Would Clowey get along with a Baby Elephant?

Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Ayutthaya, Thailand
We had a fun day touring around Ayutthaya. Our Guest house is amazing, Cute , great price ( $21) and includes breakfast, and the sweetest owner/host that I have ever met on my travels. The town is walkable, but as the day hit noon,the temperature rose, and the some of the temples we wanted to visit were far away , so we rented a tuk-tuk for the day. They are cute ,miniature trucks that have benches in the back, and considered taxis around most of Thailand.
The temples reminded me of Angkor Wat, and lots of Beautiful Buddhas! I got lots of great pictures . Ahhhh, then the Elephants :)
There are many Elephant farms in Thailand, but the ones up North are more based on the conservation of the Elephants, more than making money on taking people on rides, so we visited the Elephant Kraal, where you can actually stay at like a home stay and feed , bathe, and take care of the Elephants. There were three baby Elephants on our visit!
You pay $1.50, and you can take as many pictures as you want, and feed and touch them as well . You can buy a basket of cucumbers to feed them for 50 cents. The larger Elephants mostly had chains on one of their feet, otherwise they would wander off I suppose, but the Baby Elephants, were running free, and as long as you didn't feed them ( they were still nursing) you could go up to them, but there was this one baby , only a month old, that had a big curiosity in me, and kept coming up to me, rubbing against me, and sticking his truck up my dress! So funny! Johanna was laughing so hard! It was so hard to leave that place, we could of stayed all day.
That night was our overnight sleeper train to Chiang Mai. The sleeper beds were hard to book, and were completely sold out except for two top bunk on the opposite side of the train car, but in the same compartment. They looked fine, clean, enough room,so we each picked a bed, and found a place to sit and have a Singha Beer before turning in for the night. It wasn't more than 5 minutes when Johanna showed up at the foot of my bunk with a horrified look on her face."Their are roaches all over my backpack...! " Which was in her bunk of course at the time. Not a good way to start the night. "No other bunks..." our train attendant told us, " It fine, have another Beer" Johanna was not going to sleep in that bunk, so I invited her to share mine with me. We were not sure how we were going to both fit in there , but were ready to give it a try when a nice Japanese couple offered to share their bunk together and give her one of theirs....how sweet, and they being half the size of us, a much more comfortable nights sleep.
The rest of the night was fine, Johanna never showed up again on the end of my bunk, I never saw any Bugs in my Bed ,but knowing that those roaches were around,I slept in my silk sleep sack ( Thanks Maureen!!!)
We are now in Chiang Mai...and its off to spend some time with the Tigers ...I know Clowey would not be having that at all :) ( Clowey is my daughters cat for all of you who don't know, she lives with me now, well actually Sara's awesome boyfriend while I'm on my journey! So no baby Elephants and Baby Tigers are allowed to come home with me :)
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Comments

marinamason
2010-01-20

The baby elephants are sooooo cute! Guess they did not do bug out on the train. Must tell Ken to book a new companyha! ha! Love your dress and headband- your signature look from Thailand. Enjoy a singh for me!

Bonnie
2010-01-20

I am loving this.........awww those baby elephants. Beth you are an excellent narrarator to!(spelling) love all the beautiful photos too.

worldtravler79
2010-01-20

OMG....roaches! There were roaches on my train to Laos too...my seat partner laughed at me for being scared...slept with one eye open that night. Loved the pictures!! You look so happy! Who doesn't love a baby elephant?

2025-02-06

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