Elephant Nature Park

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If you have been living in a cave and did not read the previous post, we have added new pics have been added to picasa. We found it easier to upload all of our pics all at once, so check out part 1 and part 2 for our updated pics.

The day I have been waiting for has finally arrived! Time to feed and bathe the elephants! Waking up early in the morning, I could hardly contain my enthusiasm for this exciting day. After breakfasting on homemade yogurt, muesli and fresh fruit, I was ready to rock and roll for a wonderful day at the Elephant National Park. The park is on a 50 acre lot surrounded by mountains and greenery. After meeting all 36 elephants in the park, we got a warm greeting with an elephant kiss from one of the younger males. It was like sticking a huge snotty suction cup to your face, but it was an awesome experience to be that close to an incredibly strong animal. We fed an elephant name Mae with pumpkin squash, bananas and corn on the cob. She was one of the older elephants who liked to savor her food. It took a good 45 minutes to hand feed her the laundry basket of food as we got to pet her trunk. Then it was lunch time for the volunteers. Oh my! There was an amazing spread of glorious food laid out in front of us! It was like a Hogwarts feast! There were at least 8 different types of dishes, rice, fresh fruit and French fries (of all things French fries, but they were good!). After filling up our bellies with delicious Thai food it was time to bathe the elephants. We got our buckets and followed the elephants into the river nearby to give them a good rinse. The elephants didn’t care too much for the bath; they instead wanted to roll around in the mud to cool off from the heat. It was a good thing the tour guides got all of us up into the wooden platforms to watch the elephants play time because they got pretty rowdy out there. Apparently there’s a love triangle going on among the elephants. A young girl elephant is the center of attention as one of the male elephants performs his daily attempt to copulate with her, but here comes her boyfriend plus her entire elephant family trying to protect her honor. They storm after the persistent suitor with their trumpets sounding. What a fun sight to see! After returning from the elephant reserve, Adam and I cleaned up to get ready for a night of Muay Thai boxing. It is one of the best forms of live entertainment. There were many categories of boxers, from 100 pounds to 135 pounds, ages ranging from what looked like 13 to 27. There was even an entertaining fight among a group of four boxers. The four boxers all were blindfolded and thrown into the ring together. You could imagine what happens next. The referee kept getting mistaken for a fighter as all of the boxers whaled on him with huge punches to the face and kicks to the gut. Too funny! It’s amazing to see the different fighting strategies and how the boxers apply the fighting techniques I learned in my kickboxing aerobics class in action.

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