Don't pet the wild elephants

Seriously, isn't there anything anymore that's just common sense?

Who would try to pet a wild animal that weighed almost 100 times more than they did? Obviously enough people do, because we were told by four different people in less than 24 hours not to pet the wild elephants because they're dangerous! I worry about the future of humanity if that many people need to be told... Okay, in the defense of humanity, as Amanda says, tame elephants are rather prolific in Thailand and EVERYONE pets them...or rides them or teaches them to play soccer and paint...so maybe it's not surprising that people figure wild elephants are docile too...

Actually I wasn't really that surprised--mostly I just wanted to name the post "Don't pet the wild elephants" 'cause it sounded cool, so I thought I should comment on the saying! :)

Actually the thing that WAS surprising about our May visit to Khao Yai National Park in Thailand was the leeches.

Pop quiz: Do leeches live on land or in the water?

Now, being Canadian, the only leeches I'd come into contact with lived in the water. If you go swimming in the Northern lakes, there's a somewhat decent chance you'll come out of the water with a leech stuck to you. But if you stay away from water, no problem! So...when we arrived and asked the rangers about good hikes, we assumed their recommendation to buy leech socks was a bit of a tourist scam. Note: Leech socks are just like linen bags worn over your socks and pants. They can be seen in the picture as our friends Xavier and Marie-Aude were not so skeptical and they bought some. We, on the other hand, thought, "Right, 'leech socks'--those are important! Or, we'll not wade through the water and we'll be fine!"

We weren't.

It seems that tropical leeches live on land--and there's LOTS of them! Unfortunately, we didn't notice them until after they found me. After hiking for just over an hour, I looked down and wondered why there was blood on the bottom of my pant leg... It's lucky we had matches, as that's one of the best ways to detach leeches--it worked great this time too--but the wounds didn't stop bleeding for a good 40 minutes and I got to hike around for the next day and a half looking like I'd been in a war zone cause I didn't have another pair of pants with me!

All fun and games though, I suppose! :)

In addition to wild elephants (which we never actually saw) and the leeches (which we definitely saw), we also saw some gorgeous waterfalls, lots of amazing jungle scenery, several gibbons and monkeys frolicking in the trees, a porcupine and some deer (while on night safari), and two crocodiles (seen in the picture). It was a fun day and a half of hiking. Well, minus the leeches it was! Check out our Facebook albums for more pictures.

We stayed right in the park, so we didn't have to waste time commuting to the closest town. We stayed in some very upscale bungalows. And when I say "upscale" I mean you have to scale up a steep hill to reach our rather dilapidated dorms... They were large single rooms with two large wooden bed frames and...actually there's no "and." That's it. We did manage to wrangle some bedding out of the camp staff, but between the hard beds, the frolicking monkeys and the Thais having a party next door, I think we were all happy that we could buy espresso at the food hall in the morning!

Let me finish this blog entry with a great opportunity for anyone who might like to travel here to Thailand. The guides at Khao Yai would like someone to stay for several months to teach them English and help with research...leech research. All you'd have to do is let the main researcher attach leeches to you to test various things!!! :) So, let me know if you're interested and I'll pass along the info!

Okay, I lied. In actuality, the researcher has already finished his leech research and just needs someone to collect data on snails...