Elephant Safari

After trekking to Everest Base Camp (but before going to Thailand), I took a bus to southern Nepal, which is tropical (i.e. hotter than hell). My body wasn't sure what I was doing to it, going from the Top of the World to a jungle within a few days. I traveled to southern Nepal with several of the same Mesa State folks that I met in the Himalayas. We went canoeing, hiking, and best of all, we got to play with elephants.

These were the best trained animals you've EVER seen. A few examples:
1) Steering. I got to drive one of the elephants. You push on the back of one ear a little bit with your foot and it turns right. Push a little on the other ear and it turns left.
2) Super Soaker. The elephants can gather water in their trunks and spray people with a simple verbal command.
3) Sunglass Retrieval. One of the girls I was with dropped her sunglasses in the river. One of the elephant drivers told the elephant to retrieve the sunglasses, which it did promptly. The elephant put its trunk under the water, grabbed the sunglasses, and then handed them to the girl. Amazing.

If you want to see more pictures of the excursion to Chitwan and more of the elephants, click on the album below. Good times.

Elephant Safari-Chitwan, Nepal