Cheap Fun

I thought I would take Pot and Pui for a ride on an elephant today, so we drove down to the end of Soi OBL and out to the Pattaya Elephant Village. I figured a trek for the three of us on an elephant would be perhaps 1,000 baht.

Wrong: They wanted 2,500 for 2 adults and a child. That's over $70.

In America, there is a slight chance you could convince me that $70 is worth it for the family riding on an elephant... but here in Thailand, where elephants are about as common as horses are in America, there is no way I'm paying that kind of money.

So then it was off to the airport where I figured Pot (who whoops and hollars in delight every time he sees even the most distant aircraft up in the sky) would like a ride in a plane. The cost of that was a much more reasonable 2,000 baht for 30 minutes. (Considering the cost of gas and everything, that's fair, I think.)

Pot got his first close up look at a plane, and decided right away that there was absolutely no way he was going up inside one of those things. (Obviously we'll have to get him comfortable with a big ol' Thai airways flight before we try a little Piper Cub.)

So finally, it was back home where we put Pot in his little foam-rubber turtle shell, took him down to the pool, and he floated around gleefully for an entire 90 minutes. Cost: Not a damn thing.