Oh Boy…we’re taking a 40 minute jeep ride which takes us to the elephant preserve. First we get a cooking demonstration (I know, right??) on how to prepare papaya salad. It was good and spicy. Next, we saw an elephant show which included a 2 year old baby who never left it’s mothers side. Then the monkey show where they train these guys to climb trees for the purpose of picking ripe coconuts. They twist the coconuts until the stem breaks and drops to the ground. The monkeys have the advantage of going tree to tree without climbing down and up again. Finally it’s time for our elephant ride. We hop on, maybe climb on is a better description. We seem to be leaning to the left so my partner keeps asking me to move to the right so he can move more to the right and balance us; not working. Plus, we had a bad boy elephant who just wanted to keep going into the brush. The ride was about 20 minutes and that was long enough. The ride was surprisingly bumpy with every one of the four feet landing on the ground providing a jolt to the riders. We’re now rethinking our camel ride in Egypt? We were given a really nice lunch with ice cold drinks that was so appreciated right there in the preserve and then took a walk to a waterfall. Then we headed back to the ship in the jeeps which were actually first class. They seated 8 and were open air, perhaps a bit more fun than the elephant ride.
