Spend the Best Day of Your Life in an Elephant Retirement Home
Often when you’re traveling you just stumble upon things, things that end up changing your life. I was in the hill station of Kalaw in Myanmar when I looked at the itinerary thatJacada Travel had printed for me and saw “Elephant Sanctuary.” This activity was not on the original document, and for some reason I was confused.
“There are elephants in Myanmar?” I asked my driver.
“Yes. Many,” he said. “The Asian elephant. They are used for the logging industry.”
“Oh, riiiight,” I said, feeling dumb. After all, I’d been looking into checking out a place where you could work with elephants in Thailand — which is right next door.
Just helping to scratch those hard to reach spots. (Photo: Andrew Rothschild)
“You still want to go?” my driver asked, eyeing me in the mirror.
“Hell, yes,” I said.
Related: Welcome to Myanmar’s Empty Capital City, President Obama!
Let me just say I love elephants. If I could have one as a pet, I would. We’d totally be best friends and go everywhere together, and in my fantasy land I wouldn’t even have to clean up its poop. Because my magical elephant wouldn’t poop and somehow would only be a foot high and a foot and a half long so he could fit into my New York City apartment … or in a carry-on bag.
But as much as I love elephants and have seen them in the wild, I’ve never actually been close enough to touch one. Because they are wild, and you normally should not touch them.
When I say I loves me some elephants I means it. (Photo: Andrew Rothschild)
So we rolled on up to the Green Hill Valley elephant sanctuary, and my life changed.
For the FULL story, click HERE…
