Elephant Trekking!!

Elephant Trekking was the most bizarre experience yet! The camp had five elephants and for some reason they gave us the biggest and most grumpy one they had. If you look at the picture, you'll notice what looks like a wooden watch tower in the background. We had to climb that and step off it onto the seat strapped to the elephants back (the back of the seat was a metal bar and was unbelievably uncomfortable). When we set off, the elephant had to climb up a hill that was virtually verticle and he got to the top and decided he didn't want to do the last bit. The guy was shouting at the elphant and prodding it with a hook and on one side was sheer drop! That was only the start of what I am now calling the "Elephant Terror Ride" through the jungle. Well I say jungle but it was more like a wood. On several occasions I thought it was going to go on a rampage or just off a cliff, however I'm pleased to say it didn't. At one point we even went up a busy road! Not exactly Jungle Trekking as we expected but an experience nonetheless.

Catching up

I've been a bit lazy with the blogging recently so I'm going to bring it upto date, then do a few posts about the trips I've done.

Since the last post I have moved hotels twice, done a few trips and changed island! The move from Karon Beach to Patong was pretty easy, however the hotel we stayed in (Duangjitt Resort and Spa) was HUGE! It took half an hour just to get out of the hotel area (it was very spread out). Besides that, the room was okay apart from the water which was a yellowy colour. Patong is a bit of a hole and we didn't get upto much in the actual resort, just booked some trips, which you can read about in the next few posts.

I'm now in good old Samui, staying at the Chaweng Villa in Chaweng. It's not the same as it was when I was here two years ago and the hotel isn't as good as I remember it but it's still pretty much Chaweng. Except more expensive - The food is double what it was!!! Although in this case that means it's gone from 1 quid for a curry to 2!

Patong

This is a really quick one as I'm in a mall in Patong waiting to go and see Iron Man at the cinema. Due to too much time in the sun, I think it's got to me and I've been feeling a bit low on energy the last couple of days so I decided that today would have to be spent inside. I had a trip booked (sailing on a chinese junk to and around the island from'"The man with the golden gun") but I wouldn't have enjoyed it so I cancelled. I went on a trip to the island the filmed "The Beach" yesterday! It was a good trip but I'll tell you about it when I have time. I also encountered Monkeys in the wild. . .

Anyway, got to go. . .

Robin Hood Prince of Aviator Sunglasses

After we finished with shooting and we managed to persuade the locals to come back (warily), we moved onto archery. There were two types of bow on offer so I picked the one that felt best (and looked cooler). As you can see from the picture above I managed to beak all current records and score ten successive "Bullseyes". The guy who was helping us pronounced me Robin Hood on the spot and a messenger was sent to find Norris McWerter at the Guiness World Records Office.


Okay, so this picture was my real attempt but it's still not bad is it? The guy actually dd call me Robin Hood after I got my first arrow straight in the yellow.

Police Academy

We've been to Phuket shooting range! The first weapon I fired was a rifle, complete with proper rifle scope. As it turned out I was actually really good with it!! I got reall good groupings and the were or all in and around the centre. They've given me the target with the holes in but I don't think it'd make it through the new sensitive equipment at Dubai airport on the way back so I'll be leaving it here.

Next I fired a 9mm handgun which was okay but I guess I need more practise becasue the shots were all over the place! Still, at least most of them hit the target!

Still targets just weren't proving to be hard enough so we had a go at clay pigeon shooting! I hit one. Out of ten. I bet I could have got them with the rifle!