Most people were just taking photos but I'm damned if I'm going to spend three hours watching other people have fun in the water out of shyness.
A quick knickertrick later and I was leaving my stuff with a lovely Canadian family I met at the floating houses. The rock of the falls is made up of some sort of sandstone and it would dissolve a little when you pushed your fingertips into it. Once I'd discovered this, I was scrambling all over the falls seeing how high I could get (and slightly scaring myself). It was stunning and refreshing and liberating and slightly uncomfortable when I realised just how many hundreds of people were standing below taking pictures of the waterfall (and me in my bikini!). Canadian Dave was kind enough to take some photos for me.
I got about halfway up this one - it's much steeper than it looks, honest!
Later we checked into our rooms. As I was the only person alone I had a room to myself with three mattresses across the floor. Awesome! The houses would rock when boats went by (not very often fortunately) - I have no idea how people managed to have a sensible game of pool in the floating bar! Despite my initial concerns I had no nocturnal visits from spiders (like the French couple next door), snakes, scorpions or even mosquitoes once I put up my mosquito net for the first time.
I'd overheard a lot of talk about how great it was to swim with the elephants so I got up early the next morning and paid this guy 500baht so I could go too. The early morning mist was still hanging on the river as I rushed to get my stuff together. Stunning.
I can't really describe how cool swimming with the elephants was. I was completely nervous of them to begin with - I know how dangerous they really are and I hadn't yet got a feel for whether they were well treated and actually enjoyed what they were doing.
It was awesome though and the elephants would rock and roll you into the water on command and then you'd get back on for another go!
Best bath ever!
After this we had a quick, (hideous) western breakfast and then went elephant trekking. I was really unsure about doing this as I've heard that they don't like to be ridden, and I almost didn't do it but then got chatting to the mahout I was with. He'd been a mahout for three years and was taught by his father. Together they'd trained his elephant "Mo" since he was born and he was now 25-30 years old and the head of the "herd". He said they rarely get angry but if he does he can calm him down, and in the hot season when they go into musth they don't ride or wash them with tourists but just chain them somewhere in the forest and keep them well fed. The elephants had no chain marks on their legs or necks that I could see. The mahout knew so much about the elephant and really seemed to have a genuine affection for him so I was won over.
This just made me laugh.
Since we were head elephant, we walked at the lead of the herd. Halfway around our walk Mo decided to let loose his bowels and what must've been a huge cloud of gas headed back down the following elephants. The smell was pretty bad from my position but watching everyone behind me covering their faces was hilarious! My kind of elephant!
Mr Mahout jumped off and let me "drive" (who am I kidding?!) for a bit. They carry these bamboo sticks with a dull blade on the end of them to control the elephants but you can see where young elephants have had them used on their heads. Mo doesn't have any marks like this and was completely comfortable with me up there instead of his mahout. The forest was alive with sounds of birds and geckos and the scenery is simply stunning.
After this we jumped onto a bamboo raft for a "ride" - they basically tow you upriver and let you float down. It was another chance to get soaked and play at water fights with the locals. This guy would shout "crocodile" pointing across the river and then shove you in (if/) when you looked.
A white-fronted kingfisher I'd seen along the river.
It was such an action packed two days I felt completely exhausted! I slept for about an hour on the bus back to Khao San road. I enjoyed every minute but I've learned now that if I'm going to live like I'll die tomorrow, just occasionally I MUST take rest days.
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