Elephantastic

One of the things that friends had told us was an absolute "must do" while in Jaipur was visit Elephantastic. This is an elephant rescue trust where you can pay to basically spend an afternoon with a group of elephants who seem to have a fairly easy life.  Most of the elephants are rescued from circuses or were previously working elephants in some capacity.

Conor and Ryan when we first arrived, we didn't know yet which elephants we would be working with, so we just watched the handlers work with them. 

Ryan getting to know his new friend.

I call this "selfie with an elephant!"

Once we met our new pachyderm friends, we got to feed them hay and sugar cane.  They especially liked the sugar cane, but really seemed happy to just sit there and eat.  It was a nice way to get to know each other a bit before we went out for a ride, and the handlers encouraged us to really pet them and talk to them the whole time.  They also encouraged us to make eye contact with the elephants, saying that unlike dogs elephants don't see this as aggression and they enjoy it. It seemed like that was the case.

Out on our ride... Elephantastic provided the umbrellas because it was HOT and a very sunny day. 

Greg and Conor were right behind us the whole time.

After our ride it was time to paint the elephants. This is something I feel is very "India" where the act of painting something, whether it is a cow in the streets, the streets themselves, or elephants, is a celebration.  The elephants didn't seem to mind it, and they got to continue to eat their hay and sugar cane, so I don't think they thought it was a bad deal. 

We saw people all around painting interesting "Indian" designs like paisleys and flowers, but of course Conor went for the math expressions and equations!

 

They say an elephant never forgets, but I have a feeling Conor is going to remember this experience forever as well.

 

This picture reminds me of one from my own childhood when I wanted a picture taken next to a village of toys Amy had made in a sandbox. She was none too happy that I got to have my picture next to her creation, but I was super happy.  Ryan had nothing to do with the designs on this elephant, but he really wanted to pose with it anyway. 

 

All of us with Conor's (and Greg's) art/math work. 

The last event of the day was a bath for the elephants.

 

Part of the fun was letting the elephant fill its trunk so it could wash its own back.  Here is Conor helping out with that...

 

And then running away to avoid the splash zone!