Day 8 - Patara Elephant Farm

Oh man, another program today. I had been looking forward to this day the whole vacation and even before. But somehow I'm exhausted from all the previous experiences and I slept like crap. There could have been several reasons for that. But well. Today was the day of all days and of course I was excited as hell. Different people always asked us where we were going to see elephants and when they heard Patara, there were all kinds of reactions. From top 1, best farm in the Chiang area to totally overpriced. But we have already realized 'you get what you pay for', so, you get exactly what you paid for here and therefore we were eagerly looking forward to the event. We were picked up at 7:30 am and driven for 1.5 hours to the elephant farm. So I had time for a little nap again. When we arrived there, the 4 Americans and us, who were transported together in the minibus, were transferred to a jeep and first went to the baby elephant. When we arrived there, we went through a bath of different emotions. We weren't the first to arrive there, but shortly after we got out, the little 4-month-old elephant walked straight towards us and leaned against Vera and me. I was so excited and found it so cute and overwhelming that tears immediately ran down both sides of my face. Dumb, right? But that's just who I am, an emotional crybaby. So I had to calm down and get my bearings. Who could have known that you could get so close. The mother of the little one didn't mind at all that her baby was walking back and forth between at least 10 tourists the whole time, she just happily chewed on sugar cane at a distance. But then it got really weird and Vera and I found the whole action stupid, dumb, exaggerated and just screaming and running away. So, you have to imagine, by now there were probably 20 tourists, all standing in a circle around the baby. And a guide who somehow kept asking people to lay on the muddy ground. Then the mini elephant was lured over, crawled over the respective tourist and was 'asked' to lie down. It was a spectacle and commotion, with fat Americans under a small elephant, and of course afterwards they all looked like they were kissed because the ground was so muddy. Vera and I definitely didn't participate in this performance. Not at all. Such a theater. We just watched in disbelief. When no one wanted to roll around in the mud anymore, the group dissolved a bit. Some went to the mother, petted her and took pictures with her, and others ran like crazy behind the mini elephant all the time to take more photos. We thought that if it continued like this all day, we would already lose interest. Of course, I also wanted to take a photo with the baby, but on the other hand, I didn't want to run after the animal like the other monkeys. Eventually, the little one went to drink from its mother and I just sat down next to them, had a photo taken, and then sat on a wall and watched the little one drinking. But even then, tourists still had to stand around the poor animal, pet it and cuddle it. Vera was really angry and upset. I could totally understand. Well, anyway, the little one finally decided to come to me on its own and nibble and play with me. That's when some of the photos were taken.

More about the elephant farm will follow later.