There was a puppy at our hotel in Kanchanaburi.
She was brand new.
And really fluffy.
And so very cute.
So Kerri stalked her.
She tried to scare Kerri away by being ferocious.
But Kerri wasn’t scared.
She has petted hungry tigers after all.
So there is no way a little ball of fluff that falls on its back when you push it with your pinkie finger was going to scare her off.
Elephants have big eyes.
And long eyelashes to keep the dust and sand and flies out.
They have swishy tails with hair at the ends to brush away the flies.
And big feet with big toenails.
Sometimes the boys give the girls backrubs. At least that’s what the guide told the young children next to us. This boy is much too young to be giving the girls backrubs, but he tries every day anyway.
The elephants like to scratch against trees.
It appears to be very satisfying.
The younger ones lie down to rest, but most of the elephants in the retirement home don’t because they won’t be able to get back up again.
The elephants spray themselves with dust to use as sunscreen.
It is hard to get everything covered.
This is the only picture of both of us with an elephant.
After breakfast in the morning we walked Gai Na out into the forest for dessert. On a leash.
Because if she decided she didn’t want to come the leash would have made a big difference.
Gai Na is 55 years old and used to work in logging and trekking camps before her mahout brought her to Elephants World to retire.
She eats watermelons whole.
She bent down so Kerri could sit in her lap. Kerri got beaten by her flapping ears. They are surprisingly hard.
She was a very cheeky elephant. Her mahout wanted her to eat the trees on the right side of the street. There was a farm with crops on the left. She kept sneaking across the street to snack on the weeds at the edge of the garden. But as soon as he looked away she went and pulled out the good stuff. Her mahout yelled and tossed a pebble at her. Which she probably didn’t even feel through her thick skin. But she backed off and came back to the right side of the road.
After everyone else left we walked Kammoon out into the forest so that she could eat all night.
But she didn’t want to go into the forest and kept sneaking snacks off of the side of the path.
She is an old retired working elephant but she was just like a toddler that didn’t want to go to bed.
And kept dawdling and sneaking snacks.
Kerri got to ride the elephants in the water.
She climbed on.
And then edged up toward the neck.
Because the neck is the strongest part of the elephant.
Sitting anywhere else hurts their back.
So this is proper elephant riding position.
Then she got showered in elephant snot.
And then the elephant bucked and twisted to shake Kerri off.
One of them bucked so hard that Kerri flew head over heals into the water, but we didn’t get that on camera.
All we got is the splash.
It was a lot of fun.
