waterfalls and elephants

First of all, yes I am feeling better. Thank you for your concern. I didn't eat much for a few days, but things are all good now...still staying away from the fish though...
We went to Kanchanabri this past weekend and it was absolutely gorgeous. We went on a 2 km hike that passed seven waterfalls. It was absolutely gorgeous, and there were monkeys swinging through the trees as we walked, which was cute until one of them swung down right in front of us and just glared. It left us alone after we put our cameras away (the monkeys like to steal people's cameras), but it was kind of scary for awhile. You could swim in the falls too, so we spent a good amount of time just climbing and exploring the different pools and little caves as we walked.
After the hike, we went to an elephant camp where we got to ride elephants! It was really cool. Our driver actually got off of our elephant half way through and just walked beside us, which was fun, but also kind of scary since our elephant kept on veering off into the bush to eat and also kept on starting to run for no apparent reason (riding on a running elephant is NOT a smooth ride!). Some people that we were with really didn't like the elephant camp, because apparantly their drivers were really mean to the elephants (poking them with sharp metal sticks to make them turn), but our driver was really nice, and just kept on talking to the elephant and guiding it just by petting it and tugging gently on its ear, so our ride was a lot more enjoyable.
After that we went on a cruise down the river on a bamboo raft, and then took a train ride over the river Kwai. It was quite a good day. The next day, we were still pretty tired, so we just relaxed and got some fabulous oil massages.
Of course, my camera batteries died right at the beginning of the first day, so I have a few pictures, but I will be getting a bunch more from my friends who were with me.
Today, as we were riding home from school, I looked across the road and noticed a man just riding an elephant down the street. It was quite funny, and nobody even realy seemed phased by it at all. We figured that maybe it was just like seeing a horse in Winnipeg, not an everyday occurence, but not all that strange.
I also found out the other day that my friend Krista, from my ed class, has accepted a contract here and will be coming later this month. She will even be coming to my building (ha ha Ilda and Louis), so that is even better! I am very excited, it'll be lots of fun to have her here!
I hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend, we get ours next weekend, can't wait!