The alarm woke me up at 6:30 after a rubbish nights sleep, I was still really excited but tired. We went downstairs and was greeted for breakfast by Pim, half a slice of toast in, our tour operator had arrived at our hotel to collect us.
There was one other stop after ours a short distance away, an american couple boarded the mini bus and formally introduced themselves as Mel and Dave, Mel sat at the back with dani and I whilst Dave sat up front with the driver.
After a forty five minute drive and mountainous scenery we were at are destination, a brief introduction by the owner pat and to the team we were ready to start our elephant ownership ship for the day.
Ben was our driver and group leader, pat would of normally have been the group leader but was unable to fulfil his role due to a motor bike accident 20 weeks previous to our trip and was still
recovering.
We were guided down to a river through rice plantations where we were greeted by seven elephants, seven elephant trainers and a wooden hut. Ben gave us an introduction on how the farm works. All of the elephants were rescued, they had previously been working in Burma and Lao and no longer required, pat had setup the farm to breed them making more elephant families in Thailand to prevent extinction the farm had a total of 76
Elephants within the plantation and was expanding rapidly.
We dressed in elephant trainer attire to show the elephants that we were a worker for the day and not just your general tourist.
We were taught how to tell if the elephant was in good health, this required checking their skin, eyes, feet and their dung!! Ben had chosen our elephants for us on his brief first impression of our characters. I was chosen to look after Mae Boon Thong, she was a pregnant 30 year old lass who was out too eat all day ( must of been the hormones!! )
Our first task was to see if the elephants accepted me as its owner and was happy. I approached her with great caution with a basket of bananas.
After a few minutes of feeding her bananas she was flapping her ears and swinging her tail. We were the best of friends!
I was her keeper for the day and had an armful of Thai lingo that she was able to respond too, it was...

PAI- kicking both ears = forward
PAI- kicking left ear = forward left
PAI- kicking right ear = forward right
HOW- kicking heels into neck = stop
NON LONG = down
LOOK = up
TOY = back
YANA = don't do that
DEEDEE = good/well done

Next task was to clean the 5 tonne beauty, I guided her into the river and began to clean her with a yard brush to make sure all the dirt was out of the creases of her skin, as this would cause infection. After I had done this it was bonding time between myself and her, this involved me splashing her with water from the river and her doing the same to me with her trunk, more like a water fight I was bound to lose!!
Now that we had accepted each other it was time for me to mount her, the best way to do this was for me to give her the command non lang and tapping with both hands on her head. With this she lowered her head and lifted her trunk as foot rest for me to stand on and then bunny hop onto her neck. In one swoop I was on but the wrong way round, I then had to pivot myself round so my legs were behind her ears so she could understand my kicking commands,With this we were ready to rock and started our journey through the rice fields up the mountain.

Within ten minutes I had discovered that this wasn't going to be an easy ride cause she wanted to eat every bamboo and folage she saw, having to keep up with dani I was constantly shouting yanna at her !! I was tired already...

Our first stop was a beautiful waterfall and deep pool where I was able to swim with two elephants from the group
They laid in the water fully submerged and I was kind of just rolling around on top of them splashing each other with water and spraying out with their trunks, this was great until one lifted it's leg out and decided to lay it onto my right shin!! It felt like someone had dropped a heavy log onto me, with this the trainer panicked and jumped into the pool too my rescue, luckily it was only briefly, because the elephant realised what she was doing and pulled off!
At this point lunch was served Thai style on banana leaves...we sat cross legged in a bamboo hut. Ben was describing what was laid in front of us and how it was made. Finally finishing the discussion with "what you not eat you feed to elephant"
As we started to feast we were chuckling within the group, because it felt like home, having a dog near your table ready to pinch any scraps, instead it was our elephants! they were gradually getting closer and closer!

After we had finished our feast we rolled up the table cloth and fed too the elephants they loved the scraps!

With lunch now over we carried on up the mountain for another hour or so then started our descent back to the farm. We reached the next stop off point where we were introduced to two 18 month twin elephants, pou and phi
These were playful and tiny I wanted to take one home!
After a freshen up we made our way to the beginning again and said goodbye to our new found friends...I was sad to leave mine, I hope she remembers me for next time I come...

Dani and I came back exhausted but went for dinner in a restaurant next to our hotel! We feasted again and decided for an earlyish night, well it's now half twelve and I've finished this blog so I'm going for some kip!!

Yet more excitement though, because It's Thai cooking school tomorrow.
Over and out