This another Thailand post which I am moving from my old blog (from Jan 2009)…

In the Khao Sok jungle on Monday, after lunch, we had the fantastic opportunity to take part in a 1.5 hour jungle trek, on the back of an elephant!  I have never even touched an elephant before, so sitting on the back of one with a Thai ‘driver’ sat in front of me was a pretty exciting experience.

We were taken on the trek by the Elephant Hills elephant school, which looks after the elephants, runs guided tours through the jungle and provides food for visiting tourists.  The school is literally in the middle of nowhere and consists of a collection of small huts where the staff live, a ‘restaurant’ where the tourist food is cooked and the elephant living area where the animals live whist they wait to be ridden.

The school had a special mounting platform which was used to get everyone in to the seats, so getting on their backs was as easy as getting on a ride at the fun fair.

The trek itself was amazing.  We did not see any other animals, however, we wondered through some amazing scenery in a convoy of elephants.  Our particular elephant must have been very hungry as he stopped for food every 5 minutes, however it was funny to watch the driver unsuccessfully struggling with it and trying to get it to stroll forward.

After a nice round trip we arrived back at the elephant school where we given a bowl of (slightly rotten) fruit to feed to the elephants.  It was great fun to have a banana sucked out of our hands by which ever trunk managed to reach it first!