Maetaeng Elephant Park

Today I went to an elephant park!  I was really excited to go but my overall experience was different than what I expected..

The park was about an hour away but we were picked up at our dorms which was really nice.  Other than elephant rides the park had bamboo rafting, an elephant show, and an ox cart ride.  The bamboo raft was just like the once we used in Pangmapha in the cave.

After the bamboo raft our we were taken back to the main part of the camp to watch an elephant show.  Although it was cool to see the elephants paint and kick a soccer ball, it just seemed very unnatural.

After the elephant show we ate lunch which was included in the price of the park.  The lunch was a buffet and was surprisingly really good with a lot of options.  We took about a half hour for lunch and then went to ride the elephants!  They're huge and there skin is so rough and hairy!  My friend Lynley and I rode on an elephant who actually had a little bit of a temper.. It was sad to see him misbehave though because the workers had sticks with hooks at the end and would hit them to steer them and if they misbehaved.  The ride was different than I had expected-like it wasn't smooth at all.  Luckily we had a bar in front of our seat.  I'm also surprised at the quality of the paths and thought they should've been more even.  I don't mean to sound like I'm bashing the elephant park so much, I actually did have fun!  After the elephant ride we were taken back to the main park by an ox cart.  After getting back I got to feed some of the elephants!  It was actually a little scary because they'll do anything to get some bananas!  Finally, we stopped at a butterfly garden before returning back to the dorms.

The most awkward picture ever.. Jeudi (the monk) is my classmate and Prince (right) is a Thai student and of course, Lynley.

This weekend is a little weird since we're done with our first class and the people who were only staying for three weeks left today and yesterday-including my friends Lina and Lynley :(.  It's going to be weird without them but we got three new students who are from the same school as the professor who is teaching our next class (St. Mary's in Maryland).  I'm half way done so it's all downhill from here! At least I hope..