Day5 Jungle Fun

As I mentioned before we did escape from Koh Samui for two days. (I will say sorry now for the VERY photo heavy blog post)

When we were researching Thailand I happened to stumble upon a place named ‘Elephant Hills’. It is listed as the number one thing to do on Trip advisor so I was intrigued.

I fell in love with the place online and wasn’t disappointed. The trip was a long 5 hours but we were picked up from the hotel in Koh Samui and taken all the way to our hotel.

The view on the way to the resort was breath taking. There were mountains towering above us and palm trees everywhere you looked.

The hotel was made of bamboo and looked like something from Tarzan. I was a little overwhelmed with the place. We received a welcome drink and were given our itinerary. Canon down the river and then a afternoon with the elephants. I could not wait.

We dropped off our bags in our tent, which wasn’t really a tent but a luxury room with an en-suite and electricity.

After a buffet lunch we jumped in the river. Our river guide was a real life Bear Grills. He could make fire, cook with what he found, canon down the river like a pro and see a snake or lizard from a mile away. Some of the creatures he could see I could barley see from a few feet away.

I took a few too many photos but I don’t think they will ever do it justice. I wish I’d been a better photographer to capture it all.

The day was perfect but not even started. Next we moved onto the elephants. After a chocolate snack we waited to go and meet our new trunked friends. We could hear their calls in the jungle and it was weird knowing that 16 elephants were so close.

The first elephant we got to meet was a baby named HaHa. She was adorable and loved all the workers. She was really coarse and yet soft. I was in love.

I really wanted to get up close and personal with elephants while I was in Thailand but I’d read horror stories about how they get elephants to let you ride them. They aren’t built to be rode so they use a lot of pain and punishment to scare them into submission. I worried about them being mistreated but after all of the research I was happy to see that Elephant Hills has a fantastic reputation.

They are conservation and do a lot of the elephants and area.

After the government made it illegal to use Elephants in logging companies there were 500 Thai elephants that were not needed. Unfortunately the government didn’t make a law to say you couldn’t harm the elephants so many of them were killed or worst tortured. Elephant Hills saved a lot of them and re-homed as many as possible around the world.

We were told we would not be riding them as these elephants are given a Mahoot (a man that is their soul career from a young age) and he is the only one who can ride them. You could see the bond that each elephant had with their Mahoot and it was lovely to see.

We prepared food for the elephants and fed them. My elephant was a young greedy thing that loved sugar canes but hated bananas. Afterwards the elephants went for a swim in the mud before we luckily got to clean them.

We cleaned the oldest lady in the group who was such a softie. She would show us where to clean her with her trunk and loved the cold water. I got quite a few hugs and fell in love quite a few times. They are beautiful animals. I feel lucky to have been that close to them. I think a job working with animals like that might definitely be a new mission of mine.

That night we had a swim in the pool, a Thai cooking lesson and a dance show from a local Thai school.

We also were lucky enough to meet some great people from Scotland that were on their honeymoon. We seemed to be the only 4 drinkers in the group so spent the night toasting their new marriage, our jungle expedition and being extremely scared of the very real wildlife all around us. Lee and Fiona saw a black snake just slither past as well as moths bigger than your face. We also managed to battle a toad bigger than a kitten.

Drunken men are definitely easy to manipulate as Jack and Lee agreed to catch it. They failed miserably but it was a great end to a crazy day.

I’ve never slept so well which is odd considering we were in the middle of a jungle where we could hear baboons in the distance.

The next day we woke up (or were woken up by a very eager cat outside our tent who wanted cuddles), had a swim, breakfast and headed into the jungle for a trek. The resort provided us with shirts and canes so we quickly become two real life Attenbourghes.

The trek itself was great! The torrential rain and slippery surface meant I avoided getting my camera out too much but it was the most fun I’ve had in the mud and rain.

It was fascinating to hear torrential rain but feel almost nothing due to the over growth catching it all.

Harvesting rubber from the rubber trees.

A little muddy in the jungle.

The coconut that we cooked for dinner

Using my skills to get the coconut out of the husk

How you keep mosquito's away in the jungle.

the best food we had in Thailand, all cooked on a tiny fire.

We saw some spiders and creepy crawlies and heard baboons as well as saw how Thai people harvest the rubber trees. My particularly favourite parts of the day were the bamboo river rope crossing and watching our guide make us dinner from nothing.

Lee was impressed and definitely had a man crush on the ‘Real man’.

I had a go at getting some coconut out of its shell and we ate the most delicious food of the holiday.

After our trek there was time for a shower, another swim and it was time to head home.

Sadly we only booked the one night visit and it was quite expensive but it included all of our food, treks, travel, elephant experience and shirts so it was worth it. If I did it again I would book as many days as humanly possible. We would work there for free if they let us.

If you are reading this and wondering whether to go or not….DO IT!

It was my favourite part of the holiday and the reason I wanted to move to Asia. Experiences like that are something that stay with you and I will be forever grateful that I was allowed to do it.

However I think Lee and I may now be adventurers.

Enough said......