Elephantitis

Hello friends, happy to report I had another eventful day of activity.
I visited the Royal Elephant Conservation Center today, just south of Chiang Mai. Elephants were used in the logging industry until logging was banned. Then there were a bunch of elephants without homes. The center takes care of these elephants. They have a little elephant show, elephant rides and an elephant hospital. They take care of elephants that are sick--from being mistreated, stepping on landmines (!), other elephant ailments--free of charge.
They treat the elephants well at this center, which is why I opted to ride an elephant, despite promising my aunt I wouldn't (the objection being most elephants used for riding are not well-cared for). There was a seat on the elephants back that I sat in...until we were out of sight of the main building. The elephant driver then had me sit where he was sitting, on the elephant's neck. I can list 3 moments where I have felt truly terrified on this trip (1. climbing down one of the temples at Angkor Wat, when the stairs were the width of my toe and sloped downwards from wear, 2. scary dive), and, sitting on the elephant's neck, wading through a pool of water, my hands on its giant head, was one of them. My fear was a unexpected...usually that kind of stuff doesn't freak me out. I think what made it scary was the gynormousness of the elephant, the lack of stirrups and the knowledge I could fall off at any moment. I don't think it was really allowed for me to be sitting there, because the driver had me switch spots before we got back to the center. He showed me how to tell the elephant to stop and go and turn right and left. It was fun after I got more comfortable with it. The elephant had tough skin and big, thick hairs coming out of it. While we were in the water, the elephant cooled off by spraying itself (and me) with water from its trunk. That was fun.
The elephants were really beautiful in general. They let us feed them sugar cane. Their trunks are really strong! They snatched the sugar cane right out of my hand.
Tomorrow, I plan to go to Laos. I have to take a bus to the border and then I'm going to take a boat down the Mekong to Louang Phabang (there seem to be many ways to spell this city name and I'm not sure which is correct). The slow boat takes 2 days to get there. I'm told there's a speedboat, but it's not particularly safe--they make you wear helmets and life jackets. If they give you a helmet in Asia, it's because they think there's a 95%-100% chance you'll need it. I prefer not to gamble with these odds.
As for recipes...I packed my recipe book in a box and shipped it home right before I sat down to write this blog. Also, they all involve fish sauce and cilantro, except the desserts. The best I can do is a bananas in coconut milk recipe from the web:
-2-3 slightly green bananas
-4 cups coconut milk
-1 cup sugar
-1/4 tsp salt
Boil the coconut milk with the sugar and salt. Add the bananas. Boil the bananas for 2 minutes. Serve. Voila.
Also, I forgot to mention the cooking school told me yesterday that the pictures won't be on the website till next week.
Stay well!
Lauren