Riding Elephants

Possibly one of the most fun things that we did while in Thailand was go on an elephant ride. Now this was not the 5 minute ride around a circle at the zoo! We were on the elephants for an hour. I must say that it was a lot different than I thought it would be. For one thing, they are HUGE (which means you are really high up). And then, they move with much more jerky motions than I thought they would. In fact, you will notice in some of the pictures we are using umbrellas to shade us from the sun and others we are not. Now it was sunny and hot for the whole trip, but I was often making a choice that I would rather hold on well to Tori and the umbrella would just not be a safe addition! In fact when we went down the first hill, I was unprepared with how steep it would be and hoped and prayed that Tori would not slip out and off the seat! But probably the most amazing thing was that midway through the trip I turned around to see Becca riding bareback where the guide normally sits. She rode that way for 15-20 minutes. She described the elephant as "having really prickly hair and that it felt weird when it moved under her."

As we were riding, Andy's elephant kept sneezing (on me). The guide says that they do this when they are hot. So I can now say that I have been sneezed on by an elephant and licked by a camel.

At the end of the trip, we went through a small river. As the elephant went deeper, Tori began to get worried. She called out to the elephant, "Okay, elephant, that is deep enough!"

Look at our girl!