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| With our friends Dieter and Rena Stoltze from Germany, the four of us had a wonderful day near Lampang being trained as Thai elephant mahouts. We learned to get all the way up on to our new friend (David's elephant Jan Pen was a lovely 53-year-old female weighing perhaps 7,000 pounds, and a LONG WAY UP); give the right commands at the right time; go into the jungle for food; and go into the water to take a bath ("Just hold on to the ears and lean back" says our trainer, but who can lean back when the elephant is lurching forward down a steep embankment into the water?). All in all, it was a terrific, memorable day for all of us. (Janet learned to board her elephant by having it lean down, run towards the head, jump as high as she could, then have her mahout boost her up the rest of the way.) |
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