temple after the other and there were scavenge points at virtually
every one.. so from temple to temple to temple we went. They have
all run together now for me... sitting 
buddhas, reclining buddhas, standing buddhas, jade buddhas, buddha as an old man, a naughty 
child buddha... each one different. The absolute highlight of Thailand was the elephant art!!! And yes, this is one from Jordan’s bucket list ever since he and I watched the
video on You Tube. Hard to believe but there actually are elephants here that paint pictures. And not just abstract blobs but 
real pictures of elephants and flowering bushes etc. 
Of course we had to take the trek out there to see and it turned out to be one of the most fascinating things I have ever seen. They give the elephant a paint brush and an empty canvas… and before your eyes, he paints you a picture. Of course – the American suckers - we bought the highly over-priced painting (although how exactly do you price an “the elephant painted me a picture” piece of art). Truly fascinating.
When we walked out of the elephant place we realized that we had made a MAJOR error. The rules of the competition only allow you to take the same taxi for 2 stops (it is to stop people from
basically renting the same taxi for a whole day and using them as a personal guide). So we let our taxi go when we came into the elephant conservatory… not realizing that everyone there had made their taxi stay… and there were no extra taxis… and we were now in the middle of nowhere… with NO transportation. The information booth lady told us that there was a bus stop about half a mile away but that the bus only ran “occasionally” on a Sunday (with no real explanation of what occasionally meant). By then it was over 100 degrees out and we were melting. We began to panic. Then Heidi came up with the brilliant idea of stopping everyone who was driving out of the elephant conservatory and asking if someone would give us a lift to the nearest town. An older woman and her daughter let us jump into the back of her pick-up truck and hauled us the 45 minutes into the nearest town… Thank God, or we might still be by the side of the street in the Thai countryside waiting on a bus that never comes. The motto of this competition is “trusting strangers in strange lands” and today was the best example of that.
Another scavenger was to go to the Mae Sa Valley to watch a snake show – which was a
fascinating display of the interaction of men and snakes. Another WOW. The whole show scared the crap out of me (and yes, I hate snakes) as the snake handlers first taunt the giant, huge, unbelievably dangerous cobras, whip them into a frenzy and then KISS them…. Yes – kiss them – full on the mouth. I was fully expecting a rush-to-the-hospital emergency with every performance but there were only dozens of near-misses. I have seen snake charming in India before but nothing like this.
This morning we did a cooking class where we
learned to cook Thai food and then ate our efforts. After the last few days, it was heaven as it was cool and slow-paced and gave you a very different perspective on the food we’ve eaten the past few days. And yes, that is in fact Rainey in an apron… so man-ly!!!
And the weirdest experience of Thailand… a fish spa treatment. Where you sit and put your feet into a fish tank filled with fish that eat off all of
the dead skin on your feet and basically cleanse your feet by EATING you… Talk about a creepy feeling. 
It is hard to keep your feet in there as visions of piranha swarms fill your head.
We are off to SRI LANKA. I had to ask where it was on the globe, so that will tell you how prepared I am for this new country. Apparently - because of the Tamil Tiger guerillas - there have not been tourists in this country in a long time, so it should be challenging….!!!!
video on You Tube. Hard to believe but there actually are elephants here that paint pictures. And not just abstract blobs but 
real pictures of elephants and flowering bushes etc. 
Of course we had to take the trek out there to see and it turned out to be one of the most fascinating things I have ever seen. They give the elephant a paint brush and an empty canvas… and before your eyes, he paints you a picture. Of course – the American suckers - we bought the highly over-priced painting (although how exactly do you price an “the elephant painted me a picture” piece of art). Truly fascinating.When we walked out of the elephant place we realized that we had made a MAJOR error. The rules of the competition only allow you to take the same taxi for 2 stops (it is to stop people from
basically renting the same taxi for a whole day and using them as a personal guide). So we let our taxi go when we came into the elephant conservatory… not realizing that everyone there had made their taxi stay… and there were no extra taxis… and we were now in the middle of nowhere… with NO transportation. The information booth lady told us that there was a bus stop about half a mile away but that the bus only ran “occasionally” on a Sunday (with no real explanation of what occasionally meant). By then it was over 100 degrees out and we were melting. We began to panic. Then Heidi came up with the brilliant idea of stopping everyone who was driving out of the elephant conservatory and asking if someone would give us a lift to the nearest town. An older woman and her daughter let us jump into the back of her pick-up truck and hauled us the 45 minutes into the nearest town… Thank God, or we might still be by the side of the street in the Thai countryside waiting on a bus that never comes. The motto of this competition is “trusting strangers in strange lands” and today was the best example of that.Another scavenger was to go to the Mae Sa Valley to watch a snake show – which was a
fascinating display of the interaction of men and snakes. Another WOW. The whole show scared the crap out of me (and yes, I hate snakes) as the snake handlers first taunt the giant, huge, unbelievably dangerous cobras, whip them into a frenzy and then KISS them…. Yes – kiss them – full on the mouth. I was fully expecting a rush-to-the-hospital emergency with every performance but there were only dozens of near-misses. I have seen snake charming in India before but nothing like this.This morning we did a cooking class where we
learned to cook Thai food and then ate our efforts. After the last few days, it was heaven as it was cool and slow-paced and gave you a very different perspective on the food we’ve eaten the past few days. And yes, that is in fact Rainey in an apron… so man-ly!!!And the weirdest experience of Thailand… a fish spa treatment. Where you sit and put your feet into a fish tank filled with fish that eat off all of
the dead skin on your feet and basically cleanse your feet by EATING you… Talk about a creepy feeling. 
It is hard to keep your feet in there as visions of piranha swarms fill your head.We are off to SRI LANKA. I had to ask where it was on the globe, so that will tell you how prepared I am for this new country. Apparently - because of the Tamil Tiger guerillas - there have not been tourists in this country in a long time, so it should be challenging….!!!!
2 comments:
So love your blog and pics. Rainey is so cool in his apron!!!
i'm so sad we had to leave! We guessed Sri Lanka!! xo
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