Thailand with kids (Part Four)- Swimming with Elephants!

Our last stop on our day tour from Bangkok was an elephant camp near the border with Burma. I have never really been into just riding on an elephant, but I figured that the chance to the bathe in the river with them would really appeal to the kids (indeed!). And it is the kind of thing D and I had never done before. I read a lot about elephant camps in Asia before we went, and it appeared to me that these elephants were well treated, but of course, I don't really know.

We started off with a walk around the camp. I worried that all that gear plus two of us was too much for the elephants. The scenery was beautiful. Our guide took a million photos for us during the day and I am so grateful for that.

Next, we changed into our bathing suits and went down to the river. That was a little scary because we had nothing to hold onto and just had to lean forward and rest our hands on the elephant's wide head. My legs still hurt from the effort of holding on as tight as I could.

We each had our own elephant and trainer (mahout) except that L was too afraid to ride by herself at first. We rode together down to the river and before long, she was having a ball on her own.

Very proud of herself!

We all got wet as the elephants sprayed us. Then the mahouts started telling the elephants to lie down and we climbed onto their trunks and played around like that. It was so much fun.

'My' elephant lay down in the water and let me wash her a bit.

Such a special day. My kids want to do it again next time (I don't know about that...)! I hope that the elephants are living a good life there.