Today was something we were really looking forward to! We were going to ride elephants and then go to Tiger Kingdom where you can actually touch the tigers. The tour guide picked us up at half 8 and took us to a market to buy some food for the elephants. We all bought a few bunches of bananas for them then made our way to the elephant camp.

As soon as we got there we were given some Mahout ( elephant driver ) clothes to wear, which were a denim shirt and denim long shorts. Two elephants were there just chilling, a baby one and a large one. We fed them a few bananas before going to the start of the day. The first part was where we learnt a bit about the elephants and the difference between Asian ones and African ones. One of the most surprising facts was that they eat around 250kg of food a day, eat for 16 to 20 hours a day, and only sleep for 4. Then they taught us the different commands to control the elephants. Head down, left, right, go, stop etc. We then took it in turns and getting on the elephants and talking to them to make them spin around and go forwards and backwards. There are two ways of getting on them…. Either put the head down and leg whilst you hold their ear and climb up the side, or put the head right down and leap frog straight onto the back. The way you get down is they put the head right down and you slide down the trunk. The one Lloyd was on was still quite new in training and was lifting the head back up too early… so when he tried to slide down the trunk, it threw him forward and he fell onto the guide and they both ended up on the floor… was very funny!!

After we had been taught everything it was time to ride the elephants, we all went on the biggest of the bunch together, and there is still space for more! The guide takes you round the site, across streams and down streams and up and down steep rocky sections, this is when it is hardest to stay on as elephants aren't the smoothest walkers believe it or not! At one point she decided she wanted a drink, leant her head right down into the water and nearly threw us all in! They also suck water into their trunk then squirt it over their bodies to cool themselves getting our legs soaked! There is a man taking photos and filming you all the way round which obviously we are supposed to buy at the end but we asked our guide if he could take our camera and take some photos, at first he said no but we asked again really nicely and he said yes, he took loads of good photos so we were well happy with him! After walking around for about 45 minutes it starts to get really uncomfortable and we were thinking we might have had enough, but then we got to a big poollake. This is where we are to wash and bathe the elephants. The water isn't the cleanest to be fair, the big balls of elephant poo floating around is a bit of a giveaway, but this didn't stop Tim launching Ben off the elephant into the water, Tim and Lloyd soon followed! The water is about chest height and as the elephants sits down in the water it still roughly the same height as us! The guides then throw out some buckets and some weird plant, the plant is used as shampoo. We scrubbed the elephant all over, we tried doing the trunk but it just thinks its food and tries to eat it! Then we use the bucket to wash it all off! Out of nowhere Lloyd felt a massive thud to the chest, looked up and Ben and Tim are in hysterics, turns out he picked up a football sized bit of elephant poo and launched it at him! Don't think the guides had ever seen it before either as they were all laughing! We then jump back on the beast and walk back to the starting point.

Then it was time for lunch, which was also included in the price, we had rice, a really nice chicken soup dish, spring rolls and a vegetable and tofu dish. Definitely filled a hole which we wasn't expecting! While eating lunch they play the video in the background so the whole group had a few laughs watching that.

After an already great day it was now time for Tiger Kingdom. We jumped in a minibus with an Australian couple that had also brought the same package. It took us about 40 minutes to get there and we all fell asleep as we were knackered but we soon livened up when we got there and saw how big these tigers are we were about to be cuddling! There is a small park you can walk around first where there are loads of tigers to see, two white ones that were pretty cool. There are also a lot of baby ones which Tim and Ben managed to blag it and get right up to the low fence and touch them. They also have one lion.

You have a number on your ticket for your group and when it comes to the top of the list on the screen it is you're turn to go in. So the five of us went in, all a bit on edge, understandably! The guide takes you up to 4 tigers, all as big as each other. You are told to pet them hard as if you pet them softly it tickles them and they don't like it, we did exactly what they say we didn't want and limbs going missing! The tigers are very calm and used to people but sometimes they do make sudden movements with their heads and paws which to say the least did make us flinch a bit!

After numerous amounts of different photos in different positions with the tigers including spooning one, as you do, it was coming to the end of the 15 minute session, which seemed like a lot longer which was good. Tim decided he wanted to get a last minute selfie with one of the tigers, the guide snuck up behind him and grabbed the back of his neck, to say he jumped was a massive understatement, he laid of the floor just happy that he hadn't nearly had his head bitten off!

The whole day cost us 2600 Thai Baht which is about £48, for the elephants, lunch and the tigers we didn't think that was at all bad! We then had a 45 minute journey in traffic back to the hostel where we met back up with the girls.

That night we all went to a rooftop bar that we had heard been mentioned a few times. It was a bit weird everyone was just sitting on the floor, there was reggae music playing but it was really loud so hearing someone who was sitting a couple of places away from you was literally impossible. One of the girls friends who had been teaching in south Thailand was meeting us there at midnight, after she arrived we went to a karaoke bar which was just down the road. It was really funny and it's fair to say we took over! Singing all sorts from Shaggy - It Wasn't Me to the classic Robbie Williams - Angels. For our finale all 7 of us got up on stage and sung Spice Girls - Wannabe, after a couple of lines, you could see everyone faces in the bar light up, I mean who doesn't love the spice girls. The whole bar then joined us on stage and we absolutely smashed it! Someone recorded the whole thing, if that gets put on YouTube it will go Viral!

Then it was a Tuk Tuk back to the hostel with a cheeky stop off at McDonald's, the first McDonald's since Hong Kong, it was very much enjoyed!!