Day 10 - Trekking Day 3

An early morning fire was lit for those who'd been less fortunate than me in having double amount of blankets and had frozen overnight. Once warmed up a few of us braved the waterfall again for an early morning refresher, and refresh it did! It got rid of any grogginess there might have been and made me feel completely alive.

We had an early hour or so walk to a nearby village where we jumped aboard a ute and rove to a cafeteria type place for lunch before moving on to the elephant riding location. Here we climbed aboard the beautiful beasts in twos and went for about a half hour ride through the surrounding hills wilderness. Our guide Jo said that it is better in the rainy season though as it is a lot more green and lush but it was still good fun, even if a bit sad as you did get a sense of the elephants being very trapped and not enjoying it much at all, understandably. They did however seem to enjoy it when we were approaching a "food stop" as their pace would increase tenfold at the sight of them and once food was purchased they were very persistent in waving their trunk around to ask for more bananas or sugar cane.

Next stop was bamboo rafting. Before we boarded the rafts we spotted a swing in the water so of course I had to get a mandatory Swingers Club International photo. Rafting was relaxing and good fun just cruising along the river soaking up the sun, that is until we got to a small waterfall where you had the option of getting off. As we disembarked we saw/heard a guy on some rocks on the other side wailing and holding his shoulder. It took forever for the Thai captains to realise what was going on and assist in taking him on a raft to get to the hospital to tend to what appeared to be a dislocated shoulder. I'm not so good with this sort of thing so was feeling pretty queasy watching the whole scene play out before me. Our captain tried to joke about it the rest of the ride down the river but we were all on a bit of a downer so didn't find it too amusing unfortunately.

Once we all got back to town and had a s, s and s, we all met up at the Riverside Restaurant for what was to be a VERY messy night out. The boys had all give me lots of grief over the course of the trek for not drinking so I was pretty determined to show them I knew how to party. Between the 13 of us we managed to polish off a bottle of NZ red wine, numerous jugs of beer, three bottle of Absolute Vodka, a bottle of Tequila and a bottle of Jameson whiskey. It's fair to say everyone was well and truly trollied. Poor Richard drunk so much he was throwing up over the balcony by about midnight so his lovely wife Noemi had to escort him home.

About eight of the boys and myself powered on at Spicy Bar once the restaurant's band had finished up (I'm sure they were glad to see the backs of us rowdy lot!). At Spicy Bar things started to go a little pear shaped with Robert trying to get me to shack up with out other guide Jo. Every time I attempted to dance with another guy Robert would stand right behind me and say "I look after you!" I was getting pretty annoyed and feeling pretty claustrophobic after not very long.

Eventually at about 4am myself and the Germans got a tuk tuk home with a stop off along the way at an eatery of some description. Another hour or so later we managed to get out of there and so finally got back to my room and into bed by about 5:30am. Phew, what a way to end an awesome three day adventure. And I showed those boys that I knew how to party too.