Elizabeth and the Elephants

My sister-in-law Elizabeth came to visit me this past weekend. Unfortunately, I had to work for much of the time that she was here, so while she saw plenty of Thailand, I was not able to tag along and take photos on my camera. However, we did make it out to the Pattaya Elephant Village on Saturday (along with my friend Isabel) for a fantastic day of elephant riding and so much more.

Our "combo package" included a one hour elephant ride, followed by a "jungle trek," visit to the silk house where we saw silk being spun from the coccoons of silk worms and woven into cloth, a boat ride, an oxcart ride back to the village and then lunch and a show with traditional Thai dancing and a display of sword fighting. Tourism is down a bit right now (no surprise there, if you've followed any of the recent headlines about Thiland) and we were the ONLY people on the tour. I'll admit it was a bit surreal to have all of this hooplah just for us, but we felt like VIPs and quickly embraced it.

Ever since my first trip to Africa I have admired elephants, and loved the opportunity to get this up close and personal with a few of them. They're amazing creatures. And while I would much prefer to not have elephants kept in captivitiy like this, I do appreciate the work the Pattaya Elephant Village is doing (they don't make the elephants paint or play soccer or anything like that).

My other brother and his family are coming to Thailand next week, and you can be sure that a day with these elephants is now on their agenda as well.

Happy Holidays!