03.20.10
Elephants and Crocodiles
Since I seem to be following a pattern of alternating travelogue pics with miscellaneous posts, I guess it’s time for some travelogue pics. . .
So continuing on with our tour in Thailand, after the elephant ride and woodcarving factory we headed out to the elephant show, which turned out to be at a zoo. Before we watched the show they fed us a buffet lunch, which was actually pretty good for being at a zoo.
They also had a fruit and dessert bar as well as this soup bar.
Um, yum!
After stuffing ourselves we headed over to the place where the elephant show was to be held. We got there a little early and found that they were having a magic show first.
For this trick they started out with an empty tank. Then they filled it up with water from a hose. After tossing this sheet around a bit, they covered the tank like so. . .
I don’t know how they did it, but they then pulled off the sheet, and the tank was full of these fish! Ack! Hmmmm.
Hmmm. . . tricky, tricky! I have no idea how they did that! These two were actually pretty good and have several other tricks that I found pretty entertaining. Anyway, after their act, it was finally time for the elephant show. It was actually longer than I had thought it would be. They showed off the elephants displaying their ability to do various tricks, and then also explaining how elephants were once used during their battles. So part of the show was a battle recreation of old.
Apparently, they actually fought battles while on the backs of elephants. So I learned a little bit about elephants on this trip such as how agile they are. I never knew they were so agile. They showed elephants kicking soccer balls into goals, banging on drums, swinging hula hoops around their trucks, as doing all sorts of poses and even dancing. . . hmmmm. Apparently, elephants are a big deal in Thailand and are also a symbol of good luck to them.
Here’s a recreation of how they fought on the backs of the elephants.
After the elephant show, we hustled out to the crocodile pit. It turned out that the other big attraction at this zoo was the crocodile show. At the pit the crocodiles are swimming around in the water along the perimeter of the stage. As the show starts, the guys walk into the water and rustle up the crocodiles like so. . .
Then they kinda work with them tapping on their mouths with sticks. This seems to get the crocodiles to open their mouths. It took a while for them to rustle up the crocodiles. While they did that we got a good idea of how fast and powerful crocodile jaws are. These guys would try to put their hands in their mouths and with a lightening crack, the crocodile’s jaws would snap shut in a flash. Was kind of nerve-racking, actually. But if that wasn’t bad enough then the finale came and this guy decided to stick his “head” in the crocodile’s mouth. . .
Ack! Turns out I wasn’t the only one that felt stressed out at this event. My dad and uncle actually felt stressed at this show as well, so they had to unwind afterward with a little snack. They looked so cute, I had to take this picture, heheheh. Here are the two kids. . .
Hee, hee! I guess no matter how old we get, the kids we once were are always still there deep inside, huh?
Okay, that’s it for now. I’m starting to wind down with my travelogue pictures, so might only have about three or four more posts on our travels, then back to all normal things again. I did pick up The Day We Lost The H-Bomb yesterday as well as Dark Sun, the Making of the Hydrogen Bomb. I only barely started reading the first book, so will take a while before I post my comments on it. So far it’s interesting! And that’s it for now. Better go and work on dinner. . .
Toodles!
Marlakins
