What a lovely weekend we had! The Elephant Festival in Surin, Thailand, was even better than expected. I remember having seen something about it on American TV once.

Apparently, the people of Surin are famous for capturing and training elephants . They say the Asian elephants are much easier to train and more docile than the African ones.

There were elephants (and elephant poop) everywhere!!! I'm guessing maybe 200 of them. In the streets offering rides, sneaking up behind you, in the roads and paths so you had to move out of their way or get stepped on. Touts constantly were pestering you to buy 20 baht worth of sugar cane or bananas to feed the elephants.(Yes, of course I did. What did you expect?) There was a carnival atmosphere with all kinds of food, games, rides, souvenirs, and a John Deere tracator display (?) .

We stayed at a sleezy but adequate hotel, The New Hotel, which is right, and I mean RIGHT ,next door to the railway station. Very convenient until they start making announcements over the loudspeaker and your bed starts chattering across the room as the train takes off.

The people in Surin seemed a lot friendlier and spoke more English . I got up early on Sunday morning and after a few false starts was able to find a shop that sold Joak, that rice porridge that is so good. We encountered several people who helped us along the way - a lovely Thai man who had spent several years in America pointed us toward the stadium, a sophisticated Thai lady whose perfect English came from teaching in Buffalo, New York, (I literally bought a Thai silk scarf off her body), and an American executive for Hanes underware who spoke perfect Thai as he had been living there for 7 years. He directed us to the appropriate ticket booth. Interestingly, you go to different ticket booths according to the level of ticket you wish to purchase - standing tickets (40 B - $1) at one entrance, cheap seats (300B, $9) at another, better seats (500B, $15) on the opposite side of the stadium. By sheer dumb luck, we got seats on the Eastern side with the sun behind us, it appeared as those opposite us were broiling in the bright sunlight.

The show itself lasted about 3 hours and was complete with a mock battle on elephants, a 5 act show about the history of catching elephants and the King's white elephant, an elephant soccer match, elephants playing tug of war with first 60 Thais, then 60 foreigners, elephants dancing, throwing darts, and painting pictures. There was Thai music and ethnic dancing, fireworks, and beautiful costumes. One announcer (he may have been American) spoke in English and a Thai announcer repeated it in Thai so everyone was able to enjoy the show completely.

This is definately an event to add to your "1000 things to do before I die" list. Hope you enjoy my pictures.