The other night on the way home from dinner we saw this on one of Chiang Mai's busy, busy roads. The elephant is only young and the mahout seems to be trying to sell food to locals, so they can in turn, feed it.
It's something I thought was reserved for tourist areas. I don't condone it, but thought you might like to take a look.
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7 comments:
Maybe a trunk call out in the hub-bub, is preferable to an elephant in the room.
Al Pal @ 291
Cooee on the other hand he might be the local Mafia collecting rents with his enforcer in tow ;-)
Seriously-makes me mad but no rant today.
I'm trying to stay diplomatic...the elephant has to eat? The Mahout has to make money? But these busy roads are certainly not the place for them.
We had to smile when the 'enforcer' tried helping himself to contents of someones bag on one of the motorcycles.
Snap the elephants have got to be taken off the streets of the cities and towns, they need mud and vegetation under their feet. It's a sad sight but one I fear we will see for years to come.
Martyn, I agree, they shouldn't be on the streets. I don't know how or where he spends his days...hopefully in a field with water and mud. I've seen some pretty horrendous zoos on my travels and don't like to think about the alternatives.
"It's something I thought was reserved for tourist areas"
Thailand has a lot of tourists but the majority (in my minds eye) are Thais. The last time I saw a baby elephant and his owner was where we were the only expats. It wasn't that far from BKK either - the Bat Wat. Or maybe we were there on an off day?
I got great shots of a baby elephant's butt but I did not feed him. He just trundled away.
I can be a duffer sometimes...I always tend to think of farang as being the only tourists. Probably because we stand out so much.
So much so, that when we were in Ayutthaya a group of young Thais asked to have their photo taken with us...very odd! Perhaps they were from very rural area? Unfortunately they didn't offer to feed us though ;)
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