Baa Chang Elephant Park .

Best day so far of our trip... We had heard very bad stories about the mis treatment of Elephants on treks and trips in N Thailand and had actually talked ourselves out of a tour until we found this charity run camp.. It was amazing and worth every penny... Only 8 of us on trip, we had to change into these attractive clothes , and had a talk about our elephant .. ours was called Tong Yai , and was 35 years old.. we had to feed her whole bunches of bananas ... Brian nearly jumped out of his Mahout clothes when he bent down to his basket to get some more bananas ... oh we have no bananas .. we have no bananas today -hey-hey-hey... sing along kids... anyway - he was very surprised to see Tongs trunk resting on his shoulder !! very funny, these guys were not chained down or tied up... it was like a health and safety acid party .... After feeding them, we had to learn to ride them bareback... and some basic commands...Non long- sit down.. pai - go, and most importantly how - stop...not easy to remember when you are 13ft in the air .... seriously when you scream how they literally stop on the spot with one foot raised .. amazing ..

After a yummy lunch and a lay in a hammock it was time for our jungle safari... Brian was my driver , I was the passenger.... the elephant looked bemused ..
Brian had his ears to hang onto , me just a bit of cord wrapped round its waist... It was very hot, very high and very steep climbs, fine on the way up... hairy on the way down... with nothing to cling onto and a wide girth for my legs to cling to , it was scary.... but great fun, these gentle wonderful creatures are very nimble on their feet and the trunk has such dexterity , very humbling, they could of taken us out easily, I kept shouting "stampede" which Brian thought was as funny as a car crash !!

After our jungle trek we took Tong to the bathing pool to give her a well earned muddy bath... The most amazing experience, she was rolling around , head under the water, we very scrubbing her and chucking buckets of water over her, she was sucking up water and chucking it over us .. one thing led to the other .... only joking...She was lovely and clean , and we were very muddy and soaking wet ...after a shower and a beer and a final goodbye we headed home, very tearful.. very overwhelmed ... These elephants are very well looked after, have a lovely life after having been mistreated , I got so much out of the day, but they get even more.. its the first time I have felt exploited on this trip, and by an elephant and I am delighted to have been so .. Thank you Tong, Have a happy life...... xxxxxxxxxxxxx