Happy New Year 2008

Today is New Years Eve for us! It is about 8pm. 6am in the US apparently. I am sitting in my hotel bathroom. This is the only outlet that works for my laptop! Lame and inconvenient—I am disgruntled with this Holiday Inn at the moment.

Granted, I’m tired after a long day of sightseeing, I am completely adjusted to this time zone. No jetlag at all. My sickness before I left never developed into anything luckily! (Pssh... Though some people were so sure I’d get sick) I won’t be so confident so quickly though, I still have days till my return. Each day is so action packed I feel like I’ve been here for 2 weeks already!

Kristina has not been so lucky this trip. She lost her digital camera the second day of our trip L. She was so upset, but has been handling the situation well... The next day she used her dad’s camera for photos and left all his camera gear in a bathroom (we got it back eventually, long story). When we were massaged the ladies did a few neck/back adjustments. Kris Believes she did something incorrect and it’s the cause of her extreme headaches. We’re taking it easy tonight, both having so much fun in our hotel room while the parentals are out to dinner. We 20 year olds can’t handle the pace of 50 year olds, sad. We aren’t complaining though, we are glad for a break. Being on the 20^th floor overlooking the beautiful city lights and magnificent fireworks of Thailand is an amazing sight to say the least! There are massive amounts of paper lanterns floating high in the night's sky that people everywhere released a couple hours before midnight. It looks like millions of fire flies twinkling about.

Earlier today:

This has been a much awaited day, Elephant rides!! Our encounter of the baby elephant the night before stirred much excitement for today as well. At first Kris and I were a bit timid about petting the elephants, but of course became friendly quickly. We fed them baby bananas and sugar cane sticks before we rode them. The trunk is so wet and weird feeling! We hopped on top of our huge elephant and our driver took us on an hour ride through the elephant came which also has a river running through it! It was so calming and breathtaking riding along listening to the babbling brook and seeing the abundant green scenery. Mama you would have LOVED the landscape! This has been my favorite day so far. But don’t take my word for it yet, I seem to systematically announce this each day! Haha, it just keeps getting better and better! The elephants took a bath in the river after their hard work. Those sneaky guys also stored water up in their trunks as we watched them bathe. When they came ashore they sprayed water all over spectators. Fools! I knew it was coming and ran for safety of my camera J Hehe.

After we watched an elephant show! They did many tricks: stood on two legs, spun hoola hoops with their trunks, painted, danced, etc. It was a cool show. I love eff-eh-lints! (as I affectionately call them). End of story. We took a cattle cart ride back to camp. After we ate lunch at the elephant camp we took a leisurely rafting trip along the Taeng River (which ran through the camp). At times there were waterfalls and exotic plants, felt like Hawaii. Kris and I got to steer the bamboo raft ourselves. I kid you not the 2 men sat down with Peg and Russ and we took over for about 5 minutes. It was way fun! Our van and guide met us at the end of the river and we headed to our next destination.

Our next stop was at a monkey school. There were cute, cute, baby monkeys and many other breeds. We fed them vegetables, they rejected some of them! “Monkey, are you here!!?” haha. A fun little show was set up to have the monkeys perform cool tricks.

This particular monkey picture is dedicated to my dad. Ha! Animals in Thailand are so talented!

Our last stop was at an orchid farm. This is the country’s most famous flower. There are over 13,000 wild varieties in Thailand! The colors were so rich and vibrant. There are even specifically hybrid orchids to have the aroma of chocolate! Incredible! Sorry Phil & Jenna Ma, I can’t get you one unfortunatly… Hope everyone had a great New Year’s celebration!