Elephant Camp

Well, here we are, safe and sound back in the States.  It seems unreal that only 2 er 3 weeks ago (takes me awhile to put together a post these days, real life dontcha know.) we were in Asia.  ASIA!!! So far away now.  And as I sit here, and look out the window, instead of palm trees and heat there is snow, and freezing cold.  Apparently it has "warmed up" significantly, from unbearable to just the normal freezing variety of cold.  Good thing too, because I'm cold enough!!  However, we still have lots of photos to share and I think you will enjoy seeing our photos of the elephants.

 After the Bamboo rafting adventure we saw an elephant show.  This little elephant was our favorite.  All the elephants were trained to bow but she did it whenever she felt like it.  She would just do this little bow and make a little sound randomly during the show.  She was perky!

 The elephants showed us the inside of their mouths! Big molars!

They need them too, because we got to feed them and they will just take a whole bunch of bananas and stuff it into their mouths.  Also sugar cane and corn on the cob.  With the corn though, they don't like the husk so they will husk it themselves before they eat it.  We also saw some talents these pachyderms have:

Suda painting.

That's right, I said pachyderms.  There is a first time for everything!  And yes, elephants can paint!  Their trainer gives them the brushes and they know the order of things and what to do.  Very clever I say!  Matt's mom bought the painting so if you are interested and in the area of.........Utah.... you could see it :D.  I can't paint an elephant like Suda can!

They can also play football, er, soccer that is. So confusing, one sport having more than one name.

We took an oxcart ride.

It looks so cool but its kind of boring.  The scenery was nice though.  Now I understand a little bit what it might feel like for those people on the Oregon Trail.  That would be quite the adventure going all the way out west in a wagon.  No thanks!  I prefer those newfangled machines they call cars.

Aren't they way more fabulous than our cows back home?

However, I wouldn't pass up an opportunity to ride one of these on a long journey:

So cool!  Matt said he was uncomfortable, we had to sit in the basket and the elephant dude sat where Matt is sitting in the photo.  I didn't find the basket uncomfortable in the least, but that's because it's built for us normal sized folk, not super tall giants like Matt.

We got to ride in the river.  That was my favorite bit.  We don't have a picture of us in the river, but check out these folks we met:

Matt's parents cruising along!

I think they have the picture of us riding the elephant in the river. :)  That concluded our elephant ride!

After seeing all those elephants, you are probably wondering this " So Lazuli, what do they do with all the elephant excrement?"  I knew it!  After all it's a totally natural question.  Elephants are huge so it stands to reason...uh...anyways.  Well, never fear, the people at the camp have come up with an eco-friendly solution. 

 The process is explained above but they use DRY materials.  Then they put the pulp in these screens:

I will admit it looks gross.

 And then they set the screens out to dry in the sun.

And there you have it, elephant poo paper!  It's a pretty neat way to get paper I must say, and saves the trees too! (You need those to grow food for the elephants so you can make paper down the line.)  If anyone is interested in purchasing their own elephant poo paper I think that I have seen journals made from it at Barnes and Noble.  Just in case you are curious.

As we left  we saw the parking garage:

We aren't in Kansas anymore!

 Then it was off to the next adventure.