elephants, bamboos, and dirt

alright I did it and went for one of these crazy package deals: trekking AND elephants AND bamboo rafting AND watching "mountain people" in one of these semi-exploitative touristic ways (I add semi because we didn't really see much of them - fair enough - and those we did see tried to sell things in a most instistent way).
and speaking of packages: elephants, man! the guiness book or whoever keeps track of these things were not kidding! Me and the Canadian couple rode a lady though, who was initially sort of obstinate (upon looking up this word, I found it to be well represented within the animal kingdom - mulish, pig-headed, bullheaded.. - with the elephant being terribly misrepresented). Then however she took a great big fart, which we took to be sign of another animal at first, and a giant dump and then she was all sweet(wish I could take such a dump...). they are really amazing creatures, I am very much enthralled!

here's me on an elephant





here's a smudge on my camera and the brits look therefore really holy:\


our guide, Joe, was styling himself after Indiana Jones, with a mighty moustache, fond of taking off his shirt and slapping his round muscular belly and lauding his own food (which I didn't fancy much to be honest. I keep asking everyone to make it hot and spicy, and much of the stuff is really sugary). So Joe, who was equally fond of uninvitedly touching others, me for example, was not my favorite but he redeemed himself in my eyes by carving a sort of cask made of bamboo. he did it for the two guys in our group who steered the raft with him - he was also very fond of pairing us according to gender, boyfriend/girlfriend etc - but he made one for me too when I asked him.


the elephants were by far the best part. The trekking was quite something too: steep uphill in really hot and humid weather, then it started to pour down on us like crazy and the equally steep downhill track became really slippery. we were tired and soaked through, especially considering that three out of seven did not have raincoats. Apart from the hyper-friendly, slender, beautiful adn terribly young Canadian couple, there was an interesting English couple, Cornwall and London, and two Spanish beach-chicks. So I have some beautiful scratches added to my sunburn and bruises and bites, and I feel terribly adventurous.


rafting:\


I cannot remember when I have last been so dirty. Walking in mud and water, we got to the village where we were to stay overnight; we walked in the mud, showered with brown river water, provisionally cleaned the clay-plastered shoes, ate Joe's sweetish dinner with rice and slept like stones until the roosters got going at around 5am and kept at it until about 8 am.

the village:


In the morning, all the dirty soaked clothes, sneakers and my bag with a now-broken zipper (from frantically stowing awaymy camera) were exactly the same as the night before. it dried a bit on the raft though. that was fun - except for a fat brown spider and my increasing bug-paranoia, egged on by the canadian girl.
after that I changed guesthouses coz I couldn't face dragging my shit up to the 7th not-so-royal floor of the Royal Guesthouse again. then I went to have drinks with the Brits, sucked miserably at pool and realized why I, as a falang, have a hard time getting spicy food.