I’ve been pretty busy and worn out from getting caught up at work lately (from both the trip in February and being sick for most of March), but I am determined to get the rest of these posts edited and up in the next week. I believe there will be three more after this.

So after four days in Bangkok, my family and I took a short flight down to Phuket… aka the part in Thailand you see in all of the amazing photos on travel sites.

We stayed down in the Karon Beach area at the Hilton Grand Vacation Club.

Today I am sharing about the Thai cooking class we took and the morning spent riding and playing with elephants.

Be sure to checkout out my other posts so far from this trip!

Travel Journal: USW South Asia Board Team to Thailand and the Philippines

Travel Journal: Wat Pho, Wat Arun and the Grand Palace in Bangkok, Thailand

Travel Journal: Pak Khlong Talat Flower Market in Bangkok, Thailand

Travel Journal: Chatuchak Weekend Market and Jim Thompson House in Bangkok, Thailand

Thai Cooking Class

I’ve never really been someone who gains joy from cooking or even preparing a meal for others, but for whatever reason I kept insisting that I wanted us to take a Thai cooking class during our trip. I love Thai food and I just thought it would be a unique way to experience it.

At our resort in Phuket they offered a class that was taught by the chef who was in charge of all of the resort’s restaurants! Honestly it was a cooler experience than I was anticipating. No we really didn’t do much more that dumping already prepared servings of ingredients and then stirring, but before we started the chef walked through all of the ingredients we were using and taught us about them. Plus the staff was fun to work with.

We paired off, Grammy and Aunt Diane together, and Grampy with me, to prepare four different recipes from booklets that we got to take home with us. And the best part of course was that we got to eat what we made for lunch! I would definitely recommend doing a cooking class in any country that you visit.

Elephants

Riding an elephant was definitely on my list of things I really wanted to do on this trip, but friends… my excitement before doesn’t compare to how COOL it really was! I honestly didn’t want to leave!

We did our rides through Kok Chang Safari. There were a few other “treks” or “adventure” packages that were advertised at our resort but this only seemed to be both the cheapest and straightforward experience. We signed up for the 20 minute ride, which was perfect for us, but you can ride for up to an hour. We also loved that they picked us up from the resort and took us back, and that there was a cute little outdoor bar to hang out at afterward.

The seats themselves were pretty sturdy but there was only a rope holding up in and on some of the really steep part we still had to hold on a bit.

It was FASCINATING to watch how they steered and directed the elephants mostly using vocal cues and their feet on the sides behind the ear or on their temples. It was actually really similar to riding a horse. A few time they put more pressure on those areas using a stick, kind of like you use reins.

The guy took my digital camera and not joking… took over 30 pictures. Which was a joy to sort through…

The elephant my grandparents are on is named “Happy New Year” and the one I am on with Aunt Diane is named “Pancake.”

And don’t mind the fact that I am looking down. My legs were just long enough to rub the elephant’s back which was so much softer than I was expecting.