Happy Elephants

Hello again,

Today is our last day of the conference. Things have gone really well. It's another packed day of sessions etc, but we do get our two hour break in the afternoon and we're going to a craft market. Yeah, tacky souvenirs :)
Yesterday I actually got to ride an elephant!!! There was probably close to 50 of us that went, and it was incredible. It's really wierd to drive down the road and see an elephant in a field like we would see a cow at home. The place that we went to wasn't in the best condition, you get on the elephant and they take you on a 20 min ride down a dirt path. Our drive jumped off part way through the ride to take pictures and I got to slide down on the the neck of Sumbat (our elephant). It was so cool!!!! Just the pace of the walk is really neat to feel. After the ride there was another elephant that I got my picture taken with, I got to sit on his tusks and then he picked my up with his trunk!!!!! AMAZING! I have some really good pictures of it all. But I"m using a pretty old computer so I can't get them on to my blog or facebook :( So everyone will have to wait till I get home. The funniest part of our time with the elephants was Carl..... he is a larger man and wanted a picture taken on the tusks and being lifted up. While he was in line the elephant seemed to be eyeing him and we were thinking he was worried cause Carl is a larger man. Well..... he wasn't scared...... he actually really, really liked Carl. We'll let your imagination fill in how we knew. But I don't think I have laughed so hard in my life! Even the chinese people around us were pointing and laughing to the point of tears. I don't think Carl will be living down this story for a very, very long time.
After dinner last night I hung out with our Latino representatives for a bit and practised my Spanish and now have places to stay in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Columbia, Paraguay and some more friends in Honduras :) At about 10pm a group of six of us went for Thai foot massages! This was just over an hour long and was incredible. It was a full leg, arm and back massage....and it only cost $6!!!! Unbelievable. We may be heading back tonight, it's a great treat right before bed, and after shopping for a couple of hours we many need it. Reid is the guy that has set up the elephant ride and the massages, he's the guy to travel with, finds all the great places to go and great deals to go along with it.
Today is my last full day in Pattaya and tomorrow we head to Bangkok until Wednesday morning. I can't wait to see the city, I've heard it's pretty fun.