Wouldn't You Know?

    This is about elephants.  I've ridden them, fed, them, seen them paint pictures and play soccer, watched them being bathed in the river and posed with them.  Once sitting in an outdoor restaurant in Ayutthaya I watched as an elephant walked up behind the teacher at the table across from me and nuzzled her ear with its trunk  She was amazingly calm when she looked up into the face of an elephant.  But, trucking elephants fascinates me.  Something about the interesting animal combined with the 'farm element' of trucking I find intriguing.  I've driven by when they are being loaded and often have seen the trucks carrying them on the street,
      Deciding to act on this interest two days ago we went to the usual loading site.  Not an elephant was to be seen but soon a truck loaded with elephants went by and then another.  The traffic congestion caused by the Chinese New Year's celebration changed the loading site.  No luck.
     Tonight it was time to try again.  Arriving at the terminus of the elephant rides...they are here, to give rides to the tourists...a truck was being loaded.  Whipping out my trusty camera I took a picture and then the battery went dead.  Which raises a deep philosophical question...in this photo crazy age do you actually see something if don't get a picture of it?   Deciding that the answer is Yes, and photos are ancillary, I chose to make the best of it and see what I could observe, which, as it turned out was much, and some of which was hilarious.
     Four elephants fill a tandem axle truck that has both front and back tandems...duals only on the back tandems.  They are eager to load.  As soon as the back of the truck in hydraulically lowered forming a ramp they hustle right in whether or not they have a riders.  Some of the mahouts ride the elephant as it is being trucked to the kraal.  
    The ride terminus is a small area bounded by the loading platform from which riders gain access to the seat on the animals back, a low pipe fence for a ways, and single strand of barb wire and a large opening.  The fence is more to keep people out than elephants in.  Some are wandering around loose but most are ridden by mahouts.  One was tied to a tree with a single strand of baling twine.
    One huge bull, bareback, ambled over to a 50 gallon drum willed with water.  Filling his trunk with water he swooshed his back, sides and belly several times.  A middle aged Caucasian couple were watching just out of reach of the splashing water.   When the wash appeared to be over the women walked over if front the elephant to take a picture.  He sank his trunk in the barrel, sucked up snootfull and blasted the woman from about five feet away.  She ran laughing, and soaked, back to her husband where they watched awhile longer.  Mounting their bikes he blasted them with water again as they rode by.  He definitely seemed to have a sense of humor.  
     Of course all of that would have made great pictures...but I have it in my mind.  Maybe next year I'll go with a charged battery.

My one picture.