I exploited an elephant again today. These Sri Lankan elephants at least seemed better cared for than the filthy, depressing ones I rode in Chiang Mai last year, but since no one got back to me with any photos from that day of me riding a jumbo, it was necessary to recreate the evidence of my crimes against nature. Yes, that's the excuse we'll go with. File it alongside the camel, the monkey and those other elephants.
Riding around on a massive animal was fun, but I won't do it again. Fortunately, I was able to hypocritically alleviate some of this guilt by visiting the nearby elephant orphanage and contributing towards the care of the rehabilitated herd. Throwing money at a problem is much easier than helping out.
Elephant Riding Centre,
Pinnewala
The chains are just for show. They love being forced to stomp around the same circuit all day
That very sharp stick is just for show too. I hope
Serves him right
Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage
Hopefully the tourists just become white noise over time,
and the herd can enjoy their bathing in relative peace
This guy certainly seemed to be enjoying himself
Look at that squiggly little trunk
I wish my similarly large nose could bend upwards like that.
Have you seen me drinking a can of Coke? It's ridiculous
More gratuitously cute baby elephant pictures for you
This becomes less cute and more tragic the further your eyes scroll down
While the others were comparatively free to roam around, this one seemed to be chained up as a photo opportunity, with some dodgy guy asking for money.
I have a strange feeling that money won't go to supporting the wildlife sanctuary
Oh yeah, I forgot elephants are supposed to have tusks
Fun time's over, get back to work
Or whatever's going on here...
I'm not sure if tourists were supposed to see this part
They love tugging relentlessly on the chain all through the day in the vain hope that it might one day break and they'll make it more than ten metres before getting shot
But what can I do?
