We lost our first day to travel delays, so no city or temple touring. We sleep and then rise early for our Elephant Bath and Tiger Temple tour. The elephant ride and bath is our number one priority. This trip is for my daughter and it's what my daughter talked of doing in Thailand. We have a private tour with a driver and guide and it's a 3.5 hour drive north to the hills where the elephants are.
The camp is mostly empty, I think we are the first customers of the day. We ride on an elephant with a guide ''driving". It's impressive how the elephant responds to verbal commands. We ride sitting on a bench and it is really bumpy but fun. For the last little stretch my daughter gets to sit on the elephant's neck and really loves this. It makes me nervous that our "driver" is now walking around away from the elephant, but the elephant seems very responsive to his commands. Next we get in the river one at a time on our elephant to give it a "bath". Of course this is just tourist fun but a real thrill in so many ways. First to be on these majestic creatures and second to take a dip in the River Kwai. The water is surprisingly warm and we rub shampoo on the elephant before she goes under to rinse her head off. She's a good sport. She splashes the water with her trunk to get us wet.
The last thing we do is feed the elephants bananas and watch them do some tricks with includes giving kisses and massages. Our tour of Thailand involves a lot of animal interaction because this is what my teenager wants to do and the opportunity exists here. It has sparked a lot of discussion between us about how animals are treated. We used Trip Advisor to get a feeling for how each place was viewed by the general public regarding the welfare of the animals. We have talked about the use of animals in tourism and the ethics behind this, also about zoos and how far our zoos in the US have come. There is much to learn about how cultures treat their animals and not always easy answers, but we are here to observe and enjoy.
After a Thai buffet lunch and a stop to feed some monkeys along the road our next stop today as at the Tiger Temple, which is supposedly like an animal refuge for tigers and other animals. We walk along dirt paths and dozens of deer and water buffalo and wart hogs roam freely. This seems more dangerous than the tigers we are about to see. One at a time we get to sit and touch several tigers and have our photo taken. It is after lunch and HOT so most of the tigers are sleeping. That's what cats do - sleep most of the day. One young tiger is awake and being fed and we are allowed a quick photo of him together, something they normally won't do but our guide worked some magic. It is hot, hot, hot out so we are ready to end our day in the air conditioned car for the 3 hour drive back to Bangkok.
For our second city day we have an Uber driver taking us to our destination and acting as our guide. We are headed to Muang Boran the Ancient City. This is like a park with many replicas of temples and famous buildings. It is shaped like Thailand and has buildings representing all the different areas and also different time periods. Here we'll get our chance to see some temples. Most people buy a ticket that includes bicycles. Riding a bike in 90 degree heat with a "feels like 100" temperature rating?! Not me! We rent a golf cart and our Uber driver is kind enough to drive us around. The buildings and the grounds are well taken care of and we enjoy seeing the beautiful buildings and also going inside some of the temples.
Some parts of the Samutprakan Crocodile Farm and Zoo seemed clean and nice. We saw your standard alligator show and an elephant show with some rather impressive tricks. Some of the animal enclosures even seemed quite large and spacious, like the tiger, bear, and alligator areas. But other parts of the zoo, much of the zoo, just felt old, dated, small and very poorly cared for. Sad, sad, sad.
Special thanks to our Thai friends for hosting us!
