Today is the day I had thought to go back to Bangkok, but based on the fact it was the day I had the chance to go to the elephant sanctuary, it's what I am doing!
After enjoying the hostel breakfast, I got on the van, and we made our way to the sanctuary.
The sanctuary rescues work elephants and elephants that have been used for tourism, as well as ones that have been injured by land mines in the Myanmar and Cambodia borders.
Unfortunately, a lot of people are still unaware of how the elephants are trained to entertain people and be ridable - it is a very brutal torture/brainwashing effort, and so it takes a lot for them to recover from this ordeal.
We started off by feeding the elephants at the main house area, and then went on a walk through the sanctuary park, getting to meet the different elephants and be told of their stories.
It was quite sad seeing elephants with legs that have been blown up by land mines, and seeing the scars.
On the way to the land mine casualty, I spotted a snake, though it was too fast to photograph - the ur guide advised that it had been one of the more poisonous ones in the area, so it's probably good that I announced I'd seen it!
We got to meet a lot of rescue dogs at this point, who all had mobility boxes so that they could walk, after having lost their legs through various accidents.
We continued on the walk, and headed to near the river - where we could see there was a group of tourists riding elephants, oblivious to the work of the sanctuary.
Here we got to meet some elephant calves, and had to keep out of the way as they approached, in case the mothers got nervous!
We headed back to the main house area and enjoyed a hearty buffet lunch, before heading to the river to wash the elephants in the river.
We may have been too efficient, or the elephant detected the bananas that were arriving however, as the washing didn't last long and she made a beeline for the feeding!
After this we all headed back to the van for the drive back.