Sunday, April 19, 2009

Let's Ride An Elephant In Sri Lanka

We piled back in our bus with the fringe on top and headed a bit down the mountain to a place where for the right price you can ride an elephant. Remembering how the man at the Elephant Orphanage did it we pumped up our courage, but there was absolutely no disappointment when many wanted to stop to buy cashews. Yeah, a short reprieve!

Now notice how this man sits. There is a natural place for one person. His knee fits perfectly between bony shoulder and bony back. Most of us rode double so the second guy is up on that sloping back bone. Easy to slide off even when you don't want to.
Think riding an elephant takes courage? First you have to cross a swinging, almost bridge.
We are holding on tight. Everytime I tried to take a picture the elephant handler got excited and jumped up and down until I had my fingers laced together.
Are we glad we did it? Of course. Is it fun? Somewhat but traveling through the jungle I would recommend a Land rover. An elephant has a side to side motion that you are not prepared to experience. Think a giant land ship. Even after only a short ride when you hit ground again you have a bit of the wobble knees like you get after being on a small boat at sea. Do we
recommend ridding an elephant? If you ever get a chance, go for it ! ! !
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3 comments:

KarenM said...

I love the pictures of the elephants. Glad you had a good Easter.

Jaime said...

G thinks it would feel weird to ride an elephant. He wants to know how the elephant felt and if you had a great time or not? He said he would never ride an elephant beause it might poop and that would stink.

joan said...

An elephant feels like a man's beard so they throw a mat across his back, but part way through the ride the mat slips a little and you hope to finish the ride before you slip too far to one side. About the other problem, elephants are very polite and they wait until you get off so it doesn't smell at all.