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So after 18+hrs travelling I arrived in Bangkok. I sort out my transportation person and quickly was escorted to the vehicle, I was expecting a bus, full of others like me tried, fed up and ready for bed. Instead I had a private car waiting for me! Soft seats and lots of air conditioning! I think it was 45min maybe and 1hr till I arrived at the hotel where my booking couldn't be found... So they upgraded me! I was thrilled to see my towels shaped like elephants on the bed (I have pictures to follow) and quickly settled in for the night, turns out the area is a bit of a party area, I was woken a few times.
At 5.45 am I got up ready for my pick up at 7am, sorted out my bag and bits and headed out for breakfast, I had a egg mc muffin, yes macdonalds is next door, and I was on a time frame and couldnt see anywhere else open! My transportation arrived on time and I headed out, again expecting a bus, a mini bus at least.... But no a private car, 2 guides and just me!
3hrs later we arrived at
the elephant sanctuary, signed a waver (ie. Elephants are big, move out their way, if you don't is not our fault) and was given a water bottle in a holder (it even has an elephant on the bag :-)) we were then given buckets of fruit to feed the elephants. My first contact was a large strong and much tougher than I expected trunk, carefully cupped to allow me to place food on the trunk, which then retracted and plopped the food into is owners mouth. I feel I should explane that we were stood on a bridge like structure putting us at head height of the elephants. Carefully I fed the entire bucket to this elephant, occasionally the elephant grasped my fingers as well as the food, the skin of an elephant is much rougher than I had imagined, but still I fed an elephant!
We headed towards the river with the elephants and splashed around with them, one even splashed me back! And from the river we went to see the older elephants, these are over 60! They require a special diet and we started the process of making 'sticky rice balls' the rice was already being cooked
so we chopped pumpkins, not the orange ones we see at Halloween, but green stripy ones! Once the pumpkins were chopped into finger tip sized pieces they were added to the rice. Once cooked it was split into 5 bowls and left to cool down while we had lunch.
Lunch was awesome, although I have no idea what I ate, apart from watermelon which was yummy :-)
After lunch we were split into two groups, one group got banana trees (yes the whole tree..
) the other (which I was in) got grass (I think it's some sort of sugar grass but not really sure) we cut as much grass as we could, the sun was really beating down on us and the grass was seeking revenge on us, mainly with tiny cuts. The grass was then taken to feed baby elephants!! Which makes the cuts completely worth it! The banana trees were taken to the old elephants for snacks. And we returned to 'sticky rice balls', each bowl of rice needed pellets added to it (the pellets contain all the vitamin and minerals the elephants need) but first the pellets needed crushing,which we did by hand after adding water. The pellets were then added to the rice and mixed together, once consistent it was rolled into soft ball sized balls. These balls were then covered in calcium powder and put into trays for the elephants. After all the balls were made we got to feed the old elephants, I have video to follow!
Now very messy we headed back to the river where we swam with and sat on the strongest elephants, the one I sat on know kept batting my left knee with its ear! I also fell off a couple of times, but it helped cool me down! We left the river and headed back to the main feeding station and for the last time that day fed the elephants, mine was a slow eatter so I got to spend longer feeding her. But then we had to change and had some tea and biscuits before starting the 3hrs journey back to the hotel.
Once back at the hotel I ventured out into the street in order to find dinner, which was egg pad (it was longer in name but alas my memory for names is poor) and sparked up a conversation with another girl from England staying near by.
The day had been truly wonderful and full of new exiting experiences. I can't wait for tomorrow :-)
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Mum!
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Oh WOW!!
So SO glad you had such a fantastic day with the elephants - it sounds very calming (especially after such a long flight)... I adore the details and the photographs of you with them - Such a wonderful and fantastic start to your trip!