Ko Samui is an island. Not large, not fancy and again not a place where I was going to wander off on my own. Wanting to get a bit out of town and see some nature, we signed up for (among other things) a visit to one of the nature preserves and an elephant trek. Travel was by open backed 4x4s. Yes there were seat belts and I was not the only one (after the first few minutes on the road) to think using it was a good idea.
On the way, we stopped to learn about the harvesting of rubber (latex) and the initial processing which starts with the planting through hand stripping bark so that the sap can be collected through cooking and pressing.
From there we were introduced to the elephants, took a short ride, watched both an elephant show and again how monkey’s served to twist off coconuts before finishing with a class on green papaya salad. A short stop at one of the local waterfalls ended the excursion prior to catching the tender back to the ship.
and, in case you were wondering, his Blackberry was working just fine as the clouds rolled in at the end of the day!
