So I completed my amateur mahout course this afternoon, and it was fantastic. I’d be perfectly happy to have done a longer training, though my thighs and side body are probably happier to be done.

For the last 2 days, I’ve been constantly walking with, mounting and riding an animal that literally weighs tons — not something for the faint-hearted. Thankfully, I found that yoga (once again!) actually helped here. For practitioners, think tadasana upper body, crown of the head and all of that, plus serious malasana legs, all of the time. For non-practitioners, it’s basically a lot of balance, reasonable strength and a fair deal of flexibility.

Anyway, that’s the boring stuff. The good part is the photo album, and I’ve included a few favorites here. Some of my best memories are of the tourist shows (especially snack/treat time afterwards) and baths. And then there’s the a.m. walk out of the forest where they sleep. I’ve still got a number of mornings yet in a few more countries, but watching a golden sunrise while riding an elephant slowly and steadily walking in procession out of the northern Thai forest at 7 a.m…. that’ll be hard to top. *smile*

Bath Laugh

Spray Bath

With elephant, Platheda