animals

We've been taking advantage of Rangi and Sara and family being in town to break out of our routine and do some more adventurous stuff in Bangkok. Mostly that has involved close encounters with animals. 

 We missed the elephant show at Ayutthaya but ran into the elephants on their way home. Vi was originally cooing with excitement--but that quickly turned to horror.

 We did a hike up Erawan falls to seven different waterfalls you can swim in. I kept wondering why all the reviewers on tripadvisor mentioned the fish. How you shouldn't worry too much about them biting you, it was just a free fishy foot massage (a real thing here). Then I got in and immediately 10-20 twelve inch fish started biting my feet. 

Elie was a good sport and jumped in only to have a panic attack halfway to the waterfall. I finally reached the waterfall and lifted her up behind it and she informed me she would just be living there as she was not getting back in to let the fish tickle her feet. Please address all her letters to Erawan Falls, Waterfall level 2. 

 We also headed out to a crocodile farm where, to the best of our knowledge, they do not feed the animals and instead depend on visitors to buy the food provided and feed them. So...the lions were pretty active. And super creepy. We were so mesmerized by they way they were trying to get through the fence to eat us, we didn't even realize there were hippos a few feet away.  But really just a few feet, no fence only a short wall.  

Did you know hippopotamuses are responsible for more deaths, per year, than lions? I'm not sure this zoo does.  

 We fed them some green beans. 

 And then they ate Caroline. 

 We saved the bananas for the monkeys but learned after they repeatedly handed them back, that they preferred the beans. Too late. They finally took the bananas with their tiny hands. Some more aggressively than others. 

 Vi refuses to acknowledge anything that goes on when there's no air conditioning. 

After E wrestled a crocodile we called it a day and went home.