Asia – 2016 – Day 13

It was a beautiful day at the docks of the port leading to Bangkok, Thailand when we woke up.

At 8:45am we boarded a Celebrity shuttle bus to take us to the center of Bangkok and it was a 3 hour drive!

When we arrived, we had a 20 minute walk to the Renaissance Bangkok Ratchaprason Hotel – yes that is the correct spelling.  They upgraded us to the Executive Floor and it was a great room.  It even had a glass enclosed bathroom that at night, they pulled the curtain wall to separate the bathroom from the rest of the room.

Then it was down to the lobby meet our tour guide Pat and driver for the trip to ride the elephants. 

The ride took 3 hours to the west and we were only 10 miles from the Burma boarder.  This is one of the few places left in the world where they allow you to ride the elephants bare-back and alone.

We first rode down to the water with a guide on each elephant and we were holding on behind.  Barb rode on the biggest elephant, who weighed 4 tons and was 40 years old!!

Then we went into the river and WOW was that ever fun.  The elephant actually went under water with us also going in all the way and then back up.

Then we got off the elephant and brushed and washed them.  Then they picked us up by their trucks and lifted us out of the water.  After that it was our turn to climb up on the neck of the elephant and we went out of the river and up the hill where we got off.

This was one of the best experiences ever for both of us!!

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a local market and ate a number of things that were being prepared right there in make shift cooking areas.  We ate pork, chicken, coconut, fish and a number of other dishes.

Then we finished our ride back to the hotel where we changed clothes and took the subway to a huge night market, shopped around a bit and then took a cab back to the hotel to go to sleep and be ready for a big day tomorrow.

We have some great videos that I will post when we get to Singapore of this part of our trip.

Going down to the river with a guide

Let's take a bath

It takes two!!

Now that's just fun!!

Simply amazing!!