NTM Part 12 - ADVENTURE

It was a very peaceful sleep for me on 23 oct night as compared to the 6 nights in CHOL. But somehow i jus could not have good quality sleep despite the soft bed, comfy blanket and sturdy pillow. Nevertheless i gave thanks for the absence of noise :)

At 8.30am after breakfast, we eagerly proceeded to the lobby and hopped into the van. Our van driver was reckless! Warunee and myself felt like throwing up coz he jus kept braking at high speed! We tried to sleep thro the treacherous 1.5 hours ride. Mae Taeng Elephant Camp was the first venue that day. Bought 100 baht of bananas and sugar cane and chose a baby elephant to feed. Cindy and Susan were hesitant about it coz they were afraid the elephant would bite their fingers..:) ha ha. With some persuasion, they soon got the hang of it.

Next was elephant bath. Nothing new to me as i had seen several times and much better performance than this.

Took a pic while waiting for show to start

Elephant show was next with dancing and playing harmonica and drums, swinging trunks to beat, hula hooping, drawing, footballing and basketballing.

Group pic

Oh yes, missed out the heavy wood logging and hat tricks too.

Hmmm, i am still amazed at the way elephants are taught to draw. Kicking a ball and swinging trunks are kind of easy but a lot of coordination is needed for drawing. The guide explained the learning process is a mere 3-month period...these elephants are darn intelligent!

Eld john teased that elephant Suda paint better than i do. Yeah yeah, i painted a horrendous pink outerspace in sec 1 or 2 of which the art teacher had to show tell to whole class this girl was playing a fool. Actually it wasnt true. I was a good girl, tho tomboy and noisy. I would never have disrespected teacher like this. My black outerspace turned out a tad too black and morbid so i decided to decorate it, erh, probably used too much of pink to brighten up that end product didnt even look like outerspace...Lol! Then there was one time we were supposed to draw still life and i chose banana. It wasnt that bad but jus before handing up, i drew eyes, nose and mouth on it while playing with my classmates. Erh, i forgot to rub them off and you can guess what happened during the next lesson. My name was called and i received scolding for trying to be funny with teacher. Thereafter my art marks never got beyond 20 upon 100 coz no matter how hard i tried, the teacher would fail me. Blacklisted and marked. Period.

Oh no, how far have i digressed! Ha ha ha! And so we went on to ride the elephant two by two :)

I must say we were kind of short changed coz they never made the elephants pass thro the river. Ours were on dry land. Angela n BK'S elephant went berseck (jus like valerie n mine in 2005)! It sped like crazy and super fast. They even went to other areas the rest of us didnt cover.

Mine was the most lazy! Took many breaks to drink and we had to buy bananas at every tree top shop to feed him! Was he starved the night before? Beats me man! We were then brought to two rows of shops to purchase souvenirs (if we so wished) before we made our way to the oxcart station. Our people splurged on the merchandise once more and forgot the time till the oxcart people called out to our group to move on!

We went in 3 carts. Hendrick, Laura, Cindy & Susan in one cart.

BK, Angela & Melisaa in another (oops, no pic). Warunee, eld john n i.

The driver of the cart that took Hendrick's group went too near to the platform and as the cart pulled out, it yanked with it a block of wood that was fastened onto the beam that held the platform. We gave a shout and thought platform would collapse...ha ha. Not so easy. And so when it was our turn to get in, i quickly sat down at the back row and started examining the extent of the devastation. 3 of us were discussing about the damage when our driver hurled the whip onto the ox and it took off in a sudden thrust. This threw me backwards and i almost fell off at the back if not for a quick grab at the umbrella pole in the middle. Warunee was also thrown back but managed to pull herself back. Thank goodness Eld john got a grip of himself, or else he would have pushed both of us out with his body weight and sheer force. Thank God. So what was the morale of the story? Always hold onto something when you get on. Get it? Hee hee.:)

It was a shorter ride compared to the big elephant and we spotted angmohs riding on atv! They looked small to me, especially the wheels, comparing to those i took in phuket. We waved happily to them coz we were so looking forward to our ride! Buffet Lunch was next. Rice, noodle and usual stuff. There was thai noodle stall too. We missed out the free coffee and tea totally and only realised there was this section while on our way out. Bamboo rafting next. 5 in each raft.

the alert, the sleepy and the blur....hahahaha

God is good and why do i say so? Coz the sun disappeared behind the clouds while we lazed down the almost gentle river.:) it was really cooling and enjoyable. Took pics and sang hymns. Then Hendrick said our raft was too faraway from the 5 ladies group, probably about 100m. He wanted two rafts to travel and sing together. Warunee asked our "sailors" (or what do you call them) to call out to the first raft to stop while we catch up. Our sailors or steerers worked sooooo hard lor! It wasnt long before we could catch up but i cant give full credit to them coz Angela had a part in this. How so? She took over the oar or long bamboo pole of the first raft and ahem, failed to steer, or rather steer till raft was 90 degree adjacent to river bank. How to move on like this? Ha ha. We watched from a distance her struggles and it was comical. She didnt know which direction to place her oar too.

