Elephanting

The abbreviated Jose version:
'We rode on an elephant. The elephant did a big poo. Elephants are wrinkly.'

The last three days have been a heady mix of the terrifying, the fun and the sleeping in a hammock. On our final day in Samui we took a tour with hotel guide Fong. This would involve travelling along the precarious roads of the island on the back of motor bikes. There were no helmets on offer, 'no one wears helmets here' Nic assured me. I'm sorry Mum but we went for it. Nic and I would travel on the back of motor bikes driven by our trustworthy guide Fong and a surly Swiss seventy one year old called Randy who smoked like a chimney and was on a 7 week holiday (I imagine while 'the heat' died off) who was extremely reluctant to share his bike with anyone because he feared he may kill / injure them. Sitting on the back of his bike I shared this fear. To be fair it probably was worth this risk to get to see the island and enjoy a bit more of the culture. The highlight being two rocks known as grand father and grand mother that were shaped like a penis and lady gates respectively. There is a picture of me stroking said dong. Fong also took us out of the beaten track for some spicy and delicious authentic thai food. For those in J-town i'd recommend visiting the Dicq Shack and getting some spicy snapper fish. Presuming they serve it.

After Samui we departed for Koh Phangan the world famous party capital and home of the full moon party. We didn't time our visit for these parties and instead spent our first two days here relaxing. Staying at the Shiralea Resort, run by some former Jersey residents, we have a spacious bungalow with a hammock on deck, swimming pool and short walk to the beach. This was a welcome improvement from Samui where you have to navigate a maze of hotel resorts to find any semblance of beach. At night the beach comes alive with BBQs held by the different restaurants. Here we sat facing the ocean watching fire dancers and eating the type of BBQ that even Bingo Bob would be proud of.

So the first two days were relaxing... Today not so much. We had booked ourselves on the Koh Phangan Safari. Picked up at 8.30 on our way to the Safari base we saw a man with a fully grown Gibbon on his lap riding a motorbike. I shit you not. And this wasn't even part of the safari. The actual building initially filled me with a little trepidation. There were elephants and tiny monkeys all chained up and the facilities didn't seem great. Durrell it was not. Still we persevered. First was the elephant trek which involved journeying round park land on the back of one of these beasts as its child walked along side. About halfway through, the guide abandoned ship and left the elephant to walk us back. This gave the young one a chance to throw dirt over us. Still, on the back of these things I felt safer than biking with Swiss Randy. After the elephants came a weird show where a man and woman danced around like complete psychos and then put King Cobras in their mouths. It was as strange as it sounds. Afterward we had a chance to interact with less deadly boa snakes. As some of you may know my fear of snakes is just one way in which I am exactly like Indiana Jones. Once again I looked fear directly in the face and after some coaxing from Nic I touched that snake on its back. basically I am Bear Grylls meets Terry Nutkins. After that we said goodbye to the park. Yes there wasn't much room for the animals to roam but they kept them washed and fed and the staff seemed to have a good relationship with them. The rest of the day was pretty standard viewing a dried out waterfall (Exciting), a Chinese temple and going snorkelling. There are many fish out here! Heading back to base camp after this and I think I'll fall asleep in the hammock for a third night in a row.

Thanks for all the comments so far. It is heartening that his blog has more followers in 3 posts than my personal blog has after 158 posts. Heading back to the mainland tomorrow and bussing it to the sea side town of Krabbi. I think there should be more photos up too.

Missing you all,

Steve & Nic

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

ps - I haven't had a poo in 5 days. Any suggestions? Nics bowel movements are fine.