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We left Lampang and the next morning travelled by songthaew to the elephant conservation centre. First of we watched an elephant show were the elephants introduced themselves by bowing and then performed various tricks and stunts. They could paint - although one of them was extremely reluctant to! and play drums and the xylophone and move logs around the stage. For the finale they played a song together which unfortunately the presenter ruined by singing along to!  Then we were taken to watch the elephants bathe in the river and spray each other - the riders were quite skilled at manouvering around the elephants as they rolled around on their sides in the water. Then it was time for us to ride them! We were both a bit nervous stood on the platform watching the rest of the group climbing down on to their designated elephant but then we saw ours was by far the smallest wimpiest looking one!   The man told us as we were getting on that its balance was also the worst and that it may be very bumpy! ! The other elephants seemed to single it out as well as we got squirted wading through the water several times! One of the group had the good idea to swap cameras so luckily for us two we've got plenty of pics of us tring to dodge being squirted and trying not to fall off! We trekked through the forest on the elephants for about an hour before arriving at the elephant hospital where we got dinner. Again suprisingly we both thought the traditional thai meal was really tasty!! In the hospital we were shown elephants who were being treated for stepping on land mines and being used in the illegal logging trade - we took at least a whole films worth of photos of one in particular - a baby with 3 legs :( He was still so full of life and mischief and was absolutely adorable!!! The day was definately the high light of the tour. In the evening we were introduced to our host for the next couple of days - Aow whos house we were staying at that night.
The homestay was probabably the bit of the tour we were most apprehensive about and didnt really know what to expect. The group reassurred us that the homestay of their last tour had been the best bit but we were still imagining mud hut with free ranging pigs and chickens with no toilet! In fact we were pleasently suprised - the house was lovely, the nicest place we stayed in by far! the girls all shared a big barn style dorm room with bright pink mozzy nets and pillows!! The complex it was built in was like a cottage garden with an open plan communal eating and drinkning area in the middle and we felt like we were well fed and looked after. The little girl who lived there also took a liking to dorein - the dutch girl and followed her everywhere, while we were having lunch she found the canadians lip stick and decided it woud be fun to sit on beccas knee and smear it all over her face!! comedy! In the evening we were treated to a show by the local children - beginning by what felt like a 3 hour band performance with dodgy thai stringed instruments - partents we now know how hard it was to listen to our school orchestra performances and tell us how good it was at the end!! The kids showed us how to play the instruments afterwards and i just about managed to play three blind mice on a wierd mini guitar type thing! After the "music" we watched a traditional dance, boys trying to pretend thai box each other and girls dancing with knives which was slightly scary! Before we went bed one of the hosts set off a massive fire work/ lantern/square hot air balloon type thing in the garden to say bye which you could see float across the village for miles -was very pretty!
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