Elephants!

Elephants have been the highlight so far of our Thanksgiving trip to Southeast Asia, including the Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp and Resort in Northern Thailand. I've always wanted to see elephants in a more natural environment than a zoo (most of which seem such sad places to me) so what better place than a resort that provides a home to rescued Thai elephants?

I signed the munchkin and me up for an elephant “mahout training” experience, and while I'll have a full review of this later, here are a few preview photos of our elephant experience.

Somehow I'd assumed that since my son is only 6, there would be a mahout on the elephant with him. Instead, the mahouts helped him up onto the elephant, but he was up there on this enormous elephant by himself:

Along with us was a Thai couple, who were also learning to ride elephants for the very first time. We took this group photo:

Of course, no elephant experience would be complete without giving the elephants a bath, so we duly rode them into the water, which they clearly relished:

And not only did they have a bath–they (especially my mischevious elephant) loved giving us showers as well! I got completely drenched about 20 times, while the munchkin looked on and giggled: