Day 48: elephants, oxen, bamboo rafts, orchids

This excursion was about immersion in the old ways of Thailand.

We traveled outside of the city to an elephant camp for a close encounter with the revered Asian pachyderm. Visitors wobble by ox cart

through the countryside on rutted mud trails to the elephant boarding platform. We climbed into the basket of one of the elders and were passed more than a few times by the younger more impatient elephants during our trek. J joked that the other riders must have gotten the sport model. Either irritated with her charges or suffering from the dust, our elephant snorted saliva mist on our feet with her trunk. Let us assume that this is good luck like when a bird gets you while flying overhead.

Bath time for baby...

Afterwards, we clamored onto a double-stacked bamboo raft for a drift with a jokey pole jockey. Every little bit of flotsam was a crocodile, including coconut-sized elephant excrement. Infinitely better than "row row row your boat," the Indian couple behind us on the raft softly sang a lovely folk song. It seemed perfectly paired with our quiet passage over the murky river, viewing erratic butterfly aerobatics on the breeze, passing a water snake resting from a swim, looking for a monkey family in the Jackfruit tree.

We rounded out the day with a stop at an orchid farm. The orchids are suspended in dirtless rows, roots dangling like the flowers are unplugged appliances.