My mom thinks maybe I was on an elephant once when I was a little kid at a Circus or something... but I don't remember it...
A couple weeks ago, we went for an elephant ride with a few friends! We weren't actually planning to go, because we thought we would do a real elephant trek during our trip to Thailand... but we don't know when/if that's going to happen, so we seized this opportunity!
It was a blast! Mostly because of the motley crew that we were... with Sari being our fearless, yet fashion-full leader! When we arrived at her house, she ushered us into her closet to 'dress up' for our elephant experience... she had just arrived home from Jakarta, which meant she had been shopping for elephant-riding outfits - matching, of course! For Martin and I, t-shirts that said "love him forever"// "love her forever"... awwww so cute! And sun-dresses for the three ladies.
Dressed in style, we met our 'rides' for the next couple hours...
... and we were off!
Elephants are not native to the island of Bali. The elephants at this site are orphans which are rescued from dire conditions in Sumatera, and brought here to 'recover'. Without an undercover investigation, I obviously couldn't confirm... but each Mahout (elephant driver/carer) really has a tight bond with 'their' elephant, and they seem happy enough - who wouldn't be happy living in Bali!?!
Luckily our elephants behaved themselves - unlike these poor folks!
The "Elephant Camp" actually also had several other orphans on-site:
A baby bear from Sumatera
And a Javanese Gibbon...
Martin couldn't help but notice the similarity in the size of the elephant dung and a soccer ball!
After our elephant experience, we went back to Sari's palace to play some more! The attempts on the tandem bicycle were ultimately successful...
... and we played in the pool, which was delightfully cool (because of the higher altitude, i guess)...
It was just a fabulous day!
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