Well I woke up this morning, planning on going to see a few historical
and cultural sights as so was ready for my tour driver to pick me up
outside my hostel at the appointed time.
The tour driver arrived on time, a little early in fact, and on the
way to the main drop off I chatted about the tours I wanted to go on
and I was surprised that he said that there was not a 2 person minimum
on the elephants today, in fact there was a group of Australians and a
Argentinian already booked.
Realising that I could visit temples almost anywhere, but the chance
to actually stroke, ride, feed and swim with elephants is not
something that comes along everyday and so despite already having
booked and paid for a trip today, I decided to switch and move over to
the other tour, at a cost of 195 MR or about £11.
It was suggested that it was a full day tour, and that the place where
the elephants are is at least 1.5 hours away, but in all honesty the
thing that took the time up was their compulsory stop overs.
Firstly, before we even left the city limits we stopped at this
leather imporium where they bought Italian leather and worked it, at a
price that made Italy look almost cheap, and so I wasnt going to even
waste my time.
The fun thing was that they had the buy one get one free tag, which
they must have thought was a crowd pleaser but all it did was show
that indeed everything was so overinflated that they could really drop
the price in half easily if they wanted and still make a good profit.
What did get me was that they were stamping buffalo skin to look like
crocodile skin, and being so blatant about it that it was like they
thought it was a good idea.
I was half interested in the items made from processed Sting Ray skin,
as it meant to be so hardwearing that it will outlast its wearer, but
then I have seen plenty of belts and buckles where the metal is the
thing that goes first, and I am not sure if it is possible to get
replacement buckles that fit abroad and I am certianly not buying
spares for the inevitable at these prices.
The second stop off was a fifteen minute rest stop minutes away from
where we were due to stop for lunch, but I am glad that I bought a few
snackies as when we reached the proper meal stop over, for about an
hour, the tours inclusive meal was either KFC or from this tiny
backroad restaurant where the food choice was very limited and too
spicy for most of us, so the rest of the tour group left more than
they ate yet I am sure that they left still hungry.
We all agreed privately, away from the tour guides ears, that this was
a complete rip off and that they could have done a half day tour as we
didnt reach the elephant enclosure til around 2pm, despite being
picked up before 9am.
The final piss take was that we were promised to see some local
aboriginals in their natural habitat, but this involved nothing more
than us driving up past a couple of old straw huts and being told
"this is how they still live and although you can't see them right now
it's only cos they are probably out hunting in the forest".
It would have been better if he had stopped the minivan and let us get
out to take a few photos or something, maybe, but as it was all we got
was this pause in driving before we started off again.
When we finally got to see the elephants in was a relief as it wasnt a
few brief seconds or a glimpse through trees but you actually got
right up close and could touch them and feed them.
To start with it was a bit of a photo frenzy, as everyone wanted to
get in the picture all at once instead of any organised line and it
was next to impossible to stop people walking right in front of you
just as your friend was about to take a picture of you feeding or
stroking them.
Not meaning to be racist, but the Indians in the crowd were the
pushiest, spend longest next to the elephants and didnt really care
whose photo they ruined by walking in front of camera's, which got
really boring after a while.
Once we had fed them it was a chance for us to walk on them, which
involved climbing up a wooden ramp and then onto the backs of the
larger elephants, but the ride was such a small circle and if you
didnt have your camera already switched on and focused then it would
probably be all over before the camera got into the right mode.
As I had switched tours I had not throught to bring along a change of
clothes, but the real quality time with the elephants was when they
went for a swim after, as being a muddy river you could just jump in
and swim by them while they play about for around half an hour or
more.
I sat chatting to my new Argentinian friend C' who turned out to be
alike me in a few ways, travel wise, and was a working air hostess who
was on a 49 hour stop over, one of the few proper stop over perks that
the company offers once a month.
They get accomodation in a big 2 or 3 star hotel in the centre of town
paid for plus a few hundred MR for meals, though this is really
spending money as a meal will only cost ten or twenty MR each and so a
few hundred goes a lot further than 4 meals if they are wise and dont
chose expensive restaurants.
On the way back we all were so tired from the heat and the driving
that we pretty much slept the whole trip back to the city centre, and
then once there we just said our goodbies, all except me and C' who
had agreed to meet up the next morning and grab a taxi together to go
and see the Batu Caves in the morning.
I asked to be dropped off near the main plaza where I got to visit the
worlds largest indoor amusement theme park, including roller coasters
and such, before grabbing a McDonalds and watching Ong Bak 2.
The McD was surprisingly good, as they dont salt the chips but leave
them in little sachets that you can add yourself.
Ong Bak was a good film, the action sequences fun and even the script
was good, but the ending was a complete and total let down,it was like
the star had died or the film budget had totally run out, as they just
killed the footage, added a few lines of blurb in writing over a black
background and then rolled up the ending credits.
From there I walked around to see what shows I could see were, but I
didnt want to spend any more money as I was having more financial
problems with my bank, so I kept what little I had left, went back to
my hostel and then crashed asleep, preparing for an early trip the
next morning.
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