Long drive today to Khao Sok national park for adventure activities. Our first stop was a temple called MonkeyCave, which had little Mackak monkeys playing around the outside of the cave. Inside the cave there was a stupa and a reclining Buddha. You could also go right to the back of the cave to the dark part of the temple to see the cave formations which actually reminded me a bit of Janolean Caves in the Blue Mountains.

We left the monkey cave and moved on to Khao Sok for our elephant trek, we proceeded to hang out at the trekking place for about half an hour, before being told we would move onto Surathani for canoeing along a river in the jungle, as it was a long wait to get on an elephant. The canoes were small, rubber affairs with a Thai person on the back who did all the rowing. I would have liked to have done the rowing, but alas I don't think that's what the people I was with would have wanted. We past some spectacular mountain scenery and even got to swim in the river, which only me and the kids among us did. The river had a very strong current and I had to fight it all the way back to my canoe.

We left our canoes behind and went of to our restaurant for lunch, the restaurant had a zip line in the grounds, which I was not going to attempt, but at the last minute though, Screw it! We then had a really nice Thai lunch, the people I was with, a family of Norwegians had no idea what any of the food was. It was quite comical watching them trying to work it all out.

After lunch we had our second attempt at elephant trekking. We again waited around for half an hour before getting on our elephants. The seat on top of the elephant was incredibly uncomfortable and the bar kept digging into my legs, there was also no bar to keep you held in to you just had to hold on for dear life. The trek was pretty good, it went through a lot of water and over a lot of rough muddy areas. I didn't particularly like the way another man followed the elephant prodding him with a sharp instrument to keep him moving and yelling at him. It actually reminded me of the Nazi's on death marches. One of the saddest things I ever saw was when we stopped for a rest and the elephant went down to the river, after our break the man with the sharp spear like instrument, wave it in the air and yelled at the elephant to come to him. The elephant slowly moseyed over to his rather cruel keeper. If I had known how badly these creatures seemed to be being treated I would never have booked this.

We got back from our trek and got back into the van for our long drive back to Patong, around three hours. I was dropped at my hotel, and I was starving. I didn't even bother going to my room first, I just charged straight out, all I wanted was McDonalds. I just wanted to feel full and not spend a fortune. It's a bit hit and miss here with the food, sometimes its really good and sometimes its not something I would even consider feeding to Dali. I often find myself ordering two dishes when I go out because it improves my chances of getting something I'll like. Which turns a cheap meal into a not so cheap meal.

I walked for miles and miles down to the main area and just when I was about to give up, there it was a Mickey D's, and not only that, but a Mickey D's in a big shiny western shopping centre. I was so relieved I actually took a picture. I can't believe at times that we in western society think these people are backwards! Some of the technology on display here was amazing. There were giant screens projecting music videos, a gaming world and fountains display and beautiful pink lanterns hanging from the ceiling for that little touch of culture. After I'd eaten I went for a look around, it was madness. Bright lights, tourists everywhere, bars serving ridiculously cheap cocktails. Again I missed Tim, my drinking buddy, we would have had fun here.

I'd had a big day so I decided to go home, I ended up at a massage place getting yet another foot massage. After that I decided to treat myself to a cab ride back to the hotel. I managed to get into one of the little utes with seats in the back, which was a really fun ride all the way back.