The holiday season is here and I'll soon post pics of our tropical Christmas, south of the equator! In honor of Thanksgiving, the elementary school hosted a crazy hat day. As you can see, a few of my kids are still camera shy.
From Maesa Elephant Camp, we drove west to Tiger Kingdom. Just as the name implies, it is stuffed with both baby and adult tigers for up-close interaction. Given the surroundings, I was expecting something a little more wild and natural but these guys were locked in chain-link cages and drugged into a stupor.
Thailand is famous for it's elephants. We went to Maesa Elephant Camp, located just north of Chiang Mai, to get a glimpse of these pachyderms close up. When we arrived, these guys were getting their regular river bath. Those people down below were the lucky ones in charge of catching the elephant poo downstream.
Once inside, we saw the elephants pull logs, paint, and play soccer. Afterwards, we got to hang out and feed the elephants. They are crafty!
This incident resulted in a crazy picture and a trail of elephant slobber running down the back of my hair. Luckily, Sondra had the clean-up covered. After this guy put the hat on my head, he took it back and patiently waited for me to deposit a tip in his trunk/ snout/ nostril. He was kind enough to wave thank you.
From the arena, we moved upstream and got to take these guys for a ride. The news frequently portrays the cruelty of keeping such animals in captivity and after riding along for awhile, it was quite evident that these guys were not treated like members of the family.
Was, our tour guide, took us to Wat Phra Singh next. Though smaller than the previous temple we visited (here), we still learned a lot from our visit to this opulent site.
