After a couple of random days of walking round Chiang Mai and seeing 'the sights' I thought I would do something more worthwhile with my time. So today I went Elephant Manhout Training at Jumbo Elephant Camp just outside of Chiang Mai. I will admit that I had a bit of a shaky start this morning after doing several Tequila Slammers in the pool hall with Jack and Levi last night. We bumped into each other in the street and went for dinner, then drinks and then playing pool with a lovely couple called Zoe and Nick till about 2 am. Zoe and Nick are expats who teach TEFL to children in Thailand - after a couple beers she told us the secret to becoming a teacher over here and how much money you could earn...potential career change? Anyway...I digress...

Hanging, I got into the back of a Songthaew which took us speeding (although slow by UK standards of speeding) out of town to our first stop which was a small butterfly and Orchid farm. I am pretty sure that a few people in the group thought we'd stopped for a toilet break and it was just some weird service station that had walk round 'attractions' to stretch your legs. Back on the truck and a while later we made it to the open countryside and to the Elephant Camp. Manhout's are the guides and carers for the Elephants so this day was to learn about how they are cared for etc. After changing clothes (Elephants are very muddy) we were ready to begin, just 3 of us, me and a Canadian couple. I always knew that Elephants were large but never realised how large till I was standing right next to one!

First thing was to feed the Elephants and this one (Loipa) was very hungry! Small banana's vanished in seconds! We then learnt all of the commands for making the Elephant move, back, forward, stop etc etc Before...getting on board! A LOT harder than it looks and much more uncomfortable than it looks also! Loipa was very gentle though and also well behaved, there seemed to be quite a few female Elephants and only one male, get in if you're the male! After lunch we went Elephant riding up into the mountains with the Canadian couple taking the lead on theirs and me following behind on my very own Elephant. (No sharing *smile*) I honestly thought at some point I was going to come off and hit the rocks below but I guess it's just a question of balance really. We then got to take the Elephants down to the river to play and wash in the water, they seemed to enjoy it, being sprawled out on the river bed! It was very hot again today and at the time I was wishing I could just go swimming in it! I also forgot to put on any sun lotion as I was in a hurry this morning (I'm not burnt Campbell...) so now have a nice white watch mark on my wrist!

It was almost sad to leave, but...the tour wasn't over! We stopped on the way back at an Elephant dung paper factory...yes...paper...that is what I said. Apparently you can make all sorts of recycled paper products from Elephant Dung...certainly makes me think twice about putting any piece of paper near my mouth ever again that's for sure!

Got a few more days here in Chiang Mai before moving on and in the next couple of days I am going to do another tour...something I always said was on the top of my list to do. For those of you who know me well, you'll figure it out before then!