So we left Koh Yao Noi on the fast boat which got a bit too rough for Maja and she got quite upset. (She finally fell asleep, probably as way to block it all out. Glad it wasn't longer) Finley sat on my lap and fell asleep. Ben on the other hand was loving every crash into a wave and fall down the other side with a Woohoo. He really is an adventurer boy. Different children with different coping strategies.
Our taxi driver from the ferry to Bang Tao Beach told us he lost his wife in the tsunami and now had to look after his 2 sons by himself. Made for a sombre taxi ride. When we made it to the western side of Phuket, Bang Tao Beach (the tsunami side) we noticed all the tsunami warnings and I promptly planned our escape route (basically up three flights of stairs). We did see quite a few planks of wood nailed to palm trees as some kind of makeshift ladder. Quite extraordinary how high the tsunami was and how far inland it went.
Anyhoo, we were shown to our room and it had a door and air conditioning:
Yeeeeeeeeee Haaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!
No more mozzie bites for me or the kids. Delia of course doesn't do mozzie bites. I tell a lie, she did get one. Mutant.
We spent the rest of that day mucking around in the pool and had dinner in an Indian Restaurant. I know, I know, why eat Indian food when you've travelled all the way to Thailand? Well we got sucked in by the spruiker:
“Hello, hello, lovely lady where you from?”
“You tell me”
“Paradise!”
That one got a laugh from us and was enough after a quick look around to persuade us to dine sub continental.
The next day Delia had organised a surprise for the kids, we were going to go elephant riding! We made our way down the island of Phuket (much bigger than I thought) by minibus passing through Phuket Town (nothing to write home about) and then by Landrover up the mountain to where the elephants live. (Delia and I were quickly in agreement that when we buy our country estate we simply must have an old Landrover. It would appear Delia has a bit of a fascination for classic English cars: we were driving to the airport one time and went past a used car lot: “Oooh I quite like that car!” - E Type Jag! To quote a salesman from one of our previous travels: “Madam has expensive tastes”)
The first part of the elephant experience was to be shown 3 baby elephants with their trainers to explain how they are looked after, the importance of the relationship between the trainer and the elephant and what tricks they can do which included lining up penalty kicks.
But first our tour leader gave us a brief introduction to the Thai language and taught us 2 words: hello and thank you. Being the seasoned traveller (ok cocky buffoon) I am I knew these words and was only vaguely paying attention when I heard that perhaps it was a bit more complicated than I thought:
“To say thank you in Thailand you say Kop Kuan Kaaa if you are woman and Kop Kuan Kraaap if you are man”.
Bugger. No prizes for guessing which I've been saying for the past 14 days.
She went on:
“If you are a man and you say Kop Kuan Kaaa, you are ladyboy”
Quick check to see if Ben was listening.
Bugger again.
So not only did Ben get to call me ladyboy, he was now officially allowed to say CRAP when thanking people. It doesn't get better than that.
We then wandered up to a different part of the camp to where the elephant riding would begin. Maja was too small to ride the elephant so I looked after her while Delia, Ben and Finley went on the pachyderm. Even though they were smaller Asian elephants and females which are smaller than the males, they seemed pretty darn big to us. It was always going to be impossible to stop Ben getting on an elephant but we were quite impressed by the way little Finley Binley didn't bat an eyelid and hopped up top the big grey behemoth without a second thought. Actually, their elephant, Thur Fun, was a lovely lass of 45 who used to work in the forestry industry moving logs till 1989 when that industry shut down and she got moved to the tourism industry. Good career change.
They went on a 30 min walk around the rainforest and came back with enormous smiles on their faces.
Ben: “Elephants are my favourite animals now!”
Me too I reckon.
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