We are outside of a village name Khao Lak, Thailand, which is 2 hours north of Phuket through rubber tree plantations and jungle. It's a wonderful place. There is a flawless beach with absolutley no people in sight. Beautiful Thai people who love Americans in general, and they seemed to be enamored by Americans of African descent! When we arrived to the edge of the jungle (only a 45 minute ride) the elephant crew was outside in the sweltering heat in basically a thatch hut. There were a folks from Northern Europe milling around waiting on transport back to their lodging. The workers smiled and bowed and said "sawadee" which means welcome or hello. I could see the polite stares and looks of bewildermint begin. You see Carmen and I have been a few places where they haven't seen "brown" people. We can now recognize when people have never seen us, no matter how they try to hide it. It comes with the territory when you go places that our folks don't go:) You have to remember, some of these people do not read and don't have television or go to movies (in cities like Bangok and Phuket they do). They don't know about Lebron or Beyonce or about President Obama! We find it incredibilly humbling because it's like we are ambassadors for our country and ethnicity. In China we couldn't go anywhere without a crowd forming, even on the Great Wall of China! Here in Thailand, they are more subdued about it, but their curiosity finally gets the best of them:) They know about the USA as this far away power that basically influences peoples lives in the city and as a great military power with the world's best technology (they are a military ally). But most Thai people where we are haven't met an American, let alone AOAD (Americans of African Descent). The elephant driver finally asked after 5 minutes on the elephant, "Where from?". Everyone at the hotel had already asked so we we're prepared. "Where do you think we're from?" Reply with utter confusion followed by a blank look then, "South Africa????" We giggle to ourselves because its obvious the only dark skinned people they've seen are probably African fisherman who frequent the Indian ocean or African government officials in the newspaper. We tell him America and at first he shows disbelief. I think he is convinced because because of the full jungle gear we have on and how different our english is compared to the northern Europeans he is used to hearing. We just look and sound very different, period. Now he is smiling and pushing branches away for Carmen as we rumble through the jungle in style on top of a 12 foot elephant! I feel invincible. I can see why Hannibel preferred to use elephants instead of horses! After we let our guide ask us a few questions, we started in on him. We hit him with a barrage. Carmen first, then me, then Carment again. I could see he was getting dizzy because of the quickness and fierceness of the questioning. His english was failing him, but we didn't care, we need to know everything now and its as simple as that! He was saved when he saw a small tree snake napping in a branch about 2 feet to my immediate left. I judged the snake, no bad colors (poison snakes have certain colors or markers), so I felt no need to move. But I heard Carmen's breathing speed up and her grip on my arm tighten. The guide sees her reaction and giggles. She start saying ok, ok, it's a snake let's keep moving in a nervous voice. I began my pep talk, " You swim with sharks! You've petted cheetahs! It's a small snake get it together! We are too high in the air for any foolishness. Their is a cliff to your right dammitt! Get it together. Plus it's too hot for you to be draped all over me!" I nod to the guide to keep going. Unfortunately, it just got worse as we moved forward. He points to Carmen's side on the right. "You see spider?" Oh hell, here we go. I would rather have seen a tiger than a spider, Camen's nemesis! The serious breathing and whimpering begin. She is backing into me coiling up readying for launch! I am panicking now cause I can't get between her and the spider. Her wiimpering and shaking and adrenaline stench will frighten and maybe panick the elephant! I pull her towards me and wrap my arms aroung her in a light hug so I can quickly restrain her if I have to. I speak softly in her ear, " It's ok. It's not that big (a damn lie, that thing was huge!), and it's more scared of you than you are of it (another lie, she looked pale like she was about to go down yall! Just pass out on this elephant!) I told her to take a picture of it. Because as we got closer, I couldn't help but be impressed by the size of the web, at least 12 feet in diameter! It could've caught a sparrow in that net!!!!! The spider was juicy and huge, bigger by far than any spider I've seen. At least a foot long! She bravely got out the camera, and got a quick shot in as she tried to fight her hands from shaking from the fear. She clicked then grabbed me and turned away quickly as we went by. He laughingly joined in, "It's ok, no bite, no jump, It's ok, no jump". My sphincter loosened as we went further cause I knew the elephant was affected by Camen's histrionics! We left our elephant to rest and we had a short hike to paradise. A clearing with a lagoon and waterfall... It looked like heavan. I said I wasn't getting into any damn river in the middle of the jungle! I don't want dysentary or some strange parasite; but it was sooo beautiful, I just couldn't help myself. It was so hot that day, at leat 105 degrees F with incredible humidity. I just had to get in that waterfall. I'll deal with the consequences later!
After a quick dip and a few moments of reflection in the middle of all of nature's beauty. We hike back to the elephant and start the ride back. Our guide, who I'm getting to know pretty well by now, let's me drive the elephant back to camp! What a rush! He grabs the camera from Carmen and walks in front of us, calling out commands to the elephant in Thai. He tells me to use my legs behind his ears to steer him. It's similar to a hores's reins. A gentle nudge foward will make him speed up. It was awesome. I was petting her and whispering to this beautiful creature, praying she didn't smash me against a tree! We made it back in one piece and spent some quality time with our elephant, "Gay". We petted and talked and fed her bananas. She was so smart and you could see the thoughts and soul in her eyes. I saw a tear come out of her eye, and I couldn't help but kiss her........
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