I was the first to get up this morning; miraculously no hangover - must be the fresh feeling of sleeping outdoors....Hmmm Ahhhh. After breakfast (scrambled egg and toast) at nine a.m. we all set off on a four hour treck to the elephant camp. The walk wasn't anything too vicious: I was expecting some serious jungle blades and a plastic map. Some found it testing. On the treck we passed over paddy fields and up steep hills, through villages and into thick vegetation. The views were extraordinary, although I was scanning the ground for insects and snakes to catch most of the time. I saw a centipede and a handsize spider, but unfortunately (fortunately!?) no snakes. We arrived at the elephant camp at about 15:00 and that was the first time I saw the huge beasts, sitting in the river while the handlers jumped all over them as if cleaning a truck. I had an elephant to myself, called Sombu, and with a few words from the handler, Eddi, I wasn't doing a bad job guiding the huge thing. He was even fine with me riding on his neck; that was until one of the girls elephants caused a stampede, nearly decapitating me at the front. Elaphant treck over, we all walked to the next village in sporadic torrantial rain: ON OFF ON OFF ON OFF. After a sleep and dinner, we all got on the booze and started playing "Bing Bang Bong" - kinda like "Fuzzy Duck" and the forfeit is that you take heed in the form of charcoal and also have to have a swig of Sang Song to boot. Messy night: ended with just Pong, Jorge and me wailing to a random strumming of the guitar in the near pitch dark. I slept outside again.