Elephants! [Kanchanaburi, Thailand]

Here we are, on our way!
We joined a day tour for 700baht each (think about 23 dollars), which included all the activities we did, transportation, and lunch! Great deal!
Actually, it was 800 baht originally, but our friend Victor is so good at haggling!
Our journey starts off with a two hour bus ride (air conditioned!) to Kanchanaburi!
No farting on the bus! =P

This is the famous, historical bridge for the Death Railway. Pretty wicked name, huh?
I think the movie "The Bridge Over the River Kwai" is about this bridge. I don't know too much about it and I've never seen the movie. But apparently a lot of people died to build this bridge in WWII.





Our next stop is bamboo river rafting!
First we took a little speed boat.





Then we gently floated down the river on this bamboo raft. It was starting to get hot out, but the water was so nice and cool.


The cool water feels so nice on my feet!


We got served a pretty delicious lunch! Also we were pretty full!


The Thailand bottled coke tastes so good!

Delicious pineapple for dessert!


After our lunch, time to go elephant trekking!

We felt kinda bad for the elephants since the drivers were sitting kinda on the elephants head. Then we started to think about how they must have domesticated these elephants...probably a lot of torture.
People started to feel really bad for the elephants. I mean, we didn't see them mistreat the elephants, but you just KNOW.
I felt kinda bad. But not really that bad. Domesticating any animal involves pretty much hitting them until they listen to you. I'm pretty sure that's how we get cows, too.

I'm on the elephant!
Our elephant was kinda smaller for three people, so we were seated on a bench saddle and it was ROCKING back and forth. So bumpy! That's why John is making that face, haha.
this is us on our elephant!


Haha this elephant was really interested in that girl! He was probing her with his trunk!
Cute baby elephant! But said that it's chained to its mommy.

After that, we went to the Erawan waterfall! It was pretty.




I tried to stay in the water because I was afraid of mosquitoes. I found these pretty flowers!
Doesn't it look cute in my hair? Probably got a lot of bugs in my hair though.



OKAY. You see what he's holding there? That is a DRINK in a BAG.
It's really common for Thai locals to get their drinks in a bag. I think it's more convenient because you don't need cup holders or table space to put the drink on, instead you can just hang it.
My brother had found that out this is a pretty big thing in Thailand, so we've made it our joke for years. SO IT HAS BECOME MY GOAL TO DRINK THAI TEA FROM A BAG! That's right. A bag, a straw, it's all I need!
After that, it was a two hour drive back to Bangkok. We arrived on Khao San road and I was STARVING. So I got this chicken gyro! I think they call it a kebab...but I think kebabs to us are meat on sticks. It wasn't spicy at ALL which was kindof a bummer, but it was delicious!
After that, we got real dinner! Here's my pad thai!
We were eating on a street side restaurant...literally a street. As you can see, there are just cars driving right behind us. You could get clipped by a sideview mirror!

Also, note our Chang beers! Not bad, for a beer.

This is a great picture of the green square on my shirt. I am HYPERallergic to mosquito bites and I bought these little anti-mosquito patches. You put them on your clothes and scratch them. They emit a kind of citrusy-cleaner-type-smell and it's supposed to keep the mosquitoes away. It worked most of the time!
Yeah it looks tacky...but what's tackier, neon squares or giant red swollen itchy bumps all over my body?