Further up and Further in

We spent some time chillin' with the elephants of the Millenium foundation today. It's close to a renowned elephant orphanage (Pinnawala) but lesser-known, and therefore fewer tourists. Which we like. And you can actually touch the elephants. So check out the pictures in the photo album. We went with our American Sri Lanka friends, Kara and Jed. Kara and I were treated to an elephant bath (after we first helped bathe her), but Jed and Lisa got even wetter because it started raining buckets when they went..they had opted out of being bathed by Lakshmi (the elephant). Just deserts, I s'pose.

About our elephant friend, Lakshmi: the elephant handler said that she was famous, that she was in Tarzan. I'm assuming he's not talking about the animated version. Does anyone know? Do you recognize this elephant? I probably should have gotten her autograph...

Lisa got the best souvenir: a journal with paper made from elephant dung. It's really special.

What will they think of next? The human race is so resourceful. Buffalo chips for fuel, horse manure for fertilizer, cow paddies for building houses in India, and elephant poop for paper--Fabulous notion!

I don't recognize the elephant in the photo--but Kelsey and I did ride a presumably different elephant named Lakshmi down the mountain from the Amber Fort toward Jaipur one lovely afternoon... We didn't score a fab picture like you did though. That Lakshmi was a bit of a hotshot too. It had played elephant polo just days before.

Elephant polo...there's an idea. Maybe we can suggest a game the next time we go to Kandy. I'm not sure our Lakshmi ha s a strong competitive streak--we might have to find a bull elephant.