The Dutch girl we met in Kanchanaburi had never ridden on an elephant, and really wanted to try an elephant ride and elephant bathing while she was in Thailand. Cz and I have met, ridden, fed, and washed multiple elephants already, but I like elephants, so we decided to go too.Unlike the elephant treks in Nepal, this one really was just an elephant ride. Much like pony rides in the States, we were placed on a gentle elephant and even seat belted into our park bench. The elephants did a slow circuit of a the woods near their camp and then walked down to the river for the 'elephant bath'.
We were each given a life jacket and rode the elephants into water deep enough that they could 'dive', dunking us into the water. More emphasis was placed on personal safety, and less on just playing with elephants in the water. I suppose that is necessary, as this is a much more established and touristy operation, and the river current seemed stronger than in Chitwan. It was still fun, but I missed my pachyderm pals from Chitwan.
After the elephant wash, we dried off, ate a last meal at our favourite restaurant, and hopped on a bus back to Bangkok. Apparently we chose the most popular bus, as we claimed some of the last seats before the aisles were stuffed Indian-style. Luckily it was only 3-hour ride until we back in Bangkok. We spent a little bit of time at the bus station getting info on tickets to Siem Reap, and were soon happily ensconced back at Sukhumvit Hostel munching on our favourite Phad Thai and fruit smoothies.
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