Riding an elephant

‘You can now all enter the water and swim with the elephants,’ the tour guide said just as a large piece of elephant poo floated to the surface of the water. I hesitated for a moment but then thought when would I again get to swim with an elephant and a large piece of poo. So I dived in head first, not really I moved cautiously through the water and climbed up on top of the elephant with the trainer. I scrubbed the elephant with a brush while sitting on top of the elephant which was sitting in the shallow water.

Prang did not enter the water and was hardly watching the elephants, she was too distracted watching the Eastern European men in their tight bathers. Following the half an hour or so spent in the water we walked back to the camp and were assigned an elephant each.  Our guide like most of the guides was Cambodian although he could communicate enough in Thai for Prang to have a conversation with him.

I am not sure if he felt sorry for her for having to spend time with me or whether he just didn’t feel like riding the elephant because after only ten minutes he got off and let Prang sit on the neck of the elephant and take charge.

For the rest of the ride our guide became our personal photograph taking almost one hundred photos in the hour.  At one point I rode on the neck of the elephant and could feel its muscles and bones move as it walked.

I enjoyed the ride and so did Prang and thanks to our guide we had many great photos to keep and share.