day 11: elephant rides and bat caves

after our day of driving yesterday we were really finding ourselves in rural thailand where not many travellers get to go.  it was really fun to see this part of thailand and it was a real adventure because we werent even sure if we would find a place to stay.  luckily our little honda jazz was a hatchback so we could always sleep in the back if we needed too.  we were lucky though and just as it was getting dark we came upon a sign pointing to laem son national park off the main road and a couple hotels in that direction too.  we headed that way hoping that they werent closed for the season.  we rolled into andaman peace resort right on the ocean just after dark and i think they were a little surprised to see too farang show up at this time of year.  it was a fishing resort that people return to year after year to do their big kahuna sport fishing.  in fact we were the only ones staying there besides one guy that stays long term.  second night in a row that we had our accomadation to ourselves and it was pretty nice.  we had a nice late night stroll on the long sandy beach and watched a lightning storm roll in over the water, then hit the hay early.  it was fun to see the beach in the daylight the next morning and the long wide sandy beach lined by pine looking trees reminded us both a lot of the pacific northwest coast.  we wandered the empty beach for a while picking up shells and then had a nice breakfast watching the waves at the resort before we were on our way for the day.  we could see clearly now the herds of yak and mangrove forests that we had driven through the night before to get to the peace resort.

we had only been on the main road heading north a short time when i saw an elephant close to the side of the road as we flew by.  we of course had to turn around to investigate and get a photo.  turned out the elephant was taking a break with his owners under a jackfruit tree from a hard days work of hauling logs around.  we were taking pictures from afar when the guys saw us and waved us over.  they were so nice and one of them knew a few words of english so we were able to communicate a little bit.  they asked us straight away if we wanted to get up on the giant animal and of course we said yes.  ever since riding an elephant on the big seat they strap on i knew i wanted to ride one the real way so you could really feel the animal under you.  the wrangler just made a few calls and she lowered her leg so we could climb up and man it was a long way up.  her skin was so rough with big bristly hairs sticking out and she was covered in dirt from working so hard.  i didnt care though, i just leaned down and gave her a big hug.  she walked around a little bit and her shoulders moving up and down would throw you from side to side.  it was so cool.  with another call her leg came out again as she bowed to let us off.  such a big, strong, amazingly gentle animal! we stood around in awe for a while after that and watched her pick jackfruit from the tree, smash the big, sturdy fruit easily with her big flat feet and pick out the insides with her trunk.  one of the guys invited us across the road to his families shop for a beer so of course we said yes and grabbed our thai dictionary on the way.  we were able to find out that his name was pisanu and he was in the army.  his cute old mother saw how dirty we were from the elephant and took us around back to wash us off.  it was so nice of her to take care of us.  we sat around trying to pronounce thai words but not succeeding very well and meeting the family.  we pulled out the video camera too which pisanu thought was fun and he made sure to bring out his little girl for the camera.  we bought a bunch of snacks for the road from their little shop and said our goodbyes knowing that the best thing about having a car in thailand had just happened.

a little ways up the road we saw that we were driving right up along the border of burma aka myanmar so of course we had to take a detour to have a look at the neighboring country.  we pulled up in the little town right on the big river dividing the two countries there and watched long tail boats go back and forth.  burma is much less developed than thailand and you could tell just by looking at the ramshackle huts making up the town on the other side.  we almost wanted to jump in a long tail and go over just to say that we had been to burma but we werent sure what they would think about that so we were content with just a look.

we stopped for yet another detour today a little bit further up the road to some cave off the main drag.  when we first got there the cave was completely dark and a little ominous with teeth like formations at the entrance.  we ventured a little ways with our puny little flashlights that the darkness quickly swallowed up.  we could feel and hear the hoardes of bats zooming around us so i wasnt about to go much further.  we came running back out thinking we wouldnt be able to get much exploring out of this stop but this man appeared from nowhere and flipped a switch across the road.  all of sudden the whole massive cave appeared illuminated before us.  there were bats zooming around everywhere especially concentrated in a huge shaft with an opening in the top of the karst.  luckily they didnt really want to have anything to do with us but we could sure smell them!  the cave not only went back but went up too.  there were stairs leading up and up to the top of this massive limestone formation with several seperate cave rooms along the way.  one had a buddha and a wood platform where monks sleep i suppose and another at the top had a view out to the land below.  we had a lot of fun exploring this cave for sure and we would have missed it completely had the guy not turned the lights on!

so this was a big day for us with lots of fun stops and adventures and we even still made it all the way over to the gulf side to a town called bang saphan.  of course it only took about a half hour to drive from one side to the other since we were at almost the skinniest part of thailand.  we found a nice place to stay by the sea and there was even live music across the street.  so we finished out our day with some fried rice, a beer, waves crashing beneath us, sea shells hanging all around, listening to a local guitar and drum duo play a few songs.  the rain came and we ran back to our place to play a neverending game of pool on the biggest pool tables we had ever seen, 8 or 9 feet easy.  it was hilarious.  you should have seen the sticks!