Elephants

Based upon the recommendation of other travelers at the hotel I was staying at I booked myself onto a tour to the National Elephant Santuary about 80 km outside Kuala Lumpur. Ok, and to alleviate your concerns, this was a real elephant sanctuary that cares for injured elephants, rebailitates ones that have been treated cruelly by bad owners, and relocates ones that have been raiding crops. Because Malaysia is a poor contry they have had to develop a tourist program at the sanctuary to subsidize their budget.

I did get to ride one of the elephants and since I was one of the last to go, I got to go for a bit of a longer ride. Part of which involved going through a small river. Now, for the entire time I had been there, the elephants had behaved wonderfully. Yeah, I am sure you can see where this is going... As we crossed the stream, much to the displeasure of the mahout, the elephant decided to lie down. We both got tossed straight into the water. Completely soaked. I did mange to save camera though.