Elephant Trekking

We were grateful for a little later start today. Isaiah slept 11.5 hours straight and was feeling fine this morning. We didn't have to leave until 8 this morning. Our ride should have been here at 8 but arrived at 8:30. We had a nice wait in the heavy rains. We are careful where we wait. Did you know that the #1 cause of death on Phuket is falling coconuts? Seriously! Maybe I'll post a photo of one, but I don't think it would be a good idea to stand under a coconut tree to shoot a photo. When we were in the pool this afternoon, we saw/heard a bunch fall. Oh my goodness! 

Waiting for our ride this morning in the rain. This is across the street from our apartment.

Just more green stuff.

 The rain stopped for 5 or 6 minutes during our elephant trekking experience. 

Very few photos and all poor quality; 

however, we thoroughly enjoyed our morning.

Here is our skilled mahout who can guide our elephant with about 70 commands. 

I don't know how he does it. 

He used his foot to gently rub behind our elephant's ear. 

Also, he used a lot of guttural sounds and other unidentified noises.

Our elephant was hungry and she kept stopping and demanding to eat.

We finally let her have her way (when we weren't hanging over a big drop off).

She leaned back and tore down half a tree and had a feast for about 10 minutes.

Our mahout only had to gently use his ankus a couple of times. 

She was quite cooperative as long as she could eat.

At one point, she was not at all interested in trekking down a very steep (and scary) incline.

Because of all the rain, there were big uneven rocks that had washed in her path.

Our mahout jumped off and moved them out of her way and she was quite happy.

Our mahout spoke two different languages, Thai and elephant.

Who cares about English if you are on an elephant?

 As long as those two can communicate, we were safe and comfortable.

These photos really don't do our experience justice. Beautiful, peaceful, just perfect. We could see Phuket Town, Chalong Bay, Rawai and the Andaman Archipelago Islands. 

Oh, and the big Buddha. 

Natives kept asking us to hike up to the Buddha. 

We declined since we have been to one of the biggest Buddha's in the world,

 the Tian Tan Buddha at the Po Lin Monastery,

 which we will likely see again next week. 

When we got home from elephant trekking, Isaiah and I went for a walk (with a big umbrella).

The photo below (right) is for Tammy Slauson.

See the elderly woman doing her laundry in the rain today?

We are happy to have electricity; however, those power lines crackle constantly.

This afternoon, we enjoyed swimming and listening to coconuts fall around us.

These blooms are from my new favorite tree called the white frangipani. 

These trees are also common in Muslim graveyards 

and they smell so wonderful. 

Dax even had one waiting on my pillow for me. So sweet!