Jungle Safari Day!

So today was Jungle Safari Day!  We were picked up by our driver at 8am, we werent ready and he was sat outside our hotel waiting for us, we grabed are cameras, ran down stairs and jumped onto the back of the truck.  After picking up some other tourists, (one older lady who was travelling on her own, and a group of middle aged, totally purvy men), we were off into the jungle!

First stop was the safari park, there was an elephant show, where the elephants do tricks, hand stands, play football and give massages!  It sounds great but to be honest it sadden me, I love animals, I work with horses and animal welfare is important to me, I dont like to see anything sad, sick or badly treated.  The elephants looked in ok heath, but there was one tied up by the enterance, with no food or water (I'm no elephant expert, maybe this is ok?), but it was rocking back and to, back and to, as if it had lost its mind.

  I asked one of the men why it was rocking like that, he told me 'he's dancing for you!', which totally pissed me off, it clearly wasnt a happy animal.  Then there was a monkey show, the monkeys, like the elephants did tricks and played games, this didnt sit well with me either.  Next there was a Muai Thai demo, basically two thai men kicking the crap out of each other, this was fine with me!  After that we were taken to a platform to wait for our elephant ride... this was fun and lasted about 20 mins, although I stilll couldnt help feel bad for the way the elephants were treated and felt kind of bad that I had given money to fund it...Although, without money from tourists, what would happen to the elephants?  Its a hard one, and it bothered me.

 

After our elephant ride we piled back into the truck and were driven to the Big Buddha statue, we had about 45 mins here to see the statue and surrounding areas, this was a nice experience and I was glad to get away from the whole rocking elephant and dancing monkey situation!  I had to wrap a beach towel around me while we walked up to the Big Buddha, as in the rush to get out of the hotel I had forgot to pick up a shirt and was only wearing a bikini top and shorts..no boobs allowed in front of Budda!!!

Next we were driven up a mountain, we stopped at an amazing little palce for lunch, the food was good, (Thai green curry mmmmm!), the views from this place were stunning, I took loads of pics and videos but the beauty of the place had to be seen to be believed.

  After lunch we were driven further up the mountain, we went higher and higher, it felt like were in the clouds!  Finally we arrived at another park, it was busy and our driver said we would come back here later on the way back down the mountian.  We drove even higher and eventually the road ended and we were told to follow the path to the waterfall...This was amazing, so beautiful, I cant actually find the words to discribe it! We played in the waterfall and took more pics.  On the way back down the mountain we got to sit on top of the truck, I guess it was safe, but still quite a rush.  We stopped at the place we had driven past earlier, this was the tiger park, simliar to the elephant park, although this time the tigers were clearly drugged.

  There was one lay on a boulder, chained to the floor, very drousey and breathing heavily, it was very clearly drugged up to the eyeballs.  You could pay 300bt to have your picture taken with the animal, when someone handed over their money the man would shake the tiger, hit it with a stick or poke it in the eye to wake it up, then the tourist could sit next to it while someone took a picture.  This sicken me, it worried me that this tiger was so heavily sedated, in those temperatures, with no fluids or proper monitoring. I guess its not for me to judge, but it bothered me.  There were also baby tigers, about 8 in a tiny cage, you could also pay to have a pictre taken with them.  And the was a leopard, tethered to a boulder.

..she was walking back and to, in a similar way to the elephant from earlier on.  We left the rest of our group and waited at the truck.

 Next was the 'Mummified Monk'... again, not sure how felt about this!  Its that really a real person?? Apparently he died while praying, they mummified him, and stuck him in a glass tank for people to look at...??  The weirdest thing is that he's wearing a pair of Thailands best 'Ray-bans'!


Then it was on to the Grand father and Grand mother rock..just google it!

By this point we were all exhusted!  We thought we were going back to the hotel but we were taken to the 'Buddha magic garden', basically a garden with lots of butterflies, statues and a little river, it was very pretty but to be honest I was to tired to take it in!

We got back to the hotel at about 5, it was a day of ups and downs, a great experience but one that messed with my head a little.