{"id":1012,"date":"2014-01-30T22:39:15","date_gmt":"2014-01-30T15:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/?p=1012"},"modified":"2014-01-30T22:39:15","modified_gmt":"2014-01-30T15:39:15","slug":"elephant-trek-12814","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/?p=1012","title":{"rendered":"Elephant Trek, 1\/28\/14"},"content":{"rendered":"

The morning starts off the same as usual.\u00a0 Breakfast is followed by a brief visit to the beach and a swim.\u00a0 Our afternoon is going to be a different, however.\u00a0 We meet our driver at 12:30 and head out for an afternoon of elephant riding, and a little Thailand education.\u00a0 We pick up another couple down the road at the JW Marriott.\u00a0 They are Indian, but have lived in Rochester, New York, since 1968.\u00a0 They\u2019ve been everywhere, and it\u2019s fun to hear some of their stories during the hour drive to Siam Safari, home of the Elephant Trek.<\/p>\n

When we arrive, we\u2019re organized into groups and transported to our first stop, a brief explanation about the elephants and their mahouts (handlers).\u00a0\u00a0 Fully informed, we load onto our elephant, and start down the road.\u00a0 There is a lot of swaying as the elephant lumbers along the path.\u00a0 It\u2019s intriguing watching the mahout \u201csteer\u201d the elephant.\u00a0 There is a balance of urging, and patience as we make our way.\u00a0 The elephant does seem to have a mind of her own.\u00a0 If a person were prone to seasickness, this might be a rough ride.\u00a0 When I read about the tour, I thought that \u00bd hour was not a very long ride, but when we get off, I\u2019ve had more than enough elephant riding.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"EL1\"<\/a>

Our group guide, our elephant, and our mahout<\/p><\/div>\n

\"EL3\"<\/a>

Chalong Bay in the background. We’re on the back of the elephant. Picture taken by our mahout.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Elephant\"<\/a>

Loaded up and riding.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"EL4\"<\/a>

Our mahout!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"EL2\"<\/a>

Swaying on down the path!<\/p><\/div>\n

The remainder of the tour is a series of educational stops.\u00a0 We walk over to an area where they demonstrate the training of some of the younger elephants.\u00a0 The younger kids get to feed them.\u00a0 Next stop is a demonstration of tapping a rubber tree, and then how to convert the sap into rubber.\u00a0 It\u2019s really well done.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stop #3 is them is the making of Thai curry spices.\u00a0 They demonstrate the process, and then we get to sample.\u00a0 Stop #4 is the coconut.\u00a0 The demonstration includes traditional ways to open a coconut, how to grate the meat, how to make coconut milk, and then how to make coconut oil.\u00a0\u00a0 They don\u2019t waste much of the coconut.\u00a0 We\u2019ve had curry on rice, then some coconut, and now a little Thai coffee to finish it off. \u00a0\u00a0Next is a demonstration of rice production and the use of the water buffalo in the process.\u00a0 We really enjoyed the demos.\u00a0 They peppered the presentation with humor, and the basic info was good.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the last demo, our group is loaded onto a vehicle and moved into town and down to the docks at Chalong Bay.\u00a0 We have a sunset cruise with a buffet meal out into the bay.\u00a0 It\u2019s an old wooden boat at first view, but after we\u2019re onboard, it\u2019s really very nice.\u00a0 The food is good, and the view is even better.\u00a0 Back at the dock, they load us back into a van for our return trip.\u00a0 It\u2019s been a full day!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Boat.J.G\"<\/a> \"Boat.bbq\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Sunset1\"<\/a>

The setting sun on Chalong Bay<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Sunset2\"<\/a> \"Sunset3\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The morning starts off the same as usual.\u00a0 Breakfast is followed by a brief visit to the beach and a swim.\u00a0 Our afternoon is going to be a different, however.\u00a0 We meet our driver at 12:30 and head out for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1012"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1013,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012\/revisions\/1013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}