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| He is saying Hello ("Sawwadi Krab") |
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| Janet enjoys playing with the girl from Udorn and her elephant |
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| Elephant as artist, drawing what she knows best... |
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| Elephants on parade, the one in the middle playing a drum |
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| This is the elephant wounded by a land mine; how sad! She will be cared for in the hospital for the rest of her life. |
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| One of two babies at the center. This one is about 7 months old. |
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| Janet & the baby say a happy "Hello" to one another |
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| Here we are on Somboon, riding through the jungle under the mahout's voice command |
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| The country's largest center for the care and training of elephants is located between Lampang and Chiang Mai. They had about 68 "chang" in residence on the day we visited, ranging from Somboon whom we rode (aged 55, formerly working in the logging industry) to a baby only 3 months old. We saw elephants bathing and playing in the river, guided in part by their mahouts (mostly farangs) who were half-way through their three-day training course. One of them was a cute 10-year-old Thai girl from the Northeast; another was a woman from Tennessee and her grown daughter, being treated to the training session as her birthday gift. The farang mahouts also participated in the show. We visited the elephant hospital where one sad sight was an elephant from Burma whose right front leg had been injured by a land mine. While some of the events were pretty touristy, overall it's a great setting, especially when we road on Somboon through the nearby jungle and our mahout dismounted to take photos of us high up in the air while giving voice commands to Somboon. It turns out that Somboon is afraid of dogs and cars, and would refuse to move ahead when either were nearby. |
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