I woke up early to get ready for the mini bus. When it arrived, it wasn't a mini bus but a tail back truck and a small group of us had to sit at the back. I got talking to a couple my age from Scotland. They were really nice and some of their travelling stories were very interesting. It took about an hour and half to get to the elephant conservation and three of us got off as we were training the elephants today, not just riding them. The other couple were English, Emily and Leigh. Again, they were lovely and we hit it off straight away!
The elephant we were training came around the corner. I couldn't remember ever seeing an elephant so close or in the flesh like this before. It was massive! His name was Bernard and he was an absolute beaut! His skin was so think and tough, and they're trunks were much longer than I thought. We got changed into some traditional Thai clothing which was vile in all honesty. First, the mahouts taught us the commands for an elephant and how to get on and off. I had a go at getting on and off and controlling the elephant through commands but I was rubbish, the mahout had to do it all! Then we fed Bernard with whole bananas and sugar cane. The sugar cane was his fav! We rode the elephant to the main little village and stopped for lunch, Pad Thai that was served in a large leaf! This really was back to basics. After lunch, we made the elephant medicine for the digestion process. We mashed banana, salt, rice and turmeric together with our hands until it became a sloppy mess, then rolled them into fist sized balls. We took it in turns and did it as a team. We then left them out in the sun to dry out and harden up. We then walked up a hill within the village to chop down bamboo for the elephant to eat. They eat around 150-200 kg of food a day so it was a continual job of the mahouts to keep finding food for them. The sun was really hot by this point and we needed some shade so we headed back to the village and waited for Bernard to come back from having a wash. Meanwhile, a baby elephant that had lost his mum a few weeks before came around the corner so we fed him baby corn from the crops. His mother had been stung by a tiger hornet whilst trying to protect him. It was really sad. The sanctuary took him in and will bring him up.
Once Bernard had finished being washed, he came back to the village and we fed him the medicine balls. After, we had another elephant ride and used the commands again to control them. It was really important to me before booking the trip to make sure that the company didn't use hooks or sticks to control the elephants as you hear some terrible horror stories. We then trekked down to a cable car that enabled us to cross a river so that we could help wash a group of elephants down at the riverside. I really enjoyed that bit, they kept spraying us with water in their trunks! After, we had to wait for a truck to come pick us up to take us white water rafting. We kept seeing trucks go past with rafts stacked on top of each other on the back and joked that we might have to get on one of those. When it arrived, we were shocked to find that actually, that's exactly what they expected us to do. No health and safety here! Three people had to help me climb up and down at the other end, so embarrassing! White water rafting was actually quite tame, but at the end, we had to get onto a bamboo raft which would take us to the end so we could get off and dry off before going home. This bamboo raft was ridiculous! It didn't float! There was 8 of us on it and we were chest deep in freezing cold water!
We got the same truck back to the hostel. Leigh and Emily asked me if I wanted to join them for dinner which was lovely so I showered and met them at 8pm in the town. They took me to a Thai restaurant where I stupidly ordered the spiciest curry EVER! After, we went for cocktails and then I headed back on a tuk tuk as I had an early start the following day!