Elephant Riding In Thailand

We got up one morning to find out that Dad and Mom were going to take us to an elephant camp!

So we all got in our car, one of us had to ride in the trunk, and drove 8 km to the camp. We drove past two other elephant camps before we found Thom’s.

They have four elephants and they are all females. One of them has tusks and was super big compared to the others. Elisha and I rode that one. Elephants have very bristly hair and it rubs against your legs and hurts a lot! They are also very smart. They play soccer, they paint, they swim and lots more!

We got to feed and play with the elephants before we left to go on the trail.

The people who take care of the elephants chopped up banana leaves and stalks and gave them to us to give to the elephants. One elephant picked Ezra up to get a piece! And then the trainers taught us how to get the elephants to swing us around. After a while one of the elephants started to toss us towards the banana leaves to make us get her some food!!! It was a lot of fun.

Finally the guides told us to get on the elephants. Mine and Elisha’s guide told the elephant to put his leg up and then told us to hold the bottom of the ear. We did and the elephant helped by lifting his leg to boost us up to his back were we scrambled up to the middle of his back. Elisha had it good, he got the neck. I got the back bone. It was a painful ride for me.

We went through fields and woods till we reached a little river. The guide told us to take off the blanket that they had put on each elephant and then the elephant waded out into the water. The elephants lay down in the water and we got off. The first exciting thing that happened was that the elephants pooped! It was gross, but a small price for what happened next.

The guides told me to get on an elephants back and so I did. Then one of the guides said something in thai and the elephant started shaking his head. I was flung off into the water pretty quickly needless to say! When I came up coughing and sputtering  I found I was being laughed at, and then I looked around and saw Ezra and Hannah both doing the same thing I had just failed at. I laughed too. Hannah and Dad were the best of us all. Ezra thought he was, but he was not. Elisha and I both knew we were the worst. We tried though. Mom thinks she may have cracked a rib while doing that.

After half an hour or so we got on our elephants again and rode back to the camp. When we got there we had lunch and fed the elephants again, watched the videos that a lady who worked at the camp had taken of us and laughed at ourselves. Then we played soccer with the elephants again.

When we were done we soaked in a hot spring to get the elephant stuff off of us.

It was the best day of the trip.