I'm sitting in our hotel in Leh, adjusting to an altitude of 11K+ feet, so this seems like a grand time to write a blog post. The problem is we’ve done so much since I wrote the last one at 2 am Sunday I don’t even know where to start.
We took a taxi from the American Embassy School to the airport to catch our flight to Jaipur. SO MANY PEOPLE were outside on the green median on the way to the airport. Delhi is seriously like the city that never sleeps. Kids were playing games, men were doing yoga, friends were socializing. I saw one old man leaning back and wiggling his feet in the grass. It was awesome.
Good thing I had Wren to teach me how to go through airport security in India. I didn’t realize there was a separate women’s line. We walked through together, then she hopped up on a step, handed a lady her boarding pass, and got scanned with a metal detector. I just did exactly what she did. My niece might be the best traveler ever.
We boarded the plane, which was so teeny tiny it had propellers. Oakes insisted on sitting with Taylor so he could play Pokemon. Wren showed me her smelly markers. Somehow even though the flight to Jaipur was only an hour, they served us breakfast, which was some chicken-veggie-salad-esque sandwich with a KitKat.
Once we landed in Jaipur, our driver from Elefantastic picked us up. He had a cooler of beverages in the back that he offered us periodically throughout the day. He was great. He took us to Hawa Mahal first, some sort of palace with over 300 windows. We explored that.
Then he took us to the monkey temple, where we met up with the Monkey Man, who carried around a bag of Lays potato chips. Apparently chips are the monkey’s favorite food. He gave us the chips to hand out to the monkeys. I was a little terrified to touch a monkey, but I ended up letting one on my shoulder, then he dropped down and hung off my arm. IT. WAS. AWESOME.
The monkey temple was popping. There was a spring coming down the mountain, and a bunch of Hindi people were jumping into the water.
After the Monkey Temple, it was time for our Elefantastic journey to begin. The owner hosts each guest in his own home and serves them dinner. It was a delicious vegetarian feast. We were served some sort of curried pumpkin, WHICH WAS DELICIOUS, cabbage, chickpeas, naan bread, and rice. All of it was really tasty.
From the owner’s house, we were driven up a really bumpy road to the elephant sanctuary, where our two elephants were awaiting us. We were assigned Chakta and Shaku. The owner taught us how to handle the elephants — apparently they love being petted on their trunks, around their eyes, under their chins. He said the most important thing was to feel comfortable and happy around the elephants because they can sense if you're nervous. He said we needed to maintain as much eye contact as possible and cuddle in close to the elephants because they like to smell you.
Chakta is apparently a sassy elephant. She likes to fight other elephants, so her tusks were really short.
First we cuddled the elephants and fed them. Then we were given safe plant based paints and bamboo sticks to paint the elephants. I realize quickly we used sticks because it feels like we’re scratching the elephants and they love it. Chakta was leaning into us.
I drew a tree, an asterisks, and a cloud because I had no idea what to paint. Taylor drew a Tennessee Volunteers T. Our elephant’s handler drew a nice outline for us to color in, so we did that too.
After we painted the elephants, we took them over to a field and gave them water with a hose. They can drink SO MUCH WATER. They collect it directly in their drunks (gallons!), then dump it in their mouths. Once they’d had enough water to drink, we started spraying them and washing the paint off. After they were nice and clean, the handlers asked if we wanted the elephants to bath us. I was already pretty soaked but didn’t want it to sink down into my underwear, so I said no, but Taylor and Oakes hopped onto Shaku and got sprayed by her trunk.
Once they’d dried off, the elephant handlers hopped up onto the elephants VIA THEIR TRUNKS (it was so cool), and saddled them up with pillows and blankets. We climbed some steps onto the elephants' backs and rode them down a trail. It was bumpy at first, but once you got used to the rhythm, it was nice and relaxing. Evan and Taylor were suffering, though. The elephant is a very wide mount.
After fun with the elephants, we hopped back into the car with the driver and he drove us to some shops. I got a pair of elephant pants.
Then it was off to the airport and back to Delhi. I stupidly dropped my ID somewhere outside, but luckily that was all I dropped. We basically showered and went to bed as soon as we got home. We were all really exhausted.
All in all, Elefantastic definitely lived up to its amazing reviews. I’d recommend it to anyone. The Monkey Temple was also amazing, and having a driver to take you around in India is definitely the way to go.
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