I was really excited about the prospect of riding an elephant while in Thailand. To the point where I spent all of the last week before winter break singing the All I Want For Christmas Is You song, but ending it with “is to ride an elephant” instead. Needless to say, I was pretty psyched to find out that it is possible to ride an elephant on Koh Samui where we are spending Christmas.

Alex and I headed off around 11am on Christmas morning in the back of a truck to the elephant trekking site here on the island. Once there, we boarded our elephant (her name started with a P, but for the life of me I can’t remember it) and spend an hour wandering through the jungle on her. It was pretty entertaining to watch our driver try to steer her. He sat on her neck and rubbed his feet behind each ear to direct her one way or the other. There were definitely some times though that she didn’t feel like doing whatever he was suggesting and just kind of did her own thing. The driver and the elephant seemed to get along well though. She was very receptive to the directions he gave when trying to get her to pose for pictures. And at one point she even grabbed the direction stick he had hung on her ear and handed it to him with her trunk.

After our elephant jaunt, we had some extra time to explore this waterfall before heading back to our hotel. Apparently on nicer days, it’s fun to swim in the pool below the falls, but for today we were content just to admire the view.

It’s always hard to be away from family at Christmas and the weather has been a bit rainy here on the island since we arrived so taking a trek on an elephant was the perfect Christmas gift to enjoy in between holiday Skype calls. Merry Christmas from Thailand!