Phuket- Day 2!

The second day we woke up to rain. Unsure about what to do, we had a long, leisurely breakfast and eventually decided to take a cab to the Big Buddha we could see from our hotel balcony.

Rain  from hotel balcony

We strolled down to the street, bartered for a cab ride and hopped in with an awesome driver named Mr. Lucky. He had a brand new Mazda SUV which was super nice considering the other cabs and tuk tuks we had seen. On the way up to the Buddha he pointed out various sites along the way- snake show, monkey school, rubber trees, elephant rides, etc. I asked him what his favorite type of Thai food was and it was the same as mine! Chicken with cashew nuts! That made me really excited because I thought all along I liked Americanized Thai food; it was comforting to know they actually eat it in Thailand. I asked him if had ever gotten a Thai massage and he said he had. I asked if they crawled and pounced on him and he started laughing and shaking his head. I must have gone into some whack-job scammy parlor!

Local bus

Rubber trees

We made it to the top of the mountain to Big Buddha and suddenly a cloud BURST and it was raining much much harder. Mr. Lucky looked amused as we got soaked getting our umbrellas out. He waited for us as we explored the Buddha. Taxi drivers here (and in Bali) have set prices and will wait for you however long it takes. Kind of reassuring knowing a cab will be there when you come out. We made sure to sign the guest book considering we hadn't seen a single other American yet. I bolded "USA."

Following the Buddha trip we went down the hill to the elephant riding spot. As we hopped out to get our pictures taken with the baby elephant, Janet was getting nagged about paying for an elephant ride- even Mr. Lucky was chiming in. I didn't care either way, because I vaguely remember riding an elephant at a zoo when I was little. Janet, on the otherhand, was experiencing her first elephant rodeo. (I secretly really wanted to but didn't want to pressure her into anything). Eventually we got the price knocked down a few bucks by asking for a "rainy day special" and we soon were clambering up the stairs to the platform loading zone.

Our elephant guide MADE THE TRIP! He was absolutely hilarious! Right off the bat he asked us where we were fun. He then proceeded for the next 30 minutes to shout throughout the jungle "I love  CALIFORNIA!" After about 2 minutes though, he smirked, glanced backwards towards us and grinned while whispering "yesterday I loved Germany...maybe tomorrow I'll love Paris." Haha.

He called himself Brad Pitt and his elephant was Natalie. He started calling me Angelina Jolie but then later switched to Jennifer Aniston (thank goodness!). Natalie grabbed some tree branches and he took the leaves and quickly braided them into fun hats for us. He would lead Natalie to the edge of the cliffs and jokingly scream "NO NATALIE NO" as if we were about to go over. A little nerve-racking but oh so much more exciting. She was so well trained! She kept drinking water from puddles and blasting it through the air. At just 10 years old. Brad Pitt had been training her since she was born. I couldn't believe how comfortable he was. Sitting peacefully on her head, climbing up and down her trunk to take pictures of us, it was adorable.

Brad Pitt kept trying to get me to climb off of the bench and sit on her head. I turned down the offer at first- after all I'm in Thailand, in a jungle with cliffs and trusting some guy who calls himself Brad Pitt. But after we hit the halfway mark I saw how well Natalie was trained so I went for it. We lifted the bar off the bench and I slid down the neck while Brad balanced on the forehead. Brad clambered down the trunk and soon it was me driving the elephant! Brad had her doing the same tricks (going to the cliff's edge, grabbing branches, squirting water). Only once when a motorcycle went by and I was on top, did he look a little concerned. He immediately grabbed his hook and poked Natalie's ear leading her to the side of the road. It was a lot of fun being a elephant driver! Another resume booster :)

Going back up to the bench was a lot easier than climbing down and after about 15 minutes Brad was back in the driver seat and I could relax back on the bench with Janet. Without a doubt, one of my favorite parts of being in Thailand!!!!

This is what you get when you give Brad Pitt your camera...elephant dung photos.

Mr. Lucky drove us back to the hotel and at that point, the sun was popping through and we went down to a different pool and lounged around for awhile. The pool people drop by giving us fruit and cold towels- I could get use to the resort life! We had a super late lunch by the pool, hit happy hour and then went to downtown Kata again. On the way down there we passed people selling those lanterns at the end of Hangover II. I was going to get one on the way back but we stayed out too late to light the candle lantern...next time! Downtown we shopped, sat outside Starbucks and people watched then headed to a place with outdoor band playing a great variety of music (getting some of the lyrics wrong though haha). It was a great day with Natalie and Brad Pitt being the highlight!!!! If you ever find yourself in the jungle of Phuket- I HIGHLY recommend riding and elephant!