Holiday: Elephant Hills Day 3

So, another good night’s sleep - jungle noises and no air con seem to be good for sleep!

After another wonderful breakfast (with the best bread I have ever tasted!) we congregated at 9am to meet Nong for another trip out.  This time we turned left out of the camp, went up a hill (turned cool) then back down again, past some more elephant sanctuaries to Takua Pa where we stopped to visit the market.  We all dived into the 7-11 first: air conditioning - lovely and some cold pop.  We then had a look around the market.  Thailand may have modernised significantly since we were last here but there are still no refrigerators and lots of flies on the meat and fish.  We ignored them, however I bought myself a small bag of mangosteens - for old time’s sake.  

Tasted as good as I remember!  We then found a sell everything shop.  Matt got himself T-shirt nu 5 of the holiday.  It had a homewares section and had some moulds but of flowers I didn’t recognise unfortunately.  It even sold scout badges - one had a paw print on it - wonder what that was for?!

We then got on the bus to a pier Sapan Phra Pier to get on a speed boat along the Lat Tha Chi River. It was fast, nippy and (of course) very loud.  Today we were exploring mangrove swamps.  The speed boat took us to a floating pontoon, where we set up our base.  We went swimming as soon as we arrived - the water was salty, we were just around the corner from the sea.  Anyway it was very refreshing.

We had lunch: deep fried ebi, chicken katsu, the most delicious green curry, rice, veg and pineapple.  We tried not to over stuff ourselves! 

Next activity was kayaking in the mangroves.  Tom and I partnered up and we’re ok at it.  Unfortunately we didn’t see much - although I did see a white egret.

Back to the pontoon for another swim and then back on the speed boats to another part of the river which is known locally as mini Amazon for its flora.  On the way a Lesser Fish Eagle swooped over us.   Very rich in vegetation, saw another Egret, a Kingfisher and a Woodpecker and a couple of snakes. 

Then truck bus back to the camp.  A bit of a rest before a game of cribbage (I won - about time too!) and tea.  Pad Thai and satay chicken skewers were on today so Matt was very happy. 

Spent the evening losing at Uno with Tom whilst Matt did his photos.