We had a pleasent flight to Chang Mai and a very quick baggage claim and toilet stop later we'd paid our taxi and were on our way,thank god as it was quite late and were starving just wanted to get some food and sleep . We should have guessed it wasnt going to go as smoothly as we'd hoped from past experience and as soon as we were driving through the town (which was dead) and arrived at our guesthouse it was shut and so was everywhere else on the street for that matter! It was starting to feel a bit like Penang all over again :(.Eventually after dithering for about 10minutes we asked the now getting very impaient taxi guy to take us back to the main street which there a fellow traveller informed us she struggled to find anywhere as every where was full , our spirit fading fast!But cut a long story and a lot of walking and moaning short we found a place called sawasadee which we later found out was owned by a lady who knows andys dad and lived on the same island as him when they were young!! It was huge, we Had two rooms all to oursleves t.v aircon etc all for 300 baht (6quid) grabbed some water,sacrificed the food and slept!

The following day fresh as a daisy....or not i was really poorley and stayed in bed for the next 3days but bless andy he was very good company and a good maid at that ;) after all the poorliness we made up for lost time and booked our elephant trip our first 3 choices where fully booked for the next week (if only we knew before)so we couldnt volunteer but we still found a nice park which from good word of mouth took great care of there elephants and had a 2week old baby...we were sooo excited :) we had 4days to spare one of which was spent at a market alll day much to Andys dismay then alot and i mean alot of drinking was involved in the evening rooftop bar hopping!The next nursing opur hangovers cafe hoping,chiling by the river feeding the crazy fish and pidgeons,there was the cutest little boy ever aout two there who kept stealing our food so we had to keep buying more,think he saw us coming haha and then again followed by the night market and a few more pubs and then a huge mcdonalds (YES MCDONALDS HAHA).The following day i think we walked the whole of Chang Mai,visited some temples and the shopping mall which was pretty cool lots going on and also a big food festival where we indulged in a rather large and lovely pretzel and andy ate about 3 different meals lol.After a songawat ride home and a quick shower we took a stroll to the river front were there was a huge market (sort of like china town) saw again some pretty interesting things but just the usual like at any of these things...except they had lots of puppys there and they were gorgeous!I think we played with them for about half an hour i thought it was so cruel but seeing all the little kids faces when there parents were buying them was definatley making it ok and they bought all the accesories and food too so i guess they look after them!Went to the flower market and walked across the Memorial bridge to all the waterfrot bars settled in a really cool place with live bands and some rather funky thai's we were the only westeners but it was cool we liked it that way!We got offered rather alot of drugs on the walk home more than usual anyways!

The next day was Tiger Kingdom day :)))))) we took the newborn cubs,small and biggest package,with a photographer as we had no memory cards was pretty cool the guides all seemed to love there tigers and answered all our questions only one wouldnt move to play when he tried so we definatley do not agree that they are drugged just like my molly there fat lazy cats (except molly isnt fat).The newborns came first ahhh they were the cutest things ever! They didnt really like me though and just fussed Andy they were nibbling him everywhere lying on him and everything ,one did bite my foot though so didnt feel too left out haha unfortunaltey they'd already eaten so we couldnt feed them but lots of cuddles(watching andys cuddles) and playing made up for it !Kissing a baby tiger on the cheek something we wont ever forget! Next up were the small bit scary as they are so NOT small made us dread the biggest pffft but they were all just sleeping really so we sat and talked to the trainers while andy patting them away and me gently stroking haha..next up the biggens and they were wide awake..too much for my liking andy got straight in there whilst i held back the photographer guy was like shoving me in though so he could take pictures, they did get us to use the paw as a phone and play with its tail which we both really felt like a right pair of nobs but did it anyways lol there was a male who was a bit touchy he kept turning his head real quick and the guy distracted him by getting a toy to play this tiger was full of energy and was going for it right in front of us! i was glad to get out to say the least. After a stroll around seeing all the tigers and then watching the trainers play with them in the pool we collected our dvd of photos and where on our way... The day was all a bit serreal really being with all the tigers but it was amazing and we both loved every minute our favourite tiger was funnily enough one of the biggest and she was called Sofia loved her!So glad we payed for a photographer too gto some amazing pics. That evening we went for a mexican and then chilled with a film in our room when i saw the biggest spider of my entire life and burst into tears as it was blocking the toilet, andy said about catching it in a pint glass, but noway could it fit, so he had to try and kill it, but the spider managed to jump out the room! The following morning we got picked up at 7.30 am to go to the elephants :) we picked up another two guys Matt and Ollie and where on our way,seeming it was only a small group we were more excited as we'd have the elephants to ourselves,it was a really dodgy drive to the place an hour later we started climbing this mountain which the road was just a well small muddy ledge the width of the truck,he didnt need to tell us to hold on twice i obviously was the only scared one and not one of the guys batted an eyelid so i played it cool ! Arriving at the top as soon as we stepped out of the truck we saw our first glimpse of the elephants strolling in the forest not chained or anything! A rather large mummy elephant and medium kid of hers and the tiny 2week old baby it was quite over whelming to see it and it was TINY ,we were all feeding them bananas whilst snapping alot of photos!The baby made some real strange noises,started blowing its trunk and charging towards andy he ran so fast was quite funny everybody in fits as this elephant was so small! We then made our way to the camp where there were five more elephants they had chains around there ankles which we didnt like but they explained it was because of food (which we later found out when they nearly tore the camp down lol) We fed them more bananas and threw the majority as theyd catch them and like it when we clapped we found elephants love attention :). we then had a lesson on how to control the elephants when riding them and he gave us a bit of useless info about them which we already knew,we were expecting a bit more!After they got the elephants to do a few tricks it was without any force but still didnt enjoy it after the show in bankok but we all clapped anyways as the elephants seemed to enjoy the attention! One trainer got really angry when his little elephant Lola wouldnt lie down and aggresivly started pulling her ear shouting i got quite upset and at the same time thought all the guys were going to jump him he then after she layed down told me to get on which i felt far too sorry for her and pratically screamed to get off but they just left me with her roaming around whilst everyone else got on there elephants. We started walking and i got to admit was pretty scared and protested to get off and said i'd walk, but the trainer wasnt having any of it and after Andy and Matt had a quick elephant change i ws up on Andys and we were on our way ( was wishing id stayed on Lola as Boon was huge).Off we went into the forest....nobody ever said how hard it was to ride an elephant my god the first ten or so minutes there was a lot of yelling between me and andy trying to coordinate with this HUGE elephant eventually we got in sync and the more i relaxed the easier it got to just go with the flow haha it was a real trek to the waterfall alot of the muddy paths and ledges far to small for Boons huge feet quite scary when your up so high just clinging onto there bare back!somehow we made it and it was all worth it they all loved the waterfall and we spent ages playing,bathing,and just admiring the elephants.The baby spent the whole time under the waterfall occasionally coming up to splash us and was not very happy when it was time to leave!We took a different route back to camp i guess the elephants were not happy they left as they kept stopping every two minutes going off track and all sorts.When we arrived back at camp we fed the elephants more bananas and rice,two of the elephants were trying to get it on quite amusing trying to watch the trainers stop it haha!So after a sad goodbye to the elephants,changed out of our mahout clothes and headed back to town where we retired to the rooftop bar with matt and ollie drank the night away got very drunk and ended the night with the best big mac ever!(yes another mcdonalds)We both loved the day it was something wel never forget riding through the jungle it was truely beautiful but both agreed wed never do it again as it is cruel but unfortunatley thats something that will never change! And the fact that we could barely walk for a few days after :) and another few days after that:)!