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More Elephant Fun
Chitwan NP, Nepal, 2014-02-12 12:00 by Laerke
In the afternoon there were more elephant fun lined up as we had signed up for an elephant ride in the forest. You sit in a howda on the back of the elephant, which is sort of like a seat with a wooden railing. It fits four people (it is a bit of a squeeze) and we shared our howda with a Nepali couple where the man had worked for a couple of years in Denmark – what are the odds! We had a great time talking with them, hearing his experiences from Denmark and asking them questions about Nepal. Otherwise the elephant ride was really very bumpy but the forest was beautiful and it is of course fun to sit on an elephant lumbering through the forest. Our elephant had a friend, a younger elephant that wouldn’t go anywhere without our elephant, so we had a great view of this elephant behind us :)

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The next morning after enjoying our hot morning porridge with fruit and a cup of masala chai we went down to the river again for one last bath with the elephants. We sat on the river bank watching these gentle giants slowly lumber down into the river. It is quite hard to read any emotions off the elephants, they just appear stoic all the time but I imagined the morning bath must be something they enjoy. Elephants in the wild also bathe and I believe it is good for their skin. We could see them once they got back up from the water they would throw dirt and dust on their bodies to create a protecting layer against the sun and mosquitoes. I even saw one elephant pick up a stick and scratch its stomach :) The elephants have 40,000 muscles in the trunk and they sure can use it for a multitude of things. I helped wash a different elephant today, splashing her with water while she was laying down in the river holding her trunk up for air. The mahout encouraged me to try and climb up via the trunk! It was not as easy as the mahouts make it seem but I managed :) and I had even really gotten seated on her back before she “rewarded” me with a giant splash of water.

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