Best day by far was yesterday.  I woke up yesterday morning and scheduled an elephant safari adventure.  I was smiling from ear to ear when I arrive and saw the elephants, all of them female and seemed to be well taken care of.  I choose this particular safari because it had awesome reviews on lonelyplanet.com and tripadvisor.com.  So I climbed to the top of this wooden platform and met my guide who didn't speak any english.  He was preparing the elephant for the ride by piling  layers of blankets on her back, and finally the seat that sat on top of the blankets.  He pointed to a sign that read 'shoes off', and I realized I would step directly onto the elephant and rest my feet on her back.  We started the journey and at first I was a little uneasy- if you've never been on a moving elephant it's not exactly a smooth ride.  The large beauties MOVE when they walk, and mounted to the back you feel every step.  My guide sat right on the elephants head, and the whole time I kept thinking about how comfortable he looked there, and how much I'd love to experience what that felt like.  FInally, he jumps off the elephant like a little ninja, and points from me to move to the spot where he was sitting and says the one and only word he said during our entire one hour experience together, 'photo'.  I handed him my iphone and the elephant just kept walking.  I was a little afraid of falling off, but after a while I looked back and the guide was playing with my iphone not watching us at all and we happily trekked ahead together alone.  She knew exactly where to go and walked me to the wooden stand where we started our journey and waited for me to get off.  I really didn't want it to be over, it was incredible.  She felt so strong, magnificent!  Elephants have the most enchanting eyes.  After my ride I just hung out for a while observing and talking to the elephants.  The manager  tried to sell me an over priced necklace that he said was made out of elephant hair and bone (from the dead elephants).  I didn't buy it.  Aren't you proud of me?  I'm becoming a street smart tourist lol…

There were also a few monkeys there.

After my safari I visited Kaya beach (previously  I was at kata beach).  The waves were actually too intense for swimming, and since I don't yet know how to surf I settle for a hour of soaking up the sun and another beach side massage.  This massage was significantly cheaper (cheaper than cheap) and ended up being  awful, and while I was receiving the massage someone came by and stole my favorite American Eagle sandals!  Bummer.  Oh well.. hopefully they love them as much as I did and put them to good use.

I checked out of CC Blooms and headed to Rawai.  Upon arriving my stomach was tied in knots..  Keep in mind the last 2 days I'd been staying at a fairly nice hillside resort over looking the ocean- so when I arrived to the humble surrounding of a training camp in the tropics my  first reaction was ohhhh shit Tiff… lol.. but I checked into my room, purchased my gear, and met my roommate.  She is an Indiana girl named Cookie and sweet as can be, we have already had the best conversations and she's educating me on all things cultural about India.  For example, did you know that sex toys are illegal in India?  And in some places they only have running water for 2 hours a day?  Little facts like this and all the other new stimulation were ringing in my head from the exciting day.

So after a disappointing massage earlier in the day,I decided to try my first indoor massage here at a place called Sue's Massage.  Up until that point everything had been beach side.  This massage was the BEST MASSAGE  I've ever had in my life.  Now I have quite a bit of confidence in my THai Massage abilities, but I am completely humbled after yesterday.  I'll write more about this later, my mind is all over the place now with the possibilities of learning.

I'm up and at them this morning, thank God I'm starting to adjust to the time change.  The last 3 days I've been up at 3am, today I actually managed to sleep until 5.

IT BEGINS!