Two days of adventure

We decided to go on an action adventure. I was a bit nervous of the huge walking I had to do.
First we went to a butterfly and flower garden. We only got 20 min. I mainly looked at the butterfly farm. When we had to go, we went to a market and spent another 20 minutes.

In the market I had the most refreshing ice block I have ever had, especially doe to this heat. It is lime flavoured outside and vanilla flavoured in the inside. Mom looked at some clothes and stuff. I was only interested in the ice cream. It was so brilliant that there was a time limit because if there wasn’t, my mom would be there forever.

We drove further in a safari jeep with no seatbelts. We arrived at the place to have lunch, and it turned out it was my favourite – fried rice. Our guide Son Chai also got some fruit, called pomelo, from the tree but I also remember that didn’t like it. My sister got one for me, and I tried to play soccer, but it was so hard it was like a soccer ball for an elephant.

After lunch I had to do a five hour trek in the hot and humid temperatures! We got some walking sticks made out of bamboo. I also had to carry a bag, which later on made my back really sweaty and it felt like I was carrying an elephant soccer ball or a bag 10 times the weight of me. In reality I was carrying a bag full of clothes, and a pomelo for a while.
The first 10 min we walked, my mom and dad were saying “let go of the fruit, you will not be able to carry it”. I eventually let go of it by chucking it onto a bank beside my dad and that gave him a massive fright! But he didn’t want to admit it.
They also have there own strawberry which has hair on the outside, which I didn’t like but I didn’t spit it out. We also got some potato before we went into the bats cave and there was heaps of them but we had to be quiet. I didn’t know what the bats are called but it was so exciting going I to a completely dark cave with only a little torch, and sometimes we had to duuuuuuuuuuck. The noise from the flapping of the wings was loud.



We also saw this, at the mouth of the bat cave:

We left and headed for a big walk down a hill. When we got to the bottom, the tour guide showed us an elephant beatle. I didn’t touch it, and we carried on.

After about two hours of walking we had some guava. Son Chai climbed up the tree really fast and shook the branches until it was raining guava and I was doddddging (dodging!) them. I got a few unripe ones but I did get a few ripe ones. Son Chai opened it for me, and it was sour, good to be used in the “sour challenge”.

We had to walk up to a village, where the houses were very different, made of bamboo and up on stilts so that snakes don’t get them. We were on a road/track (the only one on our trek) and a few motorbikes passed us by. We had a nice break in the village. Then we walked about two hours through farmland and up a big hill, which was really hard because we were tired.

Son Chai is great at finding food in the jungle, and he found a cucumber growing, and cut it up with his machete. We then went downhill through more forest, but my ankle was hurting then.

I was so relieved when we arrived into the village. We unpacked our bags and I did some reading.

Our hut that we stayed in was made out of bamboo, and there were gaps in the floor, which you could see out of. You had to be careful where you stepped because I got my foot stuck once and it hurt. There were three steep steps up to the hut, which was on stilts so the snakes couldn’t get us. You could also see out the walls.

There was no electricity in the village, where three families lived. There were three kids living in the village, and we played with them even though we were not able to talk to them in their Thai language.
We played cool sporty games with a rope made from elastic bands. Two people held the elastic first round their knees, and the others would jump over it. Then the people holding the elastic would raise it higher, even up to their chest and we had to jump! I jumped over a 1 metre height. Using elastic bands is good, as it doesn’t hurt you or trip you up if you miss – it just stretches.

We had to use a torch that night, especially to go to the toilet which was a hole in the ground in a shed. It was a traditional Thai toilet.

In the morning after breakfast we started off the day by walking half an hour in the jungle to the car which picked us up. We saw rubber trees, the tip of a bat wing which is as strong as a toenail but shimmery green and the dog from the village walked with us. That was a good job because suddenly the dog barked and ran into the bush and barked madly to warn us while dancing around something. Son Chai ran into the bush also, and he saw that there was a cobra snake there! I didn’t see the snake.

We drove to an elephant park and this was the beginning of our reward day, for all the trekking we did!
First we went on an elephant ride, and it was freaky! We were so high on a seat on top of the elephant. We had a driver/handler though (called a mahout).

I fed the elephant banana. We went into a river while still on the elephant, but we didn’t get wet, as we were up so high.



After the elephant ride, we did a zip line across the river. I thought “no way am I doing this” and afterward it wasn’t that scary, and it only lasted 30 seconds or so.

Then we went to the baby elephant and we saw an elephant that was born the day before. It was a bit cheeky as it gave mom a slap on the arm with its trunk. He baby elephant kept pushing me out with its trunk.

We went to a place and got on an elephant bareback, without a seat. I had to hold onto a little rope. The elephant handler made the elephant go up on its back legs and put it’s from legs on a fence, and I was holding on for dear life. Next this tricky elephant lifted me up from the ground with its trunk and put me sitting on its head!

Then there was an elephant show, and the elephants raised the thai flag on a flagpole, played soccer, kicking a ball, rode a bike, played golf, bowling, painted a picture of trees, gave an elephant massage (with their feet) to a man from the audience lying on the ground, kissed another audience volunteer with it’s trunk, but the guy didn’t like it at all and wanted to walk away.

We then went on a bamboo raft down the river. Two men used a stick to push along the bottom of the river to move us along.

That was nice but not as exciting as the white water rafting we did later. We had to drive for 25 minutes up the river to get to the white water rafting place. We got into our togs and put on a helmet and life jacket. The boat was an inflated dinghy. We started off and immediately went down a rapid. It was really hard to stay in the boat and we had to hold onto a rope and duck down into the boat. It was fun but scary. When it was calm, I got a turn to paddle. Also when it was calm, my sister and I leaned overboard, and slid into the water for a little swim in the water! We bobbed up on the water with our life jackets. It was so much fun I wanted to do whitewater rafting again.

Our last fun activity for the day was a big slide down a rock in a waterfall! We had to walk through the bush for 10 minutes to get to it. I really enjoyed myself.



So our second day of adventure was all the fun activity stuff, kind of a reward day from all the heart-taking extreme trekking we did the day before! Overall I liked the zip line the best.