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Elephant

from a visit in January,1999

We happened upon this working elephant on the banks of the Mekong in Laos. He's pulling a teak log.

Once they pull the logs to the riverbank, they push them exactly into place.

Roadside elephants just north of Martaban, Myanmar.

Elephants can be extremely quick with their trunks.
If you're holding a banana or sugercane, watch out!

This was one of the working elephants we met in Laos. He's not even looking at me, but his trunk is waving all around me, sniffing and probing. Our guide wanted me to look into the camera for this shot, but I didn't dare turn away from this trunk for a moment!

This is the elephant I rode in northern Thailand. He loves flapping his ears, either together or alternately, and often timed to comment on something you've just said. Coming across this river, the elephant walked very carefully, very smoothly. The river purred against his legs.

This was my mahout. He has been riding elephants for a living ever since he first got on one, seven years ago. He uses the hook mostly to tap the elephant, an ongoing tapping that seems like a constant "Hello, I'm still paying attention to you." For part of our ride, he got off and walked, calling out his commands, which all sounded like "Hey!" or "Hungh!" or "Ho!" At one point, after a quick dip of his trunk into a nearby stream, the elephant waited for the mahout's next command. "Hungh!" The trunk swiveled around and shot a full squirt of water right into the mahout's face. The mahout grimaced but ignored it: I think this elephant does this trick with some frequency.

If you EVER get a chance to sit on an elephant: TAKE IT!

This hug was unquestionably the high point of my whole trip to Asia.