a face full of dirty river water.

We ended our Bangkok tour with the Grand Palace, which although is beautiful and one of the most majestic buildings we have ever seen it had it's faults

which Erin more than anyone else was more than welcome to point out.

Out of respect we were told to enter the building wearing trousers and a long sleeve top. For an average Thai person this, I'm sure was

perfectly normal, however, for foreign English girls in 31 degree heat it soon

became a bit of a problem. An hour later we were all so hot it felt like we

were being roasted. Luckily for us we soon came across some 'chocolate milk'

which has fast become one of favourite items to purchase here in Bangkok.

We spent the rest of the day exploring overcrowded markets and eating some

of the nicest noodles and Thai curry you've ever tried (food here is honestly

indescribable)

 lots of love

Megan, Robyn and Erin

xxx