Chiang MAI: Elephants

I will preface this post by saying that I never have, and never plan to, take quite so many photographs of elephants. (And if you find yourself in need of any kind of photograph of elephant, please, tell me.)
Here we go.

 Here I am! Riding an elephant! (We have a print that the company took of us with the full shot of the elephant and the two of us; I totally caved and bought it! There's not yet a digital copy of it, but when there is, rest assured that you will see it.)

 We went in the river, and in the jungle. Those elephants sure do rock from side to side when they walk. When we first started riding, we were gripping that bar pretty tightly.

 On the way back from the elephant ride, we got to ride . . . a cart pulled by oxen.

 The driver was too funny and said something like, "We stop now. Take picture." He was pretty camera happy. Thus my skeptical looks.

 We weren't sure which ride was more jolting . . .

Then we snuck over to the cages and played around with the elephants. I'm in love . . . I want one.

 The little babies were playful, but they were terribly strong. We would grab their trunk, and they would grab right back and pull. Even the babies were stronger than full grown men!

 Also, they have that coarse skin from young age too! Elephants are totally bizarre animals.

 There was also an elephant show.  Apparently they like to eat bananas . . . whole. 

And in case you were wondering how to mount an elephant, you've got a couple options. Climb up the back leg, or, 

Just climb up the tusks.

They did a bunch of tricks, and danced, and earned plenty of bananas and sugar cane from the audience. They also painted!!!

Can you guess what she's painting?

 Yes, you can believe your eyes.

 This elephant is painting . . . an elephant.

It's better than any elephant I've ever painted. Apparently she's been working on it for five years!

 These were all the other pieces. I could have bought one for $30, but figured the memory was valuable enough.

 They also played soccer, which means they could drop kick the ball. Hilarious.

They came up so close!

And guess what . . . we're going to need a part two. Stay tuned.