Paisley Firefly: First excursion

Excursion 1

The first Saturday in Thailand looked to be a promising one. The plan involved elephant trekking, white water rafting and tubing. We all met outside the resort foyer and eagerly awaited the songthaews (bakkies that have benches on the inside for people to sit on) to fetch us and take us to the first destination. The first stop was at a river with a natural slide. I was nervous at first but so keen to give it a go. I went down and it was such a rush. I almost lost my contacts a few times but still had a blast. It was a bit disappointing that only a few of us from the group were going down the slide but it had helped me find my adventure buddies who I was sticking to for the day (Tristan and Zanru - one of the guys who helped wake me up the first morning).

Next up was white river rafting. Now it was a rather dry time of the year so the river was quite low and the rafting involved a lot of bumping into rocks. There was also a moment where I almost fell out the raft (Thanks to Tristan who’s reflexes made him quick enough to catch me.) It was a pretty incredible experience because it led me to seeing even more of the Thai lifestyle. All along the river there were families in the river and children who were eager to splash us. The experience was once in a lifetime.

The rest of the time in the songthaews Tristan and I made sure we were riding on the roof because it wasn’t illegal out of the city area and the views were insane. I had a blast, even though I almost got taken out by a couple trees.

After we reached the end of the rafting we grabbed some tubes and it was time for that leg of the adventure. With the river being so low we encountered some painful bumps on the behind. And walking in the river was painful due to all the little rocks but we still had a good time. Next up was elephant trekking.

The first half of the group got to the elephant trekking and were to get going. For some reason I opted to go on an elephant with Sara and ended up sitting on the back so I didn’t really get to see much of what was going on in front of me. I did really enjoy it even though it felt like I was going to fall off quite a few times. Next up we got to wash the elephants in the river. I had so much fun and the elephants were absolutely adorable and loved the attention. There was a photographer there taking pictures of all the people doing the elephant trekking and we could buy the photos if we wanted or put them on an SD card if we had one on us. Sara and I decided to spit the cost and buy the photos. Definitely worth it.

The ride home was a bit tedious and by the time we got back to the resort we were all exhausted and eager for a swim. I will be quite honest in saying my shyness kicked in a little when it came to going outside for a swim. Sara wasn’t interested and so that left me to go venture out by myself. But Tristan and my roommate and a few other guys I had made friends with were there so it wasn’t so bad.