Off to the elephants!

22nd October 2018:

At half past seven, it was time to get up. Have breakfast and already I had to be ready. Shortly after 8 they were already there. Since it had been raining heavily since yesterday, he asked me if I wanted to postpone the excursion to tomorrow. I had already extended my stay in Chiang Mai by one day. So no. Carry on today! At least it was only drizzling. And then it actually stopped. We were happy.

There was only one other man besides me. The guide first told a few things about the elephants. Like how to feed them. A little instruction. Equipped with sugar beets, we started. Either put them in the trunk or hold them directly in front of the elephant's eye and into the mouth. Most of the time we fed them behind the fence. They followed you in the enclosure. The guides found that too dangerous. Then we were allowed to make balls out of sticky rice, some fruit, and salt. The elephants don't like this 'medicine'. So, as a coating for the rice. As compensation for tricking them, we also got a banana. Then the guide told a general story about the elephants. They have feelings just like humans. They are smart and show their feelings with their tail and ears. Then we were allowed to spray and brush an elephant in pairs.

Lunch. Trekking to the waterfall. It was five km there and back. We walked on many unpaved paths. Then we swam in the water. Then rafting. That was also a lot of fun. Our guide was simply the best. He spoke great English and asked a lot of questions as well as talked a lot about personal stuff. I exchanged emails with the other tourist since we had taken pictures of each other with the action cam.

Dinner was at the Coconut Shell restaurant. In the evening, I wanted to continue with my blog. However, the notebook spent the next four hours updating. It stalled at 98%. I just turned it off. A big mistake. When I restarted it, it only accepted my password after a few attempts. It hardly worked at all. Clicking did nothing, it only wanted to do a few things with the keyboard. Annoyed, I shut it down. I'll just have to deal with it for the next few days.

Videos of the elephants:

https://youtu.be/A8NL0Mwe2ZU

https://youtu.be/3aa1m9PUDhQ

https://youtu.be/B8t5JcEc0XU

https://youtu.be/2VzYjAVLEJg