Bangkok: Extraordinary Elephant Day Trip

Before going to Thailand I knew that I wanted a day with elephants somewhere and sometime in my life. The Thailand trip popped up and I immediately ran the thought past Mr. B. Mr. B was great typing away on his computer and of course agreed, not really knowing what he was agreeing to. His exact words as I recall, “Find it and books it.” Me: “REALLY?” “Yep, book it.” I spent all night searching for the perfect tour with great reviews, that met our time frame and location. I came across many different site but Bangkok Day Tours Co Ltd seemed to really strike my fancy, so I took a leap of faith and booked it.

We received a confirmation e-mail almost immediately providing details about the pick up time from our hotel, the daily schedule, change of clothing, etc. I was like a giddy little child at Christmas. I was SUPER excited to get to spend time with the elephants, just like when I was a child. (Ask my grandparents about it sometime).

We were picked up at 7AM by our driver Lim, who by the way is an EXCELLENT driver! This man will get you from point A to point B on time without a delay. We got outside of the city of Bangkok and got to see another yet another side of Thailand that we really enjoyed.

We started off the trip by visiting the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market. I’ve read that people complained about the vendors hooking their boat and pulling them into each stand, but Mr. B and I really didn’t mind it because once you said no thank you, you were immediately released and they were onto their next boat. I mean really you have to know going to a market like this that it would be vendors that want your money. After all, they make a living off of tourist and locals spending money. We really just enjoyed the boat ride through the marketplace. Each stand was really clean too! I think that our favorite was the vendor that hooked and pulled us in and wanted Larry to see a really big snake. We laughed so hard! Yeahhhhhh……

*Our boat guide

We got back onto the road and headed towards our next destination. Along the way Lim provided us with snacks. Uncle Bob I took this photo for you because of the brand… do you recall ever seeing these when you were a distro for Lays? We really liked them, but I think we are bias living in Korea and all.

We picked up our guide Moe along the way. We went to the Bridge over the River Kwai. Moe was so kind and asked us if we wanted some photos together on the bridge. Moe explained the background about the bridge and it being a very strategic railway linking Thailand with Burma. We discussed how during the construction of the bridge over the Khwae Yai River thousands of POWs lives were tragically taken. Honestly, I felt bad smiling for photos on it or near it.

We got back on the road and drove to lunch at a Local Thai restaurant. There wasn’t anything special to write home about. I think the restaurant was known for tour groups to stop at and really emphasized American food so that people were not turning up their noses at the unknown local Thai cuisine. Mr. B and I joked that we were going to go to the backside where it looked as locals were eating and order, but we didn’t. We did eat most of the Thai food and got some googly eyes from other foreigners there thinking what in the world are those two eating. They just didn’t know what they were missing out on.

*The highlight was the deep-fried coconut bananas!

We drove some more and finally arrived at the Elephant camp where we got to Bathe and ride the Elephants in the River Kwai. Our guide Moe took the camera while we were with the elephants and snapped away. It started to rain when we got there and for some reason it made me more nervous because I knew we were heading to the river, but in the end the sun came out and it was an absolutely incredible memory that we will both look back on and smile. (Especially knowing that Mr. B was JUST as nervous as I!)