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18th September - We got up that morning with the intention of going to the elephant orphanage and elephant millennium. However it all got a bit more exciting than that. We once again travelled via tuk-tuk, only this time it was a lot smaller and we had to take it in turns to sit on each other's laps or the floor. We ended up at the elephant millennium first, this place had 8 elephants that they cared for. Each elephant had to have a 'Mahoot' someone that they listen to and understand, however it was only that one person, if the place was to be 'Mahootless' the elephants would be running wild. When we arrived we were taken around their small museum learning about the elephants and holding bones that were bigger than me! Afterwards we got to ride the elephant! At one point the elephant me and Jamie were riding began to pick up speed and I thought we were gonners. When we safely arrived back we got to feed our 45 year old elephant some fruit, she was very cheeky and tried to steal it all out the bowl with her trunk other than out of our hands. Afterwards we got to go into the river with them and half a coconut each and scrub them in their bathing environment. After all that excitement we felt that we didn't have to go to the orphanage as well as that was only a place to watch the elephants. The orphanage held over 80 elephants that were orphaned and rescued after the tsunami hit. On the way back from the elephants our tuk-tuk driver pulled over on the side of the road and bought us all a boiling corn on the cob that was served on a small banana leaf and we ate it watching over the most incredible view. On the way back we were stopped by a bundle of singing locals that were voting for their president to stay. We were held up for a while but we finally made it back. We then decided to walk into town that night as it was a nice view with a long walk around a large lake to get to the town. On the way I think we must have spotted a whole zoo, we saw dogs and cats, a man grooming his little white pony on the pathway, a turtle chilling in the grass and a pelican asleep in the tree. We wandered around for ages looking for an English bar that went by two names! 'Slightly chilled' and 'Bamboo Gardens' it did however take a very long time to find. On the way we kept seeing splodges of what looked like blood on the ground! we began to get a bit worried but we realised it was a certain sweet the locals suck and spit out! We spent the evening there eating and playing drinking games. On the way home we were confused as to why we were not being bombarded by tuk-tuk drivers! When we eventually found one he told us prices had gone up because security were out on the streets because of the election and it was not a safe place to be! He said 2 people had been shot and if we run, we to will be shot! We made it home in the safety of the tuk-tuk and there we stayed until morning afraid of losing our limbs.
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