Arrived in Chiang Mai about 7am(ish) we were taken to the elephant sanctuary by a truck which was fun. Given our keys at the reception area and headed to our own guest house. It was like living in the jungle in a tree house :) was fantastic. I headed for a nap for an hour then chilled outside in the heat. Went to get some water from the wee shops outside the guest house. There were only 2 left and right!! The dogs were quite annoying with their barking reminded me of wee Alfie back at home so wasn't all bad!!! We were picked up by truck at 2pm in torrential rain and driven to the elephant sanctuary. We got dressed in our mahout uniforms and were ready to go, we all headed up to see the amazing elephants. They were a family and there was a wee baby, looked wee but it was a year old, a wee girl to add to the family. Lovely!!!!! :))))) we fed them bananas, we instructed the elephants to put their trunks up and open their mouths by saying "BO". They certainly enjoyed their food that's for sure. After all the bananas were done we then all got to train the elephants to move in certain ways. I was kind of nervous cos everyone did it in front of everyone else. I was the last one on and it as nerve racking. I got onto the elephant - wow what a feeling. Massive animal and all i had to hang onto was its neck which isn't much. So to move forward is "Pi Pi Huy", back is "Toy", stop is "Howe", right and left are "gowe and u give a gentle kick on the opposite side behind the ear. It was truly incredible!!!!
After that we went down to the river, I rode my elephant with Amarjit. It was so hot. We got to the river and the elephant sat down to let us off and we splashed it's back and also brushed it's back and body which the elephants love and cools them down. It was so much fun!!!!
We all then went back to camp after an amazing first afternoon with these amazing creatures. We had dinner at 7pm which the staff made which consisted of rice and chicken hhhhmmmm was lovely! We then had drinks and went to bed.