Thailand Trip (Day 23)

Day 23:
We left Phukett town this morning for Patong Beach. Interestingly enough, our friend Christie Hwang from MSU is traveling Asia with her friend Crystal and her boyfriend Eric. They happened to be in Patong for a few days, so we wanted to meet up. We arrived at Som Guesthouse at 9 in the morning and they let us check in, which was great. Som is on a crazy backpacker street in Patong and run by a friendly Korean family. The room was awesome and well worth the 500 Bhat we paid. After meeting up with Christie and meeting Eric and Crystal we headed to the beach. The beach was amazing, but nothing like Railay. Like the other Thai beaches it had pure sand and bright blue water which was a lot more rough then the others we had been to. There were also a lot more vendors and tourists, which is not that bad and makes for great people watching. The para sailing also was quite entertaining to watch, since it was so sketchy.

After a light lunch we headed of to a trek that Christie had booked for the whole group. It included several activities, but the one that caused the most anticipation was "buffalo cart." It turned out to be just what it sounded like. A big cart attached to a giant sweaty water buffalo. We all boarded the cart and realized that one of us could not fit in the cart. "No problem, you ride buffalo," said the man tending to the buffalo. Soon Christie was atop the giant beast. It was a hilarious and bumpy ride and afterwards Christie's leg was covered in gross buffalo sweat. After the ride, we headed to a rubber plantation to learn about rubber tapping. According to the tour guide, Thailand is the world's largest rubber exporter. Then came the best part. Elephant trekking! To board the elephant you have to climb a large one story tall platform and then make a big step onto the back of the huge animal. Mike and I rode in a seat on the back of the elephant while the "driver" sat on the head. It was a bit bumpy, but amazing! We headed down a steep hill and felt that we would almost fall out. Luckily we had been tied in with a big piece of rope. At the bottom on the hill the elephant lumbered into a river with we began walking down. It was quite deep and my shoes almost touched the water level. After at least 5 minutes in the river the elephant headed and up an even steeper hill. It seemed to be at least a 70 degree angle! Soon we were back on level ground and headed back into the jungle and plantation. The driver noticed us taking pictures and said, "ahhh, picture, picture!" I gave him my camera and he jumped off the elephants head onto the ground! He headed up the trail and began hollering at the elephant. Along we rolled and he snapped picture after picture. Then he told us to move down to the neck and head area. We "unbuckled" and moved down. The best part was that the driver did not return to the elephant, but instead walked up front while we rode. It was a great time, but Christie did have a story that trumped our ride. Apparently her driver decided to dismount to kill a lizard that he saw in the bushes midway in the trek.

We then headed to a nice water fall and the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project. Gibbons are monkey like critters that are often taken from the wild into bars and houses as pets. The primates live in captivity often eating only human food and stay awake at night for tourists only through the night only because they are drugged. Luckily, keeping gibbons is illegal, but the captive gibbons cannot reenter the jungle because they have lost many of their natural skills. The project aims to help the animals return to a normal life and then releases them into the wild with a mate. It was an amazing place. Our final stop was for a short time kayaking and a dinner at a seafood restaurant. The food was amazing and a tad spicy. After dinner we returned to Patong to enjoy the amazing club and bar scene.