Monkeys and Elephants and Bears...Oh My!

Hooray!!!
My monkey and me (think of the old "My buddy and me" commercials)

So...Carly only has weekends and Mondays free--we took this opportunity and took a quick flight (anything will now be quicker than 28 hours, but this flight was only 45 minutes) to Kuala Lumpur! We packed as much adventurous fun out of these two days as we could--and this part of the trip can't be updated in any other way except through photos:)

These (very cute) silver leaf monkeys are calmer than most, but they are still wild. They will take anything in sight. The two cautions given to us regarding our afternoon with the monkeys. Our guide knew I loved these little guys and was excited to teach me how to get them to climb up to my shoulders by luring them with green beans!

The little guy in the middle was looking for extra food right when I took this, so it looks like they're all just hanging out together:)

hello, friend!

I convinced Mommie and Carly to let the monkeys climb up to food too--we had a lot of fun! I thought I might get to see them pretty close in trees and maybe feed some they had tamed and on a leash (like at the fair, except without the hat and vest)...but this was definitely amazing!

Seriously, can I keep him?

Our guide took the three of us to dinner with the locals on the water aterward.

Freshly squeezed watermelon and apple juice-yum!

The next day, we continued our adventures. The first day we traveled Northeast and Monday we were picked up and drove West. I knew we were going to a place called Deer Park, but I didn't know it would entail the deer also climbing up to get food! I've seen deer-and deer ate all of the peas in our garden last summer-but this was a new one:)

Mommie carefully holding a hedgehog who tucked under because he was scared--here's his little eye peeking out.

Another great meal-before starting the big adventure of the day, we had a home-cooked meal--delicious. Still rice and chicken (what I've eaten every day here), but different and tasty.

On to the elephants!

First we fed them fresh papaya and peanuts (butter them up so they'd like us later on)!

These Asian elephants are from Thailand. We're hanging out with them at a conservation camp. A translocation team here finds elephants which are hurting farmers' crops (and which will be shot by said farmers) and relocates them to a safer, natural environment.

Carly and I taking our elephant ride! Some other people rode around in a circle, but our elephant left the circle. We were told we'd get to help bathe the elephants, but we weren't quite sure what that entailed or how it would work.

It's strange--it must sound ridiculous for me to say it was a little tough to stay on a gigantic elephant, but it seemed when he moved, his skin slid around on top of his body...and we slid a little with it. It was fun, though:) His ears even flapped on my legs as we walked down toward the river...yes, the river!

We walked slowly into the water, and then, before I knew it, the elephant was given a command and pretty much rolled over on his side! I'm not going to lie...we had no idea what was coming and with both you and a fully grown elephant underwater together, it was slightly scary. Also interesting we didn't have to sign our life away to do this...we didn't sign anything at all come to think of it...But woohoo! it was exciting!My mom and her elephant (and the deathly afraid child clutching her shoulder). She took photos of Carly and I going into the water, so she got the task of riding the elephant back out. She says getting on an elephant in neck-deep water is a bit of a challenge:)

We also got to help wash two baby elephants. Fun, fun!

We dried off, put on some clean clothes and went to the airport to get on a night plane--hopefully the people beside us didn't mind river smell too much.

At the Deer Park (before the elephant fun) we also got to pet and feed a bear. My mom was cautious about getting to close because of watching TV shows where animals like this turn on their trainers, but we braved the elements.

We would also like to point out that this is, in fact, a real bear...not just us at a Gatlinburg statue as it appears--my mom is sure we must already have a photo similar to this one.

Carly feeding the bear some condensed milk

Monday morning (before I met many new animals), our guide decided to take us on a little side trip on the way to the conservation camp since there was only three of us. We got to visit the Batu Caves. Here, Carly and I have conquered step 1 of 272 to the top.

All in all, I already have so much to say and so many photos to share. I'm so glad to be here soaking in these experiences. We'll spend the rest of our time in Singapore and I suppose we have to leave Sunday so I can get back to school and work.