Sunday, November 22, 2009

Land of a Million Elephants... and Crocodiles...

Four of the cell groups took off on Saturday to visit the Ancient City and a crocodile farm. At the Ancient City, we rode bikes around and saw a lot of historical buildings. The city itself isn't exactly ancient but rather a replica of what life in Thailand was like before it became modern. Amy M said that even though her bicycle didn't work very well, she still had fun spending time with her cell group.

The crocodile farm lives up to its name, boasting upwards of 300 crocodiles in one spot (or, as Dana estimates, "A trillion, at least"). Dan challenged Dave to jump in and fight one of the larger crocs, but Dave, very wisely, claimed that that would probably be a very stupid thing to do. The group watched a crocodile show in which the participants (trained professionals) stuck their hands and heads inside the crocodiles' mouths. Needless to say, we will not be trying this at home.


We also watched an elephant show at the crocodile farm. The elephants walked on a tightrope, rode skateboards, painted paintings, and danced to music. We also had the opportunity to ride the elephants. The elephant drivers were quite amused by us since this was the first elephant ride for most of the Americans.


Amy M was a little disappointed that no students came along on the Saturday excursions, although she spent a lot of time with them throughout the rest of the weekend - bowling, going to movies, a trip to the beach, and some shopping time at the markets. One of her students, who looks remarkably like Johnny Depp, commented that Dr. Morgan reminds him a lot of Sean Connery. The autograph line starts here.