Best Day Yet

My morning started with a ½ hour visit to the hotel bar/beach to enjoy the ocean, early morning sunshine, and write my blog entries describing yesterday’s activities. Mackenzie came down and we ate breakfast at the hotel before being picked-up for our day’s tour at 10am. When we arrived at the tour we were pleasantly surprised to see we were the only two in our jeep with a guide who spoke some English, a driver, and some other guy who didn’t do much. We paid for our tour and hopped in the back of an old jeep/truck and drove about 30 minutes around the island to our first stop. Here we rowed a canoe for about 15 minutes, with both of us vowing that at one point in our lives we really did know how to do this in a 2-person team (obviously it didn’t carry over to today). We ended up finding that our best format was me pulling and providing most of the propulsion with Mackenzie steering in the back (reversed away from me, hence the picture) or just taking turns for 30 seconds.
From here we visited one of my two highlights of the day. We got back in the car for another 15 minutes and a lot of mountain climbing (reminded me of going to our HK hostel) and arrived at a path leading to two waterfalls. We hiked to both and took pictures, and then returned to the swimming hole below the bottom one. The water felt cool when convincing myself to get in, but absolutely perfect once I was in. It was so refreshing and cleansing after the hike and getting really nasty. The running water and jumping areas made the hole a blast, as well as climbing up the waterfall. For our first 15 minutes there it was only us before another tour group of 15 came so we headed out.
After this we rode in the car for another 35 minutes back to where we had started for the elephant and monkey portion of our tour. They put us on an elephant in a little seat that didn’t absorb the bumpy ride at all. Mackenzie held onto the strap/seat belt for dear life as she thought she might slip out completely. The ride was fun, but boring after about 3 minutes of the 20 minute journey. Our elephant was quite slow and they made her take us up this big hill and back down. I felt like getting off and walking myself to help her. When we got back to the bottom of the hill they took us over to a little arena for the elephant show. This was amazing!
They had a 3.5 year old elephant named something like Mikael, who was not really cute in looks, but great with her routine and human interactions. First, they ran her through some activities like walking on 3 legs, standing on her hind and then front legs only, sitting down, dunking a basketball with her trunk, and playing the harmonica while dancing (quite entertaining, video but no picture). Second, they had us take turns coming out and getting a massage from the elephant. This consisted of us laying down on the ground and the elephant tickling us with her trunk and softly stepping on us with one foot. I was too busy taking pictures of Mackenzie to give a play-by-play of where the elephant was touching her, but I think I got the worse of it. Mackenzie was told to lay on her stomach while I had to lay on my back with my arms behind my head. The elephant then proceeded to use its trunk to give me a big smooch on my face a few times, tickle me other places on my upper body, and then (how do I phrase this?) take a few low blows. Thankfully, I had on my swim-trunks and a towel they provided, but it was funny/awkward nonetheless. Honestly, from the first “kiss” through the whole time I laughed so hysterically I couldn’t control myself or think. When the elephant was doing the stomp/massage on my midsection and below I was a bit worried, but she barely touched me. It was so bizarre and yet funny at the same time. Mackenzie got great pictures but we didn’t take any video of either one of us which I am sorry for because it would have been a clip I would have laughed at forever.
After the elephant show we caught a monkey show that was pretty good. They kept it short which was nice because we both were ready for home and showers after being slobbered on by the elephant. The monkey spinning the coconut like a basketball with his two and then hands and one foot was impressive though.
We spent the rest of the day relaxing at hour hotel, sitting on the beach, reading, and grabbing dinner at one of the many restaurants on the water front. We had a nice set meal with a few kinds of chicken, curry, rice, and salad. Finally, they gave us this balloon thing that you light up and rises with the accumulated hot air. The day was amazing as I had a blast with the elephant show and waterfall, and yet spent half the day relaxing at the beach doing nothing much.
Our time here in Ko Samui has been so enjoyable we are planning to stay here through at least Sunday and maybe all the way to Monday. Phuket is likely to have rain and we can do many of the same activities here in sunshine and less-developed tranquility.