Bathing the Big Babies <3
- Charlotte Scanlan
- Aug 6, 2015
- 3 min read
My first week in Thailand was amazing! I arrived in the traveller hub of the south – Khao San Road – after a three hour interrogation at border control and an extortionately priced taxi ride.
Khao San Road is like no other, It’s bustling with life. Tuk Tuks, clothes stalls, street food, taxi men and various other vendor’s trying to get you to part with your baht. As night falls the road gets even more hectic as the Sleaze, Booze and Greasy food ups a notch.
After politely turning down many taxi’s (I’ve just stepped out of a taxi… chances are I’m at my destination and don’t need another taxi!) I made it to my home for the night. The Hostel was very clean, the dorm’s were spacious and had dividers between the bed’s… It was complete luxury compared to what I was used to in Oz, there was even a hair dryer in the bathroom!!! The common room downstairs was a hive of activity and one of the easiest places ever to meet people. Here I met an american lad, a Canadian lad, an Australian lad and a dutch lad. We headed out for lunch and to scope out the city. I got a thai green curry for less than £2.. WHAT?!! It was at lunch that we discovered we could not buy alcohol as it was a buddhist holiday. You could still get alcohol back at the hostel and so thats where we headed! Back at the hostel we recruited some more buddies and got drunk. After 12 we headed out to the main strip and after copious amounts of buckets, fried crickets, shots and triangle hats I somehow made it back home safe and sound.
The next day we explored the floating markets, got thai massages (my back cracked six times – not sure if thats a good or bad thing!) and shopped till we dropped at the sunday markets. With our time in Bangkok over we jumped on the night bus to Chiang Mai at 8pm and arrived in the sleepy city of Chiang Mai at 5am. With a few hours to spare before we could check into our hostel, we wandered the empty streets with our backpacks until a lovely gentleman let us into his living room/restaurant for brekkie! The Hostel owner was named Stella… one of the nicest ladies I have ever met she treated us like daughters and got us a discount on our day at the Elephant retirement park. I came to Thailand to do two things… get my Padi Cert and hang out with elephants! I could barely sleep that night with the excitement of the next day!
I rose bright and early the next morning as our bus would pick us up at 8am. When we arrived at the retirement sanctuary we learned about the elephants and the amazing things that the retirement park does to give these ex-working elephants a happy retirement. we spent the day feeding them sugar cane, washing and bathing in the mud with these magnificent large mammals. There was also a 4 month old baby – Lana <3. I nearly died from the cuteness! The way the elephants and the handlers roamed together as if old friends was so humbling.
The next day we completed our Thai cooking course! I can now cook some pretty tasty dishes… move over Rock bar and the deep fat fryer!! With all my class cooking skills now I’m not sure why no one has married me yet!
XOXO
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