Recently in Singapore, it has been raining almost every day. Not for the entire day, but short torrential downpours. We wanted to go somewhere that doesn’t rain, so we picked Phuket, Thailand.

When we flew in from Changi Airport, it was very late and we drove to where we were staying and fell asleep immediately. The next day, we ate and went to the beach. The water was very warm and we really liked it. We also found out that the beach hosts a home for a lot of hermit crabs. It brought us back to the good old days of Valencia and we caught a few and named them. They were very active and tried to escape, but we let them stay and eat coconut. They liked it! We stayed on the beach for the whole day. When we came back, we ate a delicious buffet dinner accompanied by live music. The music and food was wonderful. When we finished, we met our friends that were staying with us: Angelica and her family.

The next day we stayed on the beach and then, with Angelica and her mom, went to the Elephant Retirement Park. It is a sanctuary for rescued and retired elephants. In the morning, we arrived at the park. We saw elephants walking around and immediately went to pat them! The trunks were very muscly and the bodies… well, very sweaty. We met 3 big elephants and 1 baby! They were awesome, stomping around and eating!

We got called to the big house and ate lunch. There was Pad Thai, chicken, pineapple, and other wonderful tasting stuff! A man who worked there told us about asian elephants and the difference between them and african elephants. We learned that the most visible differences are 1) the asian variety is smaller than the african, and 2) both genders of african elephants have tusks, but only male asian elephants have tusks. It is pretty interesting. He also told us the names of the elephants and their age. The oldest one is approximately 65 years old!

After learning about the elephants, we went to feed the elephants with bananas. We each got a bunch and went to the first group of the giants. When we fed them, I noticed something: they peel their bananas with their trunks before eating! I’ve heard that elephants trunks are very sensitive, but this really shows the point! The elephants were trying to steal my bananas. It was really funny! We collected a few more bunches and went to feed 2 more groups of elephants. They all took the bananas with their trunks, but when we came to the last group, I fed an elephant by putting the bananas in its mouth! Kinda slimy and wet!

Then came the most exciting part – swimming with the elephants. The keepers of the elephants led them in to the pools. The first pool was very muddy. For elephants, mud is like sunscreen, so we got mud and rubbed it against the elephants, and sometimes, each other! It was so fun! Once, the elephant used the pool as the bathroom, but even that way, it was AWESOME! The water was pretty warm too. The other pool was deep, and had clear water (big change). In that pool we had to wash and scrub the elephants. We took bowls and very rough brushes. The elephants all laid down and we scrubbed and washed and scrubbed! We swam around, scrubbing different elephants and patting them. Everybody was happy!

We washed ourselves and said goodbye to the elephants. It was a wonderful experience!

The rest of the time we swam and ate and swam and ate.  We also got massages on the beach. Thailand is famous for its massages, and for the right reason! I enjoyed it very much, as did my Mom and Dad. Thailand was great.