Footprints and Sailing

An early start for Kirsty who went off to find out how to train elephants - a big bull elephant was under her command and she dealt with him admirably! K showed off her skills when we all met up at night - with different noises for different commands and how to use your legs to squeeze the elephant to go right or left etc. She also had to mount the elephants - sit on its head, go on by its trunk and also got the chance to swim with them...........well done Kirsty - our budding elephant trainer! Yes this was a fun day, although the one I really wanted to go on was an Elephant sanctury, where you see them, eating if they want, bathing, walking, totally free within the park. I tried to book it and the tour guide said No there will be loads of spaces book it later...I went back..were there any spaces...No...some Tour Guide!! to She told me the one I chose to do was the same they were free to roam and we would learn how to care for them etc, not true, they were chained and in the sun. But learning about how to ride them and approach them and wash them was great. Joyce went off with Amanda and Cat to do a variety of things - butterfly farm, elephant ride, swim in a waterfall, white water rafting(turned out to be brown water) and a bamboo raft ride. A great day had by all and the two hour trek to and from the waterfall was very interesting finding out about some local plants! 'Can you smoke that one?' had to be the quote of the day about a plant that was used to stop you bleeding!! Yolanda went off to do a two hour yoga session which she found very interesting - different from what she was usead to before - being shown how to wrap your legs in some unusual positions............she also bought more stuff and managed to get her box of goodies sent off at the post office- a very relaxing day for her. We all met up at night and went for a meal - the starter was enough to finish us off but we persevered! K was hyper after 3 coca colas and wanted to boogie the night away- too much energy that girl..........anyway we retired to the MD house and packed for the next leg of our journey to Phuket.......bring it on...........