Mae Sa Elephant Camp -- FANTASTIC!!!

After visiting Tiger Kingdom (and Zachary getting bitten by a baby tiger), our next stop was the Mae Sa Elephant Camp. Zachary wanted to write the blog entry for our day with the elephants. He asked me to edit it. I found very few mistakes. Here are his thoughts:

We first fed the elephants and while we did that an elephant put a hat on and off my head. Then that elephant stole all of my food. The elephants like to eat small pieces of sugar cane and lady finger bananas. They sell bundles of bananas and sugar cane real cheap so people can feed the baby elephants. The baby elephant takes a small bundle of sugar cane pieces in his trunk and puts it into his mouth and crushes the sugar cane to get lots of sweet juice. Then he spits out the hard sugar cane. When we fed them bananas the elephants would eat the whole banana including the peelings. The elephant that took all my food ate the whole bunch of bananas at once. He must have been really hungry.

After we finished feeding the baby elephants we took an elephant ride on a big one for 30 minutes. Elisabeth said it was her dream come true to get to ride an elephant. At the last 5 minutes the elephant gave us and himself a bath when he walked across a small river.

Then we went to eat in the elephant place and I had a feast of fried rice. Tu-tu ate green papaya salad that was so hot she said it took the top layer off her tongue and the inside of her mouth. But she kept eating it! I wouldn't have. Papa and Elisabeth ate food that was not spicy.

After that we went to the elephant show and the first act was some elephant acrobatics like in a circus.

Next we saw the elephants play soccer! Two elephants kicked huge soccer balls and another elephant played goalie in front of a big net. One of the elephants could drop-kick the soccer ball! He did that several times. They only made one goal. At the end of the soccer game the elephant that drop-kicked the ball went up near the goal and did a sideways kick into the goal net. Then he bowed and walked out of the show area.

After that we saw the elephants make paintings! The trainer of each elephant placed an easel with a large blank canvas in front of his elephant. Then he put paints and brushes on the ground in front of the elephant. The trainer (mahout) would hold up a paintbrush with paint on it and the elephant would take the paintbrush and hold it in its trunk and paint a picture. Two of the elephants made simple brush strokes all over the canvas with several colors of paint. All the other elephants painted real pictures just like a human might paint. Some of the elephants painted pictures of flowers or trees and one elephant painted a picture of himself! I don't know how that elephant could draw an elephant picture with the brush! The mahouts did not help the elephants at all. The elephants painted all by themselves.

After the show was over we bought 4 paintings then took a taxi back to the hotel. We did not buy the squiggly line paintings. We bought the flower painting and the elephant painting. BeBe and I bought pretty paintings for our families. It will be cool to have a painting painted by an elephant that we watched. Tu-tu had her photo taken with the elephants that painted the pictures she bought. Elisabeth and I also had our photo taken with the elephant that painted one of the pictures.

When we got back to the hotel we went swimming in a small swimming pool outside on the third floor of the hotel. It was pink! None of us had ever seen a pink swimming pool.

That night we all went to a Mexican food restaurant for dinner. We rode in a tuk-tuk and I got to sit in the front next to the driver on a little seat. The other tuk-tuks we rode in Bangkok did not have a little seat like this in front next to the driver. When we walked inside the restaurant Elisabeth and I told Papa that it smelled just like back home. The food was too spicy for Elisabeth but I liked my food. I had a huge soft chicken taco that had a big butt full of lettuce and chicken. It was too big to pick up and Papa cut it in half for me. BeBe ate that half like a salad. Then I had a huge chicken burrito. I wanted to eat the whole thing but Tu-tu would only let me eat half of it. She said it was too big to eat the whole thing but I know I could have done it.

Then we got a pick-up truck taxi back to the hotel. The taxi driver got lost twice even though Papa gave him a map. The taxi drivers don't speak English. It started raining when we got out of the taxi at the hotel.

Think this should be Zach's new haircut?


(Note by Judy. Here are a few photos. I have some cute videos of the elephants that will be added later. Think this should be Zach's new haircut?)