Today I get up at 6. I quickly get dressed and go to 7/11 to get snacks and water then head for breakfast. I get picked up at 7 for the ride to the elephants which I'm informed will take 3 hours. My taxi driver is very friendly and tells me I look like his daughter (he showed me a picture and I definitely didn't). He has bought me water and tells me his name is jack but call him papa (I didn't). we stop off once for the toilet and he buys me coffee. It was delicious. We get to the elephants around half 9. I get given a water bottle sachet which I plan on keeping (I did). I go and meet my group and I have to hire a dress as my top is too small and inappropriate. In my group there is a girl called Sarah that I latch onto. She is staying for the week with a few people, one of them in American from New York and then two brothers, Sam and Tom and they are both from York. I like them. They are funny! We first get to feed the elephants and I get out with a French family, not my new friends. It's okay though. The elephant ate the watermelon really loudly and it was funny!! I really love it already! I then go back and find my friends as we walk down to the river to watch the elephants swim. I decide I will stay with them for sure. We watch the elephants swim and it's super cute, the baby gets right under the water!! We are told that most of the elephants were once used in the logging industry or I the tourist industry and were rode. This is now illegal so some were bought by the sanctury straight away but others were taken into the city and used as a begging prop. This upsets the elephants and gives them PTSD. the sanctuary finds them and buys them, they are much happier here. We then get to go and make food for them!! We make sticky rice along with mango. First we just cut the mango and cook the rice. We mix it and leave it to cool. We then go and get our own lunch. This is so delicious!!!!!!! There was a curry called Massamun which is yummy. Sam keeps pointing to the dogs or cows and saying "what a strange elephant" it was funny for the first time, not the 5th. I tell him this. After dinner we go to watch the elephants in the mud baths. It takes them a while to go in and the baby is first. It's so cute. It's adoptive mum then goes in and the baby runs out and chases a dog. It was funny. There are 26 elephants here and they each have a personality and friends. Some don't get on either. I like that they have personalities. After this we go back to make the rice!! We have to mix in some grains that are good for the elephants and it makes a brown rice lumpy mixture. We then have to roll it into tennis ball sized balls and then roll it in calcium powder. This is good as most of the elephants are old and need the help. The rice balls are for the old elephants as they loose their teeth around the age of 60 and in the wild they would die of starvation but domestic elephants can live up to 80-100 years. We feed two elephants these balls and we can put it directly into their mouths, not just their trunks and it's so amazing. They have a newly built help Centre here which means that the weak elephants can stand with some support. Elephants are so heavy that if they are weak, if they sit down they won't be able to stand back up, so they sleep resting against a tree. Which is exhausting! The help centre allows them to take the weight off and sleep easier. There is also a place to wash elephants feet. Because they were used to log, their feet were cut and infected, having such a heavy weight in sore toes is really painful so they give some of the elephants a foot bath everyday to help these wounds! We then went to watch a few short clips in the learning centre. One was a German advert for rolls and made a joke about elephants memory. The next was a song about Chaing Beer, Chaing is elephant in Thai. Then there was one about elephants memory and their hippocampus size being so big hence their memory because so great. It also told us that elephants mourn the death of lost members. Next we went down to plant some Bana grass, this takes a year to grow but the farmers then chop it (not removing the roots) down and from then on it grows and can be harvested 3 times a year. The elephants love this!! Next we learnt about the food elephants eat, they eat around 400pounds of food per day but only digest around 40% of this so their poo is really good for farmers and seed dispersion. Finally we walked down to the river again where we were given a chance to wash and swim with the elephants. We got right in with buckets of water then the elephants sprayed us. Tom was throwing water over me but i didn't mind. We washed them with brooms and then he a water fight with my new friends. I had a great day. My favourite part was washing them for sure!! And also getting to be so close to them and watching them have fun in the mf baths. What an amazing day. I got a taxi home and was home around 7. I decided to pack my bags and go straight to sleep as I had an early flight in the morning. I messaged Valentino and he is going to share a taxi with me.