It's the WEEK-END!!

So, in the words of my sweet friend, Paul, "It's the WEEK-END!!"

This morning I awoke having slept wonderfully on my new mattress pad, which I recently bought at Big C. It does make the bed at least a bit more comfortable. Since in two days school starts and in a week and a half, Danielle leaves to go home, we decided to hang out for the day: Danielle, Jessica, and I. The three of us decided to go to this place on the river and take an hour ride by small gondola-like boat to a small village of Karen, Akah, Yao, and Lahu tribes to ride elephants.

This is Jessica, who just came in from South Carolina on Wednesday, and Danielle. That's the two of them sitting in the gondola boat at the beginning of the trip.

On the one hour trip up to the town, we saw some of the most beautiful scenery...so many different colors of green, trees and plants that I've never before seen, bugs that looked more like animals (couldn't get their pictures because they were too fast and my camera was too slow), and as you can see from the pictures - so much more!!All along the river, we saw small villages with open air grass huts where people lived and worked. Then a few kilometers further down were nice houses with gates and barbed wire. All of them living right on the water...and then the village with all the elephants!!

We all three loaded up on our own elephant and headed out of town. Jessica first, then Danielle, then me bringing up the rear. As we rode, the elephants would stop and eat leaves, break small trees and attempt to carry them along, and climb seemingly steep hills only to come back down and scare all of us, thinking we were going to fall off, as you can see in the picture to the right.

In the picture in the center are rice fields and mountains in the background. The things we saw were amazingly beautiful...I saw a new side of God's creativity and absolute beauty. The pictures, though done well, do not fully enable you to see how beautiful and lush and unique the landscape was. It was a gift.

The picture on the right was what we saw coming around a corner: a remote village Thai gang - teenage boys and younger walking around the elephant paths each carrying a machete. As we went by, they all smiled at us...even the one kid with the largest machete and a shirt that read, "Don't worry, be happy!" He was sending some mixed signals...

All in all, we had an incredible time on the ride...as you can see from the photos, we are still smiling at the end of the ride.

Once we finished the ride, we walked around the shops of all handmade crafts and bought gifts, necklaces, etc. We ate lunch (fried rice and veggies), drank Coca-Colas and water. While at the restaurant, I got to use the squatty-potty for the first time and managed to do it alright without peeing on myself or my pants...if you haven't done it before, I would imagine it's something like peeing in the woods while camping!!

As we got close to the boat, these guys asked if we wanted to take a picture with their boa constrictor, as if you know me at all, you know how scared I am of snakes, so I took pictures of the other girls with them. I wasn't about to have a snake that could easily kill me wrapped around me for fun!!
And that was the day!! We had such an incredible time and the photos are beautiful, but the memories will last forever!!
If any of you come to visit, we'll do this together! If not, you can experience it vicariously through the photos!

I sure do love you all and miss you!!

P.S. The last picture is of me on the elephant. Yes, I am talking on the cell phone. You cannot stop life from happening when riding elephants. It is a bit ridiculous!! I know...the guides laughed when the phone rang and then when they saw me talking, laughed again. Ah well, we made memories...the guys now have memories too of the Americans who rode elephants and talked on the phone!!