Elephant Ride in Thailand

Today’s picture was taken while on a trip with some friends to Thailand. We stayed at a timeshare in Pattaya and had the opportunity to visit the Pattaya Elephant Village. Judy and I enjoyed this ride on one of the elephants.

Asian elephants differ from their African relatives. One physical difference is their ears. Asian elephants' ears are smaller compared to the large fan-shaped ears of the African elephants.

Even the way tourists get to ride an elephant in Asia is different. In this picture you can see we are sitting side by side on a hand-made platform. An elephant saddle is called a howdah or houdah. It is a carriage placed on the back of an elephant.

I remember riding an elephant in Zimbabwe, Africa. We rode bareback. I was sitting in almost a split position behind my brother-in-law. Both of us were pretty stiff after our ride on the African elephant.

While researching for this post today I saw this question: Does riding an elephant hurt them? One article I found from Wildlife SOS says that many of the riding elephants they have rescued have spine problems and terrible wounds on their backs from carrying heavy loads. This organization recommends that if you love elephants you shouldn’t ride one.

The Pattaya Elephant Village is a sanctuary for former working elephants. In the past, many wild elephants were captured and trained to work in the timber industry carrying heavy loads. Pattaya Elephant Village, opened in 1973, provides a safe haven for those elephants who were injured or have ill health and are not able to be returned to the wild. They maintain that once an elephant has recovered, using them to provide rides for tourists is a better way to allow these magnificent elephants to live out their lives with dignity and freedom from fear.

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