Bali is beautiful. Although I don't think ill ever ride an elephant again. they should be in the wild not used to entertain us. lesson learned. 

 When I was little and rode an elephant I didn't really understand that animals are not for this use. Now, looking back, I feel pretty bad that i did this. 

I was in Thailand at the island Koh Chang, witch is known as elephant island.

If a place has a nickname like that you must al least see an elephant and way not ride one to? You are there anyway.

I liked it! It is not scary at all, as some might think. 

Langkawi Malaysia

In the summer of 2015, when I traveled to India with 11 other girl-guides and four leaders, we went for an elephant ride up to the Amber Fort. It was a truly brilliant experience, and I can heartily recommend it to any other India-goers! 

Sooooooo slow. But elephants are way cute. Gentle giants.

With Chaiane Ioane, 2014. Just like riding a horse, only slower :) 

In 2010 me and my family visited South Africa. It was an experience I will never forget. There was the option to ride an elephant!! Cmon, who doesn't want to do that in your live ! So after a conversation with my parents (it was ofcourse expensive...) I got myself on top of the elephant! It was even higher than I thought it would be. Now I was as high as some of the trees! Despite it cost some money, I'm glad I did it and it was worth it!

Now I’ve never actually ridden a elephant before, and was not entirely sure whether I wanted to. There is always the worry that they may be ill treated.

However, our majestic beasts looked very well cared for and seemed quite content to plod along, with the occasional banana as motivation.

They really are enormous animals, even though I’ve seen them on TV, it still doesn’t prepare you for the reality of their scale! We had to climb up steps into a wooden hut on stilts and then onto our leviathan ride.

Now it wasn’t exactly a comfortable ride! Perched on our tiny little seats, with only a very low rail to stop us from dropping off the edge, we rolled from side to side with every ponderous step!

We had to cling on for dear life as our ponderous steads plodded onwards and if our ride had decided to make a break for it we would have been pretty much stuffed!

As it was we reached the end of our half hour ride relatively unscathed, although there was a unsettling moment when we had to go down a rather steep slope and we very nearly shot over the elephants head as we went down! Find out more about our experiences with the great grey wrinkly beasts here ://handluggageblog.com/?s=elephant 

Thailand, 2014. March.

At the Bristol Renaissance Faire.

 Surreal 

Did it in Pai, Thailand. Incredbile experience, fell in the water, fantastic!

 This was before we all knew that elephant rides were not good for elephants. All I knew at the time that it was a super cool thing. I believe this was at African Lion Safari, but I can't actually find a photo, so I'm not 100% sure! This photo was actually taken at the Toronto Zoo a decade or so later.

 Ride an elephant as a preserve in Malaysia

 I rode on in India in 2007

 In May 2012 I rode an elephant at Elephant Sanctuary in Hazyview, Mpumalanga, South Africa 

I went to India for a month in July 2015 and I got the opportunity to work for a hotel and travel. While there I was able to complete a major life dream of mine!

 My grandpa and I rode the elephant. I have no idea where this happened. My grandma's photo album says that we were on a road trip from Kansas to Wisconsin.