Today I got slobbered on by an elephant… Ok… it was a baby elephant, only 3 - 4 years old and I paid 20 baht for the experience. I would like to think that the money I paid will go to the upkeep of the elephants and not to the handler. This was the same elephant that made me jump last night when, after dinner, it snuck up behind me (how can an elephant sneak?) and demanded someone feed it (Edit from Cath: Since Cass brought it up not me, my hands are clean! When said elephant snuck up on her - I watched it come down the road but failed to mention it - Cass hearing a ‘strange noise’ looked over her shoulder and upon seeing a baby elephant about 1/2 m away from her jumped a mile in shock… I kindly laughed at the situation… I will not even mention the squeal… opps, I think I just did…)... I watched last night, so tonight I knew the routine. For 20 baht I got to feed it small sticks of bamboo which it eagerly grabbed from my hand, nudging me if I was too slow… Cathy, and half the restaurant, took the opportunity for a quick photo snap. I came away with elephant slobber over both my hands and a triumphant wave from the elephant.. well… he raised his trunk at me at what looked like a wave…
Today we started fairly early… When I say that, I mean we woke up somewhere around 6am, but actually got out of bed somewhere around 7am ish… Finally we sauntered down stairs to discover that there was a restaurant here with a very good breakfast. They also did laundry. We dropped our laundry off (you would not believe how good it was to have it machine washed instead of hand washed!) and settled in to a comfortable breakfast where they served LARGE cups of coffee… anyone who really knows Cathy will appreciate my thanks for this small wonder (Edit from Cath: So not true anyone who knows me knows I’m a morning person…).
Next we had important business to attend to… being of the financial kind. Next was the task of finding the train station… Remember rule 1? That was the one that said ‘don’t trust the map’.... ditto… it happened again… after wandering around for a couple of hours, we finally hit on the ferry that would take us across the river to the train station so that we could book a fare by train to Chan Mai. It isn’t that we don’t appreciate the local bus service… honest… I think by now we are one of its greatest patrons… it is just that we wanted to try something different… and the fact that it was going to take 12 hours to get there and we would rather sleep horizontally than sitting up… needless to say we found the station and booked our tickets… We have an all women’s compartment and have secured the top bunks… apparently not as good as the bottom bunks, but beggars can’t be choosey.
We then caught a tuk tuk to Wat Mat something or other… This is one of the ruined Wats of Ayuttaya… Wat Phra Mahathat is what Cathy informs me we visited. It was actually quite spectacular. I would have loved to have seen it in its original state. The ruins were very impressive. After touring this Wat, we then ventured to Wat Ratburana which is next door to Wat Phra Mahathat. It is also in ruins but you can actually climb the central tower and descend into the centre of it where they stored all the goodies. The Wat was looted a long time ago though so all you see now is the empty cavern where everything used to be. Fortunately they light the way down the stairs as they are very narrow.
After viewing the ruins we returned to our accommodation for the afternoon and took advantage of their lounge area. The evening was spent consuming copious amounts of alcohol and entertaining other travellers (and baby elephants…) I can not believe that our meal, snacks, and alcohol cost about the same amount as our room…. about $25 for the both of us… and yep… we drank a lot of alcohol… Aussie Aussie Aussie… Oi oi oi…
We ate at The Chang House an I must say that the food, and the service, were fantastic. The same poor waiter tended us all evening. I say poor waiter, because he had to deal with us and our sense of humour. We initially ordered Tiger beer, with two glasses… We got Leo beer… not much difference between a tiger and a Lion eh? The poor waiter was half way through pouring the first beer when he noticed his mistake. Instead of sending him away for another bottle, we told him we would try Leo instead of Tiger… It wasn’t bad (couldn’t have been as we consumed at least 5 bottles of the stuff!) Every once in a while he would check on our consumption rate and top up our glasses politely requesting if we required another bottle… of course we did! Half way through the evening he brought out two fresh frosted glasses as he believed our original ones had become too warm… Aussie pubs take note… freeze the glasses! Upon noting the frosted bottom of the glass, I decided to tip it upside down to see if it contained ice, or a separate section that stayed frozen to chill the beer… of course I had drained the glass before upending it, but my frantic thumping on the base of the glass brought our waiter rushing over to us in a panic wondering if there was something wrong… it took a bit of explaining to him to show we were just trying to see what was in the bottom of the glass… it turned out to be ice, which floated to the surface as soon as he poured the next beer for us….
