We so were so pleased to be able to have Grandma Sue come visit us for a couple weeks this month. We all so loved having her here. Of all the things we had planned for her time here, I think we all were most excited about visiting the elephant farm. Normally, that is something people do right away when they arrive. For various reasons we did not go, and then we just put it off again and again until we decided to just go ahead and wait for Grandma’s visit.
It was such fun, and if anyone wants to come see us, we will be happy to take you too!
The show starts off with the elephants taking a bath. Naturally, who wants to see dirty smelly pachyderms, right?
One of our favorite portions of the show was painting. Yes, the elephants can paint! We got such a kick out of seeing these great big beasts holding a paintbrush and gently tap tap tapping on the canvas. We still get giggles thinking about it.
can you barely see the small paintbrush in the trunk of the larger elephant? He seemed to concentrate so hard and then just painted in gentle little taps. Hilarious!
They also played soccer, gave a ‘massage’and had a dart throwing contest with an audience volunteer.
After the show we took a 1/2 hour ride. It was fun, but very bumpy. Leah and I rode together and she wondered out loud what you would do if you had to travel by elephant over any great distance. They are not exactly cheetahs you know.
Greg was able to converse a bit with his elephant driver, the mahout, who told him that each mahout has one elephant, and they will work with that elephant for life, their or the elephants. Wow, what a commitment.
Yes, it is rainy season, but those are really deep footprints!
Elephants are considered sacred and very important part of Thailand’s history. They were used in heavy manual labor, clearing forests and such, they were trained for battle, and according to tradition, each new king had to catch a baby elephant before assuming the throne.
During the Civil War, the King of Thailand wrote to President Lincoln and offered to send him some elephants to help him with the conflict.
Thank you Mom for treating us to a wonderful day at the elephant farm!
I think Elephants would probably have turned the tide for the Union at the first battle of Bull Run. Lincoln was short-sighted — Irvin McDowell (the Union Commander in that battle) could really have used those elephants to break the spirit of those Confederate scoundrels.
(Civil war trivia provided courtesy of Joshua.)
Hi there! You’ve got some amazing photos here! I found your site through an image search on elephants. Would it be ok for me to use one of your elephant photos in a Worth1000 comp? I don’t know if I’ll be able to get the image done in time, but if I do I will happily send you a copy. worth1000 (www.worth1000.com) is a photoshop competition site (competition for fun, not for money). Please let me know I’d really appreciate it if I could