Today we had another fantastic day with some wonderful animals - elephants! There's lots of choice in Chiang Mai of elephant sanctuaries to visit. After some advice from Tartare at our guesthouse, we opted to visit Woody's Elephant Home for the day. We made this choice as the elephants are very well looked after there, being washed at least twice a day, fed different foods throughout the day and are free to roam together without any harnesses on at any time. Most of the elephants there have been rescued from poor conditions. For example, one elephant called Cookie had been rescued from a circus so knows all the tricks in the book and was so clever!

We got picked up at 8.30a.m. and arrived at Woody's about an hour and a half later. After changing into some very baggy trousers and a t-shirt that were provided, we sat and enjoyed some jasmine tea whilst our guide explained the day. For their ease they wrote our name on our hand in the Thai language.

Next, we were taught the commandments to control the elephants. Naturally, the elephants speak Thai so they were all Thai words! Once we had gone through the basics, it was back down to see the elephants.

There were seven elephants that we were introduced to. We got a few bunches of bananas to feed the elephants who were clearly very hungry! We fed Jambo, one of the smaller elephants about ten years old. You say 'bonsouk' which means open your mouth and the elephants lift their trunk and open their mouth for you to put the banana on their tongue. It was good fun getting so personal with the elephants and being so close with them. They were really playful and mischievous but the keepers just played with them like friends. We learnt that saying 'dee' softly (but loudly - elephants can't hear quiet words) and stroking the elephant means good boy or good girl.

The group was split into two teams; we were in team 1, a group of 6. We quickly put our commandments into practice! It was two people to an elephant. Our elephant was called Cafae (pronounced ka-fear) which means coffee in Thai. She was medium size and loved to flap her ears!

So, time to ride Cafae. Steph was going to sit on the back so she had to get up first. There are no ladders or man-made ways used to get on the elephants at Woody's. It's just you and the elephant! To get up, you say 'yolka' which asks the elephant to lift its front right knee up. You use the top of its ear to hold and step on the bottom part of leg that is curled under with your left foot. Your right foot then steps on the elephants right knee and you say 'soung' which asks the elephant to lift their knee higher. Then you can swing your left leg round and climb up. It's probably easier than it sounds and we both managed it without any problems. Max was upfront sitting by Cafae's head, just behind her ears.

We had a very downhill journey for about 20 minutes to the river. It was fun saying 'pai' so Cafae knew to go forwards, 'quaa' for turning right, 'sai' for turning left, 'toi' for move back and 'how' for stop. A very important word when going down the steeper parts and feeling like you were going to fall off was 'bow' - slow down!

We continued to a shallow part of the river where we jumped off Cafae and she lied down to cool herself in the water. We bathed her using the gravel at the river bed and exfoliating it into her skin. We splashed water all over her and also each other! When Cafae was up, she found it funny to collect water in her trunk and spray us with it! It was good fun having a water fight with an elephant - I think we lost.

Once we'd all cooled off we climbed back aboard Cafae and continued out of the stream and were told that the elephant was going to go swimming with us on! We directed Cafae to a deeper part of the river where we immediately went under but managed to stay on Cafae's back. She started swimming and kept us afloat. One time Cafae fancied going under and took us with her! It was great fun.

Max was on the back for the uphill journey back to camp and he had trouble staying put but managed it. We arrived back at the camp and said goodbye to our elephants for now with lots of hugs and kisses. We had some tasty Thai lunch with fried bananas for dessert (yum).

After lunch, we went and collected sugarcane for the elephants to eat. We broke it up and watched them feast on sugarcane and corn. The elephants were very clever and use their feet to step on the sugarcane and break it with their trunk.

We had so much fun with the elephants and it was fantastic to interact with them in such a natural way.

Steph and Max x