Elephant Encounter Addendum

The evening after our trek up to Elephant Haven I was rather wiped, causing me to crash rather early. This was fortunate in a way because when I was awoken at 4am by the full onslaught of the 80 dogs howling (a couple of them literally on my doorstep) I was refreshed enough to go for a midnight walk. Under an amazing starry sky I walked past the elephant pens (accompanied by a few mutts acting as my guard dogs) and was amazed to see them lying down to sleep, and actually heard a few of them snoring! A surreal experience as I looked up and saw a shooting star streak by.

Another experience worth mentioning, even if it isn't ele-related, was going to volunteer at the village school for a morning. Groaning that I hadn't gotten assigned to the foot massage class, or the cooking class, I was five steps towards English class when the cutest boy of 6 grabbed me by both hands. Unsure as to his intentions he soon made them clear as he began running in a circle around me and as I caught on he got caught up in the air and I swung him around. I think I was laughing more than he was! When I put him down he led me by the hand off to his classroom where I had to extract myself so I could return to my assigned spot. Here I took part in countless Thai-style arm wrestles (locking wrists instead of fists) and trying to play hangman with their 60-odd letters!

Out in the playground I was literally covered in kids - on my back, each arm and running around at my feet. We played basketball (okay I played basketball and the kids ran around trying to steal the ball) and even tried to play that soccer-volleyball mix. Those kids are amazing, as was the school trip!