Ayutthaya Part IV: Elephant Ride!

An elephant carries corn.

Our next stop in Ayutthaya was to meet and interact with Thailand's most revered animal: the elephant. The "white elephant" is the most treasured of all animals, having a historically close symbolic association with the King and royal family. Indeed, before the country changed its name to Thailand (meaning "land of the free") and its flag (to one bearing red, white, and blue stripes, representing religion, the state, and the monarchy respectively), the flag of the country bore a royal white elephant at its center. (Technically, historians speculate that during the Ayutthaya period a simple red flag was flown, with the elephant being added only after the Bangkok period was well underway... but the point about the significance of the animal remains).

A shrine built to honor elephants at the main site.

That's not to say that the entire experience was not without levity -- elephants are revered, but not treated as so sacred they are beyond having a little fun. Besides riding on the animal itself, my favorite part of this experience was watching as two younger elephants rose up and down on their hind legs, swaying their trunks and flapping their ears to as 80s eurotrash hit The Final Countdown issued tinnily forth from a set of speakers.

One of the elephants interacts with a keeper.

I'll admit that I was somewhat nervous about riding on an elephant... having packed only a summery white dress in an effort to be appropriately dressed for the many temple visits on our itinerary, I was aghast to think that I would either have to sit astride a massive, dusty animal, or give up what might be my only chance to ride a real Thai elephant. Thankfully, neither of these options was required of me, and I climbed into a wooden seat lashed to the elephant's back with only a little bit of trepidation.

Elephant ride! From left to right: elephant guide, Alex, Maja.

Someone I know has a picture of me and my friend Jen looking somewhat startled as our elephant departs from the loading platform, but it hasn't appeared online yet. I'll post it if and when it surfaces. You can get a sense of the setup by looking at the picture of fellow BIOCEP-teers Alex and Maja, above. We rode behind an elephant trainer who sat basically atop the elephant's broad head, jiggling its ears with his bare toes to direct it to turn left or right. The view of the countryside, dotted with still more ruins of the old Ayutthayan capital, was beautiful... I'll leave you with a few of the shots I took.

From atop the elephant: