Today we had the grand experience of riding an elephant. We had requested setting up an elephant ride for us as I had this totally inaccurate perception that all Indians have ridden elephants and that it is as common as riding a horse in the U.S. As of today, Philip is one of the only Indians in his family to have ridden an elephant.
This was an exciting adventure that began with an early morning trek to a State Park Reserve where they train elephants for logging, to participate in festivals and processions, to socialize them with humans and for the occasional movie role. We got up close to pet and take photos of several elephants of all sizes. They dined on coconut palm leaves as we watched them. Philip and I rode an adult female elephant together. Her name was Priyadarshini and she was huge and had small tusks! We removed our shoes and Philip boarded first. Priya had a coir rope doubled round her neck and Philip wrapped his bare feet into the rope—no saddle. I climbed on behind him and held on very tight around his waist. Once we got settled, Priya was led slowly around the camp and up and down hills. Philip’s mom stood away taking many photos and trying to contain her nerves. When we reached a ditch that we had to cross, I could only refer to experiences on a horse where the horse would take a solid leap across the ditch. Fortunately, Priya did not leap, but just took a nice soft step over the ditch. One small step for Priya, one giant leap for a horse. Whew! When we got off, we spent some time thanking the individuals who led us around the park and gave Priya a nice pat on the trunk. We had to let her get another drink of water before the next 2 individuals boarded.
No comments:
Post a Comment