Monday, January 30, 2023

We slept reasonably well at the Krabi La Playa Resort in Ao Nang.

After breakfast we think about what we are going to do today, and it will be visiting an elephant park or something like that.
On the internet we find two more or less nearby, one that offers, among others, an elephant ride, which we just don't want, and another that doesn't. In the brochure we have about day trips, a ride on an elephant is indicated.
We ask the lady in the hotel who offers day trips about the possibilities. She has a half day trip to the Elephant Care House, where elephants are cared for, but where the elephants are not objects of entertainment. We decide to go there and have a look, we will be picked up at half past one.

It is only eleven o'clock, we first walk to a restaurant, which seems to be very good and which is 100 meters from the hotel, KoDam Kitchen, to reserve a table. We can only get a table from 8 o'clock, before that time it is very busy. We book a table with someone who later turns out to be the manager.

Because we haven't eaten anything except breakfast, we walk towards the beach to have a bite to eat We sit down at Aonang Rialto and order a pizza, which we eat together. The pizza is very good, better than we expected.

At half past two we wait for the transport to the elephants, which arrives on time, and we drive past 3 more hotels to pick up people.
The ride to the elephants takes quite a long time, and when we arrive we are in the middle of the forest. Our guide explains what they do there, taking care of 'retired' elephants, who have never lived independently in the jungle, but always among people. They take care of four elephants.
The program consists of making 'concentrates' (vitamins and medicines) for the elephants, then smearing the elephants with mud against insects, feeding the elephants with bananas and the concentrates and then washing the elephants.
We start with two elephants. Then we walk a few hundred meters to two other elephants where we do the same.
As a souvenir we get a photo frame made of elephant dung.

Back at the hotel it is still too early to have dinner. We take a shower and go for a walk. When we get to the restaurant, KoDam Kitchen, it turns out to be very big and it is very full. There are even about 20 people outside waiting for a table.
We can go straight to the table. The service is friendly, attentive and knowledgeable. The visitors seem to be mainly tourists, both Western and Asian.
The food is served fairly quickly and it tastes better than expected. We eat satay kai, kung chern nam pla, tom yam kung and phat khai bei liang.
When things calm down, the manager regularly comes for a chat, it seems that he is happy to have a Thai guest for once.
It's a pleasant evening and we plan to come back again before we go to Bangkok.

Written on: 2023-01-31

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