Elephants and Snakes . . .

Good afternoon!
It's about 4:00 in the afternoon here. It's a nice sunny day--no rain in sight--yet! Today was an early morning for us. Instead of heading to the school this morning, our plans changed so we could go to the Elephant Show and Snake Show. I've been to another Elephant Show when I was here last year, but this was a different place. "B," Tutu's brother, picked us up around 8 and we drove for awhile up to the Measa Elephant Camp. It's a real touristy place--so many people from around the world. There was an Asian family sitting in front of us speaking French. One of the little boys kept yelling "Petit Elephant--la bas! Le grand elephant!" ( I know I didn't spell those right--my French is rather rusty I'm afraid). Anway, he was saying "Little elephant--over there. Big elephant!" It was so cute to see how excited they were.
Anyway, we arrived fairly early to the camp--before the tour buses! We walked around and saw the newest baby elephant--just four months old. We were sprayed with elephant snot and got our pictures taken sitting on one of the legs of a younger elephant while another elephant's trunk was on your head. Yeah, more elephant snot in our hair. The elephants are also trained to "ask" for money, so we each tipped the "driver" of the elephant about 100 baht (3 bucks) for those priceless pictures. I made Christy go first, and she kinda freaked out when the elephant started touching her head (with reason, of course!) I was ok about it, but it was kinda gross. UGH.
We also got to see the elephants take a bath in the river---so cute! They roll around like little kids. They love the water. What is not pretty, not at all, is the HUGE balls of elephant dung that float downstream. Don't worry, ladies and gentlemen, because they have workers whose sole purpose is to "catch" those beautiful balls of green poop as they float by . . . no gloves, no boots. They just stand in the river like it's nothing and use baskets to scoop up the poop. They make paper out of it that you can buy in the gift shop (no thank you) so it's recycling at it's best.
On to the show . . . basic elephant tricks---hitting a soccer ball into the goal, throwing darts at balloons, painting pictures. Yes, that's right--painting pictures. I have proof that elephants can paint--I took a video of one of them! It's quite amazing! In the Guiness Book of World Records, a group of elephants painted a picture that sold for 39,000 dollars! One elephant even had her own "gallery" hut just for her paintings!!! They were selling them in one of the gift shops---quite pricy, if you ask me. But original, that's for sure! :)
Anywho, after the elephants, who are cute and adorable, we headed to the Snake Show down the road. Oh, this road was amazing--monkey show, go karts, bungee jumping (I tried to talk them into it, but no luck) and all sorts of other crazy tourist traps abound on this one road. We were early to the show, so we walked around and looked at all the animals---birds, mongooses (ugly!), a crocodile, SNAKES galore, and other creepy looking animals in not so sturdy looking cages. The show was insane! These snake handlers MUST BE CRAZY! They just taunt and poke at the snakes and pick them up and throw them around like they are asking to be bit. We saw cobras and pythons and other really creepy snakes! We also sat in the main section in the very back row to be away from the pit. All of this was really close--too close for Christy. She flipped out from the beginninig--especially when one snake got "loose" and slithered over the edge of the pit. At one point, she ran to the other side of our row. It was quite humourous, although she doesn't think so.
At one point in the show, they tell you about a "jumping snake." Well, by this point Christy had had enough and escaped to the entrance. She missed the best part. The handlers pretend they have a snake and throw a rope into the audience! I knew about this from other people, so I didn't move when they hurled it up into our section. I hear they aim it at blonde haired woman, and they was one sitting right in front of us. Oh my gosh, they all FREAKED out. I, of course, was dying laughing, but I think some of those people almost had heart attacks. OH! I also was brave and got my picture taken with a huge python wrapped around my neck! I made "B" come in the picture with me, mainly because I wanted him to be by it's head. Christy thinks I'm crazy, but it was a once in a lifetime moment! The snake's skin was so slimy on my neck--I get chills just thinking about it.
After the show (Christy vows to never go to a snake show again--who knew?) we took "B" out to lunch to thank him for carting us around all day. He chose his favorite thai buffet place--all you can eat for 49 baht (1.75ish). Of course, they only had thai food, but I was feeling pretty adventourous after the snake thing, so I did try a few things. Not bad, except for the really spicy stuff. And there's always the chance of getting food poisoning, but hey, no worries. At least I like rice! :)
Well, I'd better sign off. I'm glad I've gotten the chance to post today--I just never know when I'll have the time. We are working on finishing the chapters for John for quizzing and we have the competition stuff to get ready for tonight!

Thanks for all your prayers!!!

Susannah
Christy

Ps. Yesterday we saw the craziest thing. We were at Carrefour and the king's song came on the loudspeaker (every day at 6 pm) and everyone just stopped in their tracks and stood there. It was sooooooooooo freaky. They were like little robots! Creepy!!!!!