Our boatsman (perhaps this name is more correct) was funny. He called out to his friends on Angela's raft to slow down coz he was darn tired rowing and catching up! And you know what? We didnt even get to sing together. Hendrick chose 人算什么 song to sing. Cindy started on a super low key. BK her own key. Hendrick another. The rest dont know what key. Me? I kept silent. How to sing like this? Stopped them after two lines n restarted with a pitch given. Oh man, the ladies kept to their own pitch and it was jus Hendrick n myself singing. We only managed to sing till chorus when we reached the jetty to alight. So much effort put in by the boatsman and a mere 4 liner song! Lolz!

Next was 1 hour of rock-a-bye baby sleep in the van, uneventful journey to atv. It was a shop by the side of the road and they looked so free (no customers). We were made to sign an indemnity form. Gist of it was we bear full responsibility for any accident and rules spelled out like no overtaking, no using of hand brake (which worked on 2 front wheels only) while going downhill. Need to use foot brake instead as it worked on all 4 wheels. Donned our gear, erh jus helmet lah, and we were all ready.

Instructions given and we each got on one atv. I decided to go last so as to watch the whole group. One by one our people took off. A rugged terrain test circuit was our very first course. It was full of pot holes, mud, bents and uneven ground. Poor cindy, she struggled so much and couldnt get the machine to move. The rest seemed pretty ok. The one person i worried most was so steady and i was impressed. Guess who?

BK!

Dont underestimate her strength. She has potential! The atv people were watching us. At the end of 2 rounds, i heard the sad news. No difficult track for our group coz some couldnt handle properly. And they didnt have enough manpower to split us to beginner n intermediate routes. Sigh. Nvm. We stay together to cover the easy track. One hour. Melissa's tennis elbow hurt too much n so she sat pillion with the first guide. Cindy sat with Angela.

I worried about Susan too (thinking she might not know how to handle) and spotted her driving very fast. I could see her overtaking too. But she was among the first few and so i couldnt overtake all the way to tell her to slow down. It wasnt until when we had come to a stop that i learned she has a driver's licence. Haha.....steady Susan!

The next person i worry was Laura. She looked rather tense on the atv but she seemed to be doing just fine.........

until she banged onto Hendrick. We were traveling on this road in single file to dont know where and she failed to break on time. It was not too hard and i pray she would learn how to brake the next time. But it wasnt so. She went on to bang Hendrick even louder and harder at another stretch of road. Then she did a very dangerous maneuver by overtaking Hendrick, then BK. Next was a sharp bend and i told myself i needed to tell her to slow down. The other guide on motorbike crusing next to her also followed after her. I overtook Warunee, sped all the way, turned round the bend only to see her crashed onto Angela who was taking Cindy. Oh man!! Angela's vehicle was knocked till it went perpendicular to the road. Cindy & Angela almost jumped off the vehicle because they thot they were going to be injured. Thank God no one was hurt here. Asked Laura what happened and she said the man on the bike was talking to her and so she looked at him and didnt see Angela's atv. I told her she was traveling way too fast and needed to keep in single file to be safe. Also reminded her to use the foot brake coz i had a strange feeling she didnt know how to brake.

Laura's 4th crash was back at the shop. We needed to park our atv in 2 columns and hers was the 2nd vehicle after the guide who took Melissa. She moved in slowly at first and then suddenly a little faster and BANG!!! Hahahaa..... i guess this will be the first and last for Laura on atv. Angela, upon reaching the shop, got off her atv and screamed at Laura: "Hell Rider!!!".......lols!

Hendrick on the other hand had an accident. He didnt speed nor overtake but he made a mistake while negotiating a sharp bend. It was rather narrow and so he wanted to apply brake but pressed hard on accelerator..... actually accelerator is situated at the right handle and brake at the right foot. He got totally mixed up and according to him, sped forward fast, vehicle tipped over and fell onto him. Thank God he didnt sustain serious injuries....abrasions and scratches only. I went round the bend and found him topsy turvy with the guide just about to flip the vehicle over. Angela said it was a loud bang but no one actually saw how it happened. Hendrick looked like he was in great shock and it has to be.....so terribly scary!!! The right mirror broke and since it comes in a pair, the shop said we need to pay in full.... US dollars cost. After conversion, it was $25.

I thot Laura had to pay for the 4 BANGS but they didnt ask for compensation. I remembered my MHC staff in Phuket had to pay 500 baht for the rear lamp when he hit twice onto the atv infront of him.....same reason....fail to brake.

It was fun overall but if i were to do it again, will do with people who know how to drive or handle vehicle :) And i want to go to the intermediate or advanced trail!!!

Just Me!