The Great Elephant Flip-Flop Rescue!

In January, when I normally go to Nepal, it is relatively cold and there are few tourists in Nepal.  This means that down in the jungle my guests and I are treated to private elephant rides, boat rides, and jungle walks.  In March it was a vastly different experience.  Tourists were all around us and a herd of elephants followed us into the jungle.

Loading up with tourists and preparing to depart.

I did spend some time worrying about how tightly the crate was cinched.

The mahout steers with his feet.

Some of the elephants were very nervous about crossing the river.  They were up to their shoulders in water, with five people on their backs.
We lurched forward and backward when the elephant slipped on the mud as it climbed out of the river and up the opposite bank into the jungle.

We looked all over for the rhino.

Do you think the rhino might have heard us and moved out of our way?

A man sharing the elephant with us lost his flip-flop shoe. 

The mahout behind us was able to direct his elephant to find the man's flip-flop in the muddy stream and return it to him.  You can see it in his hand.  Everyone was astounded.  The flip-flop was covered in mud and sloshing around in muddy water.

We did see a lot of deer.

It is amazing that on an elephant you can come right up on a deer even though you could never do that walking.

If you have a little extra time and money, you can arrange to camp over night in this building in the jungle.

Thank you for the excellent ride.  Here are some bananas.  Maybe we will catch up with the rhinos next time.