I can happily report that this weekend was infinitely better than the last. We started by going our elephant ride on Saturday. We drove up to an elephant park near the village we had stayed in earlier that week. I think there were over a dozen elephants there, a few old ones and a couple babies. We got to feed them bananas and just wander by them. They were all pretty tame, they only got a little pissy when we weren't feeding them fast enough. They would raise their trunks and toot. But a couple times, I could swear one of the baby elephants blew snot on me.
The ride itself was fun. Probably not much different than riding an elephant at the circus, except that maybe the seats at the circus are a bit more comfortable and we didn't walk around in a little circle. They actually took us on a trek down river and through a neigboring village. The ride didn't take much time at all, which was fine, since there were no real shock absorbers, my butt was completely sore by the time we got back to the elephant park.
We then made a couple brief stops before we headed back to the foundation. We stopped at the same village we had rode through with the elephants to buy trinkets and souveneirs. Also, to see the anaconda or whatever that giant snake is called. Some of the more crazier people paid to carry it on their shoulders. I was good and offered to just take their pictures. Lucky for them, the snake was just fed it's lunch of 3 live chickens, so he wasn't to interested in munching on the other volunteers.
After that, we stopped and had lunch. Up to now, I've been handling the food here. But, I must say, this was the first time I really, really hated what I got. We were asked if we wanted small or large noodles. Those of us who asked for small noodles got this crraqzy messed up noodle dish with, I swear to god, organs in it. Our Thai escort said it was beef, but it didn't taste like any beef I've ever had nor did it have the texture of actual meat. On top of that, the sauce had an after taste that if I had to fathom a guess, was blood. Oh, and it was insanely spicy. So imagine my face making these weird contortions. Yeah....sooooo not happy with that meal.
Anway, later that night the gang (Justin, Lyndsay, Ben and Sasha) and I headed to the local grocery store and loaded up on gin and tonic, rum and coke, real steak (or at least the package said tenderloin, though there was nothing tender about it), chicken and salad stuff. Then off to the nice little B&B just at the edge of town that had an honest to goodness BBQ pit. We sat around and had a good ol' fashioned BBQ, just like back at home. Good times.
At least until the thunderstorms came and the gin kicked in. Forgot to drink water and got a bit sick. So had to spend the next day in bed, while the others rented mopeds and took a trip to the black temple, which they reported was extremely creepy. Very Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom-ish with its plethora of skulls and furniture made out of bones. They swear they weren't human bones, but I have no inclination to confirm if this is true or not.
Dinner was at the yellow tables, an eating area with tables in the middles and little food booths surrounding them. They have every kind of food imaginable available there. There were the fried bugs, Japanese sushi, Mexican food (which I heard was delicious), smoothies, tempura, pad thai, spring rolls and on and on.... We wandered around the night bazaar for a bit than called it an early night.
Monday we all treated ourselves to a fish spa experience. For those of you who don't know that is, there are large fish tanks set on the floor with benches next to them. You place your feet in the tanks and swarms of little sucker fish come and eat at your feet and legs. It feels very weird and I do not recommend for the ticklish. Supposedly, the fish are supposed to eat all the dead skin off your feet and make them silky smooth. I have to admit, after our 20 minute spa treatment, the walk back to the hotel was a bit uncomfortable since my feet seemed more sensitive.
We then picked up our laundry and headed back to the foudnation and a boatload of new faces.
