Big day Alanna had planned for me and Fjorn today! We caught a bus heading away from the city and started our day way - with Nam Dtok, which literally means waterfall. Its a meat dish you traditionally eat with your hands using sticky rice, cabbage and basil leaves. There this little place around Phet Kasem soi 100 (were at soi 16) that per Alanna and Terry does it best. Its a bit of a walk from the main road so we took motorcycle taxis - Fjorn and I both have pics as proof! Good fun, though I had to hold onto my hat!
We arrive at the eating place -Alanna says she doesnt call it a restaurant anymore as this gives the wrong impression- and there is a monk having lunch there. Alanna reminds us to be careful not to bump him as they have no physical contact with women and have to go through a cleansing ritual even if just accidentally brushed. To make this easier the monk moved to allow us the bigger table. He was nice and chatty so Alanna proceeded to talk to him (Terry was ordering) and gave him magazines, which he seemed quite happy about. So we proceeded on with our meal, and the monk walks off. The lady brings us an order of Som Tum, spicy papaya salad with nuts- which the monk had ordered, she said. Ok, we like Som Tum, though Alanna said we'd probably still pay for it, but its an extra dollar, so we clean our plates. Then we go to pay, and learn that the monk has paid for our entire meal randomly! So we walk up the street, thank the monk and head on for the day, all agreeing it was incredibly weird, but according to Alanna weird things always happen when she and Fjorn hang out together. We then all grab Gaffe Borong Yens - Thai iced coffee we got in a bag, and head back to the bus.
Next stop Samphran Elephant Ground and Zoo! We make it there just in time for the Crocodile show. There were a number of crocs in the pool, all just dozing. They start to move a bit when music comes on -Star Wars music :) The two croc wrestlers/handlers come out then and pull the crocs to the platform by their tails through the water. They then proceed to line them up, put their hand in the crocs mouth, put their Head! in its mouth, jump over them, all the while laughing and joking about it (though admittedly the spoken humor I didnt quite get as it was in Thai). I went in not knowing what to expect, but quite enjoyed it, though I had trouble looking when they would put their head in the the croc's mouth!
Next we saw the elephants, which were all over the park, including two with babies! You could feed them and pet them and there was even an option of riding one for an extra fee, though unfortunately you did this on a seat rather than on the elephant, so Fjorn and I opted not to. But we got a number of good pics with the elephants!
Next was the elephant show, narrated in British English. It told the history of Elephants in Thailand as they did tricks, played soccer and danced. And it ended with a bang-literally! In talking about how elephants were trained for warfare they had a battle with cannons and actually burned down this little hut! The people looked like they were having immenses fun with this. All in all I very much enjoyed the shows, and it was well worth the trip :) We then caught the bus home and rested up before meeting - which was good, Im slowly starting to catch more words, my new word for the night was poofung, which was said often. Literally it breaks down to people listening, but together means audience :) It was in my comment in the book study.
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