Very early 5.45am alarm call so we can join the almsgiving for the local monks.

Sadly after waiting 30mins for the monk’s minibus, we got news that the vehicle had broken down, so they wouldn’t be able to make it. We then instigated Plan B, and a visit to the nearby monk college to offer our food to them instead.

Arriving at the monk college, we met with the youngest monks, two boys who were 14 and 11 and looked a little lost and unsure when we turned up!

After quickly finishing dishes to help receive our offerings of bananas, sticky rice and toothpaste (a bit random we admit) they kindly said a blessing for the gifts and we then got a chance to have a brief chat with the boys. Turns out they get up each morning at 3.30am, so they’d been up and about for a while when we rocked up.

We then briefly returned to the hotel for a quick abreakfast, before preparing for our main excursion of the day, a trip to the elephant sanctuary at Mandalao.

This was the trip we’d both been looking forward to and we weren’t disappointed. After a brief intro from the sanctuary guides we changed into the footwear provided and readied ourselves for a short boat trip to visit the elephants.

Our meeting with the elephants was incredible and life affirming. Whilst large in size, they are friendly (especially when food is on offer) and very playful as we saw when a mother and daughter went for a dip in the river. The following photos show a glimpse of our time with these wonderful elephants in their natural habitat.

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This morning has been a great experience and one we won’t forget in a long while.

Once we returned to the hotel and had showered & changed, we went for a wander around the local market looking for a gift for our daughter Amelia – good news we found some jewellery we think she’ll like when we see her in Bangkok in a few weeks time!

View of the city post Andy’s Thai foot massage, drinks at a French cafe and pizza at the street market. We had a fun time with our Aussie travel pal, Marc who joined us for dinner when we ended up chatting about a load of stuff, notably people’s profile colour – turns out Michelle is the lady in green!

Finally once back at the hotel we had an amusing hour with Marc and Ian, listening to music and reminiscing about the artists and our favourite tunes.

Tomorrow we start our travels again and pick up the high speed train to Vangvieng for some water sports action, hiking and if time permits some sun worshipping.