Another early start to the day, because today is Elephant day. I have been looking forward to doing this, silently I must admit, since we left. I had been told about it before we left and thought it sounded like great fun. Elephants are very intersting animals with there great memory and things, something very noble about them!!!

So anyway, we got picked up from the hostel and off we drove out to the countryside. There were just a few hairy moments when the van drove off down random side streets that looked like the kind of places you take tourists to sell them or at least just to make them buy things they dont want, but we made it no hassle. When we arrived we got kitted out in the latest Mahoot styles, very fetching pinks and oranges!!! The guide took us up to see a young calf, I think he said it was about a year or a year and a half. He was (can I say cute???) cute!!!!, really fecking cute. About half our height I would say and a tubby little thing that had no idea just how strong he was. He ran around inside his pen and came up to each of the six of us one at a time to have a smell and a look. He even took my hand with his trunk and stuffed it in his mouth for a taste.... it was slimey, like you would imagine any animals mouth would be. He was really friendly and acted just as a puppy or a young child would do wanting to play with everyone. He even had a go at untying my shoe laces... he nearly had them too!!! Next up, it was the real deal and some training sessions with a big grumpy looking fella. We started well, feeding him some bananas... so sweaten him up a bit and then one by one we commanded him to lift his leg so we could climb up and took turns manoevering him around the field he was in. It was terrifyingly great. I decided to be gentlemanly and let the four Danish girls and Regina all go first... it was the only decent thing to do, plus when he asked who was first and everyone turned to me I felt like my heart would burst out of my chest so I just said "ladies first" and smiled my way out of it. Anyway, by the time it came to my go, and after Regina had done brilliantly with it, I felt ok about getting up. It wasnt too hard to get up there, he was very helpful lifting me up sure. The commands are pretty simple, forward, back, left and right.... in Thai of course. You also get a little pole with a hook at the end for turning them and you kick behind the ears to give them a nudge forwards or sideways. The real mahoot was standing below barking orders at him the whole time anyway, and to be honest I think he was ignoring me the entire time anyway... until he stuck his trunk over his head to have a smell of me!!!

With training over it was time to take him out on the road for a proper test drive. The four danes were doing a full day course so just me and Regina headed off, Regina on the back and me driving (as usual). We went down to the river, Regina giving me backseat instructions the whole way down because of course he had to stop and eat every leaf, tree or shrub he could see, but we made it anyway. The mahoot gave him the orders to get into the river and sit down, Regina hopped off into the river and we poured buckets of water over him and scrubbed him all clean again.... I think he liked it, he feckin better have because the water was cold!!!! We drove him back up then and I parallel parked him in a nice big spot with an Elephant only symbol marked on it. We had a lovely Thai lunch and off we went for our afternoon adventures

Our tour was Elephants in the morning, and trekking to a Hillop Village and Bamboo Rafting in in the afternoon. We got the bus to the village and walked up a path to the village. To be honest, and I insist on being honest even though this won't paint the tour in a very good light, this was awkward and rubbish. The houses were just timber houses. The people, or "tribe" were just people who lived there and I reckon it was meant to be something authentic and insteresting, but was just essentially made up. The kids came up to us trying to sell us necklaces and the older women tried to sell us hand woven bags. There were lots of cute animals running around, Regina photographed everyone of them, but the town just didnt seem like it was meant to be a genuine tourist attraction, and more like a crappy little village that had hand built wooden houses, leaf roofs and rubbish everywhere. Oh and they had satelite dishes for their TVs so they can watch CNN!!! Anyway, the area itself was more interesting. Very asian countryside looking. There were terraced paddy fields along the hills, with what I think are some kind of oxen walking through them. Little men and women with pointy hats walking around the fields. There was a very mysterious fog floating around the tops of the hills too that gave it all a very eerie and beautiful feel. I could imagine the place in ancient times when air conditioned vans full of tourists werent being carted around to look at the place.

Next up we went to see a waterfall. The water fell over the side of a cliff and down to the bottom. Then the water flowed down a river.... snore!!!! What was interesting about the waterfall was that we were offered some Opium by the guide. Now, I may, and Regina may, have misheard and misunderstood him completely as his english was very broken, but I am sure he offered us some telling us it was very good for your health the first time you take it. We kind of ignored him and he seemed to sulk off back to the van..... this was more awkward than the village because it was just the three of us!!! Anyway, moving on, and last but by no means least because obviously the opium waterfall and the village take last and second last, we got to the bamboo rafting. No photos for this for obvious reasons. It was good fun though. About eight pieces of bamboo lashed together, about maybe 20 foot long and with a driver up the front. The river was easy enough going for the most part and a very little bit quick in places, but nothing that would excite you in a dingy or a canoe. Not the easiest thing to balance on but we only had one near fall and that was at one rapids where we were told to sit down. We passed through a quite spot on the river with a gang of Asian tourists either side who thought it hilarious to throw water at us. Further down the river, and in a few spots up it too, there were all of these bamboo piers leaning over into the water. In fact there were places where there were small huts and paths and bridges all built out of bamboo up along the steep river bank and down to the waters edge. It was so ancient looking and although they were empty and seemed to lack any sort of purpose it was really bizzare to wonder what they might have been or even might be. We both reckon they were a kind of market that might be open during busier times, and there were one or two shops open along the way and at the end the pier looked like it was also a restaurant. I can imagine the river being used as some sort of floating bamboo highway through the river with real people floating down stream transporting their goods and stopping off for a bite to eat along the way the river..... crazy stuff really. Well that was it for the day anyway, the bus dropped us back to town and we went out for a lovely 3 euro meal, thats for both by the way, with two cokes.... how bad!!!