Elephant Heaven

Who’s Got a Big Ol’ Butt?

You know … they say an elephant never forgets.
What they don’t tell you is, you never forget an elephant.
– Bill Murray

Elephant Taxis at the Surin Railway Station

This is a special blog entry dedicated to our time at the Surin Elephant Festival. Every November, this small town in eastern Thailand hosts this amazing domesticated elephant round-up event. We feel fortunate to take part in this Surin Elephant Festival.

Dusk quickly descended upon our arrival by train into the town of Surin. Six in the evening on a Surin Friday night is busy . . . with pachyderms. Departing the train station, five massive elephants greeted us. Their entrepreneurial owners wanted to give us rides around town. Instead, we simply stood amazed staring at the irregularity of these Asian mammals clambering around town for a solid ten minutes. John spotted one elephant guide dressed with a bright yellow University of Texas T-shirt. He had to get a photo with him. Later that weekend we saw another man with a Texas T-shirt! No University of New Mexico shirts to be found.

Down at the Surin Elephant Festival

We checked into our basic hotel just a few steps away from the train station. First thing we did was take a ride. We rode up on little benches perched high atop the elephant’s backs. It was a slow, bumpy ride. We walked the streets of Surin competing for space with cars and motorcycles. The elephants definitely had the weight advantage over the inferior metal forms of transportation.

The next day goal was to attend the Surin Elephant Festival, but when we arrived at the stadium, all the tickets had been sold. Flexible as always, we purchased them for Saturday and spent Saturday as a free day exploring Surin.

Royal Elephant

Before the Surin Elephant Festival on Sunday, we woke up early to catch Mass before the show. John fed some elephants some sugar cane at the entrance of the stadium, they liked that for sure…sweettooths just like us! We took close-up photos of the baby elephants, the smallest only measuring three feet tall, with their mothers. During the show, over 200 elephants ran around the stadium, reenacting scenes with their human guides, and showed off their artistic talents. Some painted on a canvas, while others seemed to enjoy painting themselves even more. Some elephants hula hooped around their trunks while standing on a little stool. All in all, an amazing experience to see so many of these immense creatures together in one space.

Like the elephants out in the stadium sun during the Surin Elephant Festival, we returned to Bangkok on a tightly packed, sweaty bus for four hours. We completed the next three hours on a cooler, spacious bus. We feel incredible lucky to have been at this Thai festival.

NW

Asian Elephants Painting a Picasso?

Surin Elephant Festival

Surin Elephant Festival Reenactment