To take issue with us now would be unwise... We could command an army of Thai elephants to unleash brutal destuction at one word. Today, we learned how to be elephant mahouts.

Yesterday we got another massage, this time at a place where all of the masseurs are blind. Having enjoyed the previous Thai massages we had had, we opted for another one, unsuspecting of the sheer brutality and strength of the massage therapists. They had the strongest thumbs and elbows on the face of the planet. Howie actually had to ask his man to stop, because it was too painful. His massage guy was chuckling away because Howie was wincing from the pain... It felt good afterwards but it was an hour of agony.

In the evening we went to the night market to eat and to do a little bit of browsing and shopping. The night market is truly large and we didn't manage to get round the whole market. The food was sold on a coupon basis, so Howie bought lots of coupons and had lots of fun spending them all.

Today was our day at Baanchang Elephant Park. We were up early to be picked up by the shuttle bus and were whisked to the elephant sanctuary. It's a great place, where elephants are rescued from entertainment parks and captivity to live a happier life. There were two babies there too who kept trumpeting very squeakily, it was very sweet. First we fed the elephants with sugar cane, which was lots of fun. We then learned all about how to control them (in Thai, of course - I can't order a coffee in Thai but I can drive an elephant). We had a bit of practice, then had lunch (which was delicious). After lunch we out on our Thai hats and got onto our elephants' backs for a trek through the jungle. Our elephant was a bit naughty and kept stopping to eat or poo, and at one point she trumpeted very loudly through her trunk. It was very difficult to sit on the elephants because they are so big, so sitting astride the elephant's back means being very flexible. Afterwards, we got into the water with our elephants and helped them have a bath. We had scrubbing brushes to scrub them and they kept spraying water at us, it was brilliant.

All in all, we had a fantastic day with the elephants and I now know that if I don't want to drive, I can always just hop on the nearest elephant to go where I want to go.