Today was all pre-booked yesterday and I was heading to woody's elephant camp. It had been recommended as they've had the business in their family for years and they don't mistreat them at all which is a problem with the camps here sometimes.
Anyway, I got picked up about 8 and Julian from the football had booked to come aswell which was good. We got into a taxi with 6 other people... Two more from France, two Dutch and two English.
At the camp we were given clothes to change into, which is good because I knew we'd get dirty but not so good cause they didn't fit, and they smelt like they never wash them lol. But still, mine weren't getting dirty I suppose.
After we'd got changed, woody told us about the elephants and just explained that obviously they are dangerous creatures. It was really good he was so honest about everything, and you could tell straight away he loved the animals completely.

After that, we learnt how to give the elephants direction in Thai, so we learnt forwards, backwards, right, left, slow down, stop etc. We also learnt how to say leg up and higher; woody explained that we would say leg up to the elephant and it would lift his leg up so we could stand on it, then you say higher and he'll raise it so you can jump on his back.... Hold on!!? I thought we'd have steps or something... No were having to climb this thing cause it's 'easy' and then ride it bare back, s***!!!

So we start to walk down to the elephants after being given a mound of bananas each. There's 8big elephants, a baby one and then another adult elephant who's been separated as he keeps trying to escape. We have to say "Bon soon" which is open mouth, and then put the bananas straight in their mouths, at one point my elephant gets a bit excited and tries to eat my hand aswell lol. Pretty freaky and slimy!!!
I'd never thought of elephants as being scary or anything but when your around them and that close, you suddenly become aware of how big they are and how easily they could hurt you so at first I was pretty uneasy around them but then I realised they were just after the bananas haha.
After this we went and sat down and were shown how to get on the elephant and then had to try ourselves, everyone made it look easy... Then it was my turn and of course my elephant didn't want to play and didn't like me standing on its leg, anyway eventually I got up with my bum hung out I'm sure, knowing my bum crack. Once I was on the elephant it was okay... The girl after me struggled aswell and then it turned out that elephant had hurt its foot so that's why it didn't like being stood on.
After this, we had to get on them again and get them to move left, right, backwards and forwards which went perfectly fine as I used another elephant for this.
At dinner, we were given lunch which was really nice and then we all had a chat after, while woody let the boys play with guns and shoot at trees.... Surreal!!!

After dinner we went back down to the elephants and had to get on them two at a time.... So I was paired with Julian and of course, we were given the naughty elephant!!! Lol. Everything goes so well for me!! I went on the back of the elephant though and it was actually really relaxing and not scary at all, although are guy with us had to help a lot. We walked for quite a while around all the land, and the elephant (far) just kept eating a lot lol. We got to a stream and the elephants started drinking the water and putting water on themselves but of course my elephant had been watching planet earth, and knew that mud cools you down so off he went and started spraying mud all over himself and me and Julian, I was covered from head to toe.
Then we had a break while the elephants played with each other and we drank water. Woody had said earlier that bear grylls was rubbish and he could set a fire in under a minute, so while we had a break I told him to do it haha. And he managed to aswell was pretty impressive!!!
After this, we got back on our elephants , Julian wanted to go on the back so I got on the front. And our elephant literally did not wanna play!!! It kept throwing its head around, and so with me being sat on its neck was pretty scary. Anyway, this went on for a few minutes with me crapping myself and nearly being thrown off before I nearly started crying and asked to swap places again. Lol. Was pretty horrible but as soon as I was on the back I felt fine again. We took the elephants down to a pool where we got in with them and washed them, and they sprayed water at us, was really good fun!!!
Then we had to get back on the elephants, not easy with wet clothes at all. And there was another bit of water which I thought we'd walk through but as my elephant started going in he was gettin lower, we ended up sat on the elephants back while it swam through this water... Easily one of my top moments from travelling by far!!!
After this we just headed home, and that night loads of people I've previously met were at the hostel, like dave from Bangkok and Matt from Canada so was cool to catch up. Then a group of us went to meet some of Liam's friends for tea, which was good but we walked round for hours so by the time we got food I wasn't hungry and there was no alcohol cause it was buddhas birthday.

Anyway, rest of the evening was jut sat round the hostel talking to people. Then I went to bed cause got an overnight bus to Cambodia tomorrow